Bridges 2011 Short Paper

The Mathematica software system has been with us since 1988, but only recently has it become viable as a mainstream tool for image processing. In each of versions 7 and 8 a large number of new image processing commands were introduced to the system. This has created an opportunity for the mathematics community to do some things within Mathematica that were simply inconceivable in the recent past. At the same time, Mathematica's traditional strengths in symbolic manipulation add a unique dimension to the business of working with electronic imagery, both static and dynamic. We'll look at a number of examples, and attempt to identify some of the most promising avenues for exploration in this new domain, as well as its limitations.