Book excerpt: The era of detailed comparisons of the merits of techniques of pattern recognition and artificial intelligence and of the integration of such techniques into flexible and powerful systems has begun.So confirm the editors of this fourth volume of Pattern Recognition in Practice, in their preface to the book.The 42 quality papers are sourced from a broad range of international specialists involved in developing pattern recognition methodologies and those using pattern recognition techniques in their professional work. The publication is divided into six sections: Pattern Recognition, Signal and Image Processing, Probabilistic Reasoning, Neural Networks, Comparative Studies, and Hybrid Systems, giving prospective users a feeling for the applicability of the various methods in their particular field of specialization.