Preface The Organising Committee extends a warm welcome to all speakers and delegates of the 2026 Irish Machine Vision and Image Processing Conference (IMVIP 2026). This year it is hosted at the Maynooth University under the organization of the department of Computer Science. The IMVIP Conference is Ireland’s primary meeting for those researching in the fields of machine vision and image processing. The conference has been running since 1997 and provides a forum for the exchange of ideas and the presentation of research conducted in Ireland and worldwide. IMVIP is a single track conference consisting of high quality previously unpublished contributed papers focusing on both theoretical research and practical experiences in all areas. After a rigorous review process, 35 papers were selected for presentation at the conference. We wish to sincerely thank the members of the Programme Committee for generously giving their time, effort and expertise in reviewing the submissions, and the session chairs for their contributions to this event. Continuing the tradition of inviting high-profile speakers to IMVIP, we are delighted to have two high-profile speakers give keynote talks: Prof. Binh-Son Hua from Trinity College Dublin, with a talk entitled "Toward a Synergy of Generative AI and Computer Graphics", and Prof. Ganesh Sistu from Valeo and University of Limerick with a talk entitled "Evolution of Autonomy Stacks: From Rules to Physical AI". IMVIP 2026 is run in association with the Irish Pattern Recognition and Classification Society (IPRCS), a member of the International Association for Pattern Recognition (IAPR) and the International Federation of Classification Societies (IFCS). We thank IPRCS for its support in organizing IMVIP 2026, its travel bursaries and paper awards. We warmly thank Prof. Neil Trappe, head of Department of Physics at Maynooth University, for organizing a very instructive and entertaining visit to the National Science Museum at Maynooth for all conference attendees. Finally, IMVIP 2026 would not have been possible without the incredible support and know-how of Mrs Phil Dully in the Department of Computer Science at Maynooth University