Foreword - Welcome to CVA -

It is a great privilege and an honor to welcome you to this inaugural issue of the IPSJ Transactions on Computer Vision and Applications (CVA). The field of computer vision has the history of more than 30 years from its dawning in early 1970’s. The progress in computer vision theory and algorithms as well as hardware has expanded the area of its applications such as industrial automation, computer-aided diagnosis, robotics, vision-based graphics, and emerging interactive media technologies including advanced human interface, mixed reality, and networked media. We are now singing the praises of growth of the field. There is a big community of computer vision in Japan, which has made significant contributions to the international research community. However, most of such contributions have been limited to a conference-level. Most journal papers have been written in Japanese, mainly owing to the lack of English publications sponsored by a Japanese professional society in this field. Another reason for this sistuation is that many international journals in computer vision are not focused on applications and advanced systems. The publication of CVA is intended to meet such demands. CVA, an online and open-access journal, is focused on the field of computer vision and is the first international journal of its kind to be issued in Asia. The launching of CVA is initiated by the Special Interest Group on Computer Vision and Image Media (SIG-CVIM) of the Information Processing Society of Japan (IPSJ). The scope of this new journal covers various theoretical and practical