The theory of automata and formal languages is one of the principal elements in the study of digital machines and their processing capabilities. Synthetic pattern recognition employees this theory in innovative ways to develop pattern recognition approaches that are based on knowledge of the underlying structure of pattern classes. The material in this book provides application in such diverse fields as the physical sciences; the biological and medical sciences; applied mathematics and statistics; and computer science and engineering, including image processing, scene analysis, and artificial intelligence. This volume is the first textbook written at an introductory level with emphasis on fundamentals of formal languages and automata theory as they apply to pattern recognition and machine learning.