Need a Start - Vision

See , for example, WEB journal
http://www.molvis.org/molvis/recognition.html for visual recognition in Biology

Would you know of any good Vision Recognition books or puplications that could help me out?

I didn't understand if you need pattern recognition or computer vision or face recognition.
I'll write it all:
for basic image processing I'll use:
I''l Use image procesing/A.K.Jain
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0133361659/qid=955434235/sr=1-1/104-2975551-3983669
for machine vision
try this:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0818691026/qid=955434235/sr=1-3/104-2975551-3983669
for face detection and recognition (including software) try the face recognition Home page at:
http://www.cs.rug.nl/~peterkr/FACE/face.html
hope that's enough but if not try and be more specific regarding the subject you would like to have info about.

Adjusted points from 100 to 150

I increased the points because this is really helping and I felt that it was worth it.  My main interest is in real-time machine vision -- identifying a ball or other simple 3d geometric shapes, however I am interested in the whole field of computer vision.  Would you know of any publication/source/information that pertains to the type of vision recognition I am primarily interested in?  If not, do you know what the best type of hardware to use for machine vision would be -- a 3d modling scanner or a regular PC video camera.  Your almost done with me :)  Thanks so far!

HW:
any USB webcam 50-150$ will do use the vidcap examples in microsoft msdn to capture video or stills (U'll need to install DirectX). I don't know about 3d scanners.
for simple 3d recognition use the second book I recommended in machine vision.
link in machine vision
http://www.cs.sfu.ca/people/GradStudents/vcardei/personal/vision.html
or:
http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/
U can also check links in this page
http://www.eng.tau.ac.il/~nk/

Thanks for the help...If you come across any more information -- let me know.