The fifth international Conference in Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention (MICCAI 2002) was held in Tokyo from September 25th to 28th, 2002. This was the first time that the conference was held in Asia since its foundation in 1998. The objective of the conference is to offer clinicians and scientists the opportunity to collaboratively create and explore the new medical field. Specifically, MICCAI offers a forum for the discussion of the state of art in computer-assisted interventions, medical robotics, and image processing among experts from multi-disciplinary professions, including but not limited to clinical doctors, computer scientists, and mechanical and biomedical engineers. The expectations of society are very high; the advancement of medicine will depend on computer and device technology in coming decades, as they did in the last decades. We received 321 manuscripts, of which 41 were chosen for oral presentation and 143 for poster presentation. Each paper has been included in these proceedings in eight-page full paper format, without any differentiation between oral and poster papers. Adherence to this full paper format, along with the increased number of manuscripts, surpassing all our expectations, has led us to issue two proceedings volumes for the first time in MICCAI’s history. Keeping to a single volume by assigning fewer pages to each paper was certainly an option for us considering our budget constraints. However, we decided to increase the volume to offer authors maximum opportunity to argue the state of art in their work and to initiate constructive discussions among the MICCAI audience.

The fifth international Conference in Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention (MICCAI 2002) was held in Tokyo from September 25th to 28th, 2002. This was the first time that the conference was held in Asia since its foundation in 1998. The objective of the conference is to offer clinicians and scientists the opportunity to collaboratively create and explore the new medical field. Specifically, MICCAI offers a forum for the discussion of the state of art in computer-assisted interentions, medical robotics, and image processing among experts from multi-disciplinary professions, including but not limited to clinical doctors, computer scientists, and mechanical and biomedical engineers. The expectations of society are very high; the advancement of medicine will depend on computer and device technology in coming decades, as they did in the last decades. We received 321 manuscripts, of which 41 were chosen for oral presentation and 143 for poster presentation. Each paper has been included in these proceedings in eight-page full paper format, without any differentiation between oral and poster papers. Adherence to this full paper format, along with the increased number of manuscripts, surpassing all our expectations, has led us to issue two proceedings volumes for the first time in MICCAI’s history. Keeping to a single volume by assigning fewer pages to each paper was certainly an option for us considering our budget constraints. However, we decided to increase the volume to offer authors maximum opportunity to argue the state of art in their work and to initiate constructive discussions among the MICCAI audience.

Handbook of Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention presents important advanced methods and state-of-the art research in medical image computing and computer assisted intervention, providing a comprehensive reference on current technical approaches and solutions, while also offering proven algorithms for a variety of essential medical imaging applications. This book is written primarily for university researchers, graduate students and professional practitioners (assuming an elementary level of linear algebra, probability and statistics, and signal processing) working on medical image computing and computer assisted intervention. Presents the key research challenges in medical image computing and computer-assisted intervention Written by leading authorities of the Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention (MICCAI) Society Contains state-of-the-art technical approaches to key challenges Demonstrates proven algorithms for a whole range of essential medical imaging applications Includes source codes for use in a plug-and-play manner Embraces future directions in the fields of medical image computing and computer-assisted intervention

The fifth international Conference in Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention (MICCAI 2002) was held in Tokyo from September 25th to 28th, 2002. This was the first time that the conference was held in Asia since its foundation in 1998. The objective of the conference is to offer clinicians and scientists the opportunity to collaboratively create and explore the new medical field. Specifically, MICCAI offers a forum for the discussion of the state of art in computer-assisted interventions, medical robotics, and image processing among experts from multi-disciplinary professions, including but not limited to clinical doctors, computer scientists, and mechanical and biomedical engineers. The expectations of society are very high; the advancement of medicine will depend on computer and device technology in coming decades, as they did in the last decades. We received 321 manuscripts, of which 41 were chosen for oral presentation and 143 for poster presentation. Each paper has been included in these proceedings in eight-page full paper format, without any differentiation between oral and poster papers. Adherence to this full paper format, along with the increased number of manuscripts, surpassing all our expectations, has led us to issue two proceedings volumes for the first time in MICCAI’s history. Keeping to a single volume by assigning fewer pages to each paper was certainly an option for us considering our budget constraints. However, we decided to increase the volume to offer authors maximum opportunity to argue the state of art in their work and to initiate constructive discussions among the MICCAI audience.

The 7th International Conference on Medical Imaging and Computer Assisted Intervention, MICCAI 2004, was held in Saint-Malo, Brittany, France at the “Palais du Grand Large” conference center, September 26–29, 2004. The p- posaltohostMICCAI2004wasstronglyencouragedandsupportedbyIRISA, Rennes. IRISA is a publicly funded national research laboratory with a sta? of 370,including150full-timeresearchscientistsorteachingresearchscientistsand 115 postgraduate students. INRIA, the CNRS, and the University of Rennes 1 are all partners in this mixed research unit, and all three organizations were helpful in supporting MICCAI. MICCAI has become a premier international conference with in-depth - pers on the multidisciplinary ?elds of medical image computing, comput- assisted intervention and medical robotics. The conference brings together cl- icians, biological scientists, computer scientists, engineers, physicists and other researchers and o?ers them a forum to exchange ideas in these exciting and rapidly growing ?elds. The impact of MICCAI increases each year and the quality and quantity of submitted papers this year was very impressive. We received a record 516 full submissions (8 pages in length) and 101 short communications (2 pages) from 36 di?erent countries and 5 continents (see ?gures below). All submissions were reviewed by up to 4 external reviewers from the Scienti?c Review C- mittee and a primary reviewer from the Program Committee. All reviews were then considered by the MICCAI 2004 Program Committee, resulting in the acceptance of 235 full papers and 33 short communications.