Computer analysis of images and patterns is a scienti c eld of longstanding tradition, with roots in the early years of the computer era when electronic brains inspired scientists. Moreover, the design of vision machines is a part of humanity's dream of the arti cial person. I remember the 2nd CAIP, held in Wismar in 1987. Lectures were read in German, English and Russian, and proceedings were also only partially written in English. The conference took place under a di erent political system and proved that ideas are independent of political walls. A few years later the Berlin Wall collapsed,...