Book excerpt: This book introduces 2-D wavelets via 1-D continuous wavelet transforms. The authors then describe the underlying mathematics before progressing to more advanced topics such as matrix geometry of wavelet analysis and three-dimensional wavelets. Practical applications and illustrative examples are employed extensively throughout, ensuring the book's value to engineers, physicists and mathematicians. Two-dimensional wavelets offer a number of advantages over discrete wavelet transforms, in particular, for analysis of real-time signals in such areas as medical imaging, fluid dynamics, shape recognition, image enhancement and target tracking.