Open Issues in Pattern Recognition

The area of pattern recognition has developed itself into a mature engineering field with many practical applications. This increased applicability, together with the development of sensors and computer resources, leads to new research areas and raises new questions. In this paper, old and new open issues are discussed that have to be faced in advancing real world applications. Some may only be overcome by brute force procedures, while others may be solved or circumvented either by novel and better procedures, or by a better understanding of their causes. Here, we will try to identify a number of open issues and define them as well as possible.