The Association, which is affiliated to the International Association for Pattern Recognition (IAPR) , provides information, organises meetings, and represents the views of its members to funding bodies, standards organisations, and government.
Information: a regular mailshot with BMVA and IAPR newsletters containing information on meetings, jobs, public funding opportunities, and research. For those with access to computer networks, news and information are distributed via Pixel, a weekly electronic digest. The Association also supports an electronic distribution service for public domain software and test images.
Technical meetings: full- and half-day thematic meetings addressing topics of current interest in research and applications. Joint meetings with related organisations are a regular feature of the programme. Residential workshops are used to address selected issues in greater depth.
Annual conference: the British Machine Vision Conference (BMVC) attracts participants from the UK, Europe, USA, and Japan. Papers submitted to the conference are of a consistently high standard; conference proceedings are published and a journal special issue presents selected papers to a wider audience.
International conferences: the Association is keen to bring to the UK major international conferences in Machine Vision and Pattern Recognition. We hosted the European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV) in 1996 and hope to host the International Conference on Pattern Recognition (ICPR) in the future.
Technical visits and chapter meetings: the programme of conferences and symposia is augmented by organised visits to companies and institutions involved in Machine Vision and Pattern Recognition R&D. The Association also has a number of regional chapters which arrange more frequent local seminars.
Special interest groups: the Association supports special interest groups for people who have a detailed involvement with particular techniques or applications.
Membership benefits: including discounted rates for journals, reduced attendance fees for associated organisations' meetings, student bursaries for BMVC, and eligibility for overseas travel bursaries.