GSoC 2017

[timholy]

In my personal opinion, the core framework of JuliaImages is now sufficiently solid that it's time to shift focus to expanding the suite of capabilities. Progress will be faster if we attract additional contributors. I've posted a couple of project ideas over at JuliaLang/www_old.julialang.org#511, but anyone else interested in mentoring or who has an interesting project proposal, please step forward! I've already flagged a couple of you as possible mentors based on what I know (or think I know) about your interests and expertise.

[kvmanohar22]

@timholy ImageDraw.jl was started long back and hasn't been updated since.
As of now only circle2d ellipse2d and line2d have been implemented.
How about extending ImagesDraw.jl to include additional functionalities as given in scikit-images's draw module ?
Any suggestions ?

[timholy]

Yes, I think it was intended to be essentially be a match for scikit-image's draw. Would be great to have some additional work put into it. In principle it might not be bad to have some text capabilities, too, although that would likely involve libraries like Cairo and therefore might mix visualization and algorithmic dependencies in ways that are not ideal.

[mronian]

Just a suggestion to the people who are working on their GSoC Proposals, it will really help you if you post a link to your proposal here and get feedback from all the contributors 😄

Tagging those who I think were applying to GSoC @tejus-gupta, @kvmanohar22, @annimesh2809

[timholy]

I'd like to extend a very warm welcome to @tejus-gupta and @annimesh2809, our two accepted GSoC students who will be working on image code for Julia this summer. You both wrote outstanding proposals, and we're honored to have you working with us!

Thanks also to Google for providing amazing support (18 slots!) for Julia this summer. Between the language & ecosystem we are ready for huge growth, and it's fantastic to be awarded both the financial resources and the recognition that comes from being supported at such a high level.

I look forward to a fantastic summer!

[annimesh2809]

Yaay! Got selected for GSoC 2017. Thanks @timholy @Evizero @mronian and others for all your help and support. Very excited for working this summers!

[tejus-gupta]

Thanks @timholy @mronian and everyone else for the help. Looking forward to a great summer!

[timholy]

@annimesh2809 and @tejus-gupta, one thing we should discuss: you both proposed to work on image segmentation, and while your proposals had significant differences, there were also areas of overlap. We should probably coordinate a bit to make sure we collectively tackle the proposals' goals without doing redundant work. My guess is that this will also free up some time, and we may be able to tackle issues that go beyond the written proposals (that kind of tends to happen anyway...).

In my opinion there is so much interesting and important stuff that needs doing, one thing I'm not worried about is running out of tasks 😄.

[annimesh2809]

Yes, it would be best if we distribute the work properly to avoid redundancy and allow for maximum productivity during the summers. Here is the list of algorithms I intended to implement during the summers:

1. Threshold based segmentation (Global + Variable + Multiple thresholding). Also to find appropriate threshold: Otsu's method, Balanced histogram and Iterative selection method.
2. Seeded region growing
3. Unseeded region growing
4. Region splitting and merging using quadtrees.
5. Fast scanning algorithm
6. k-means clustering + seed generation using k-means++
7. Fuzzy c-means clustering
8. Watershed transformation using Meyer's flooding algorithm

@tejus-gupta Kindly comment your proposed work so that we can see the overlap clearly and distribute the work.
Once the work in the written proposals is finished, we can go about expanding Julia Images further by adding many other interesting features to it.

[tejus-gupta]

I intended to implement these algorithms:

1. Thresholding - Otsu's methods and adaptive tresholding
2. K-means clustering (using Clustering.jl)
3. Image Segmentation using Mean shift
4. Watershed segmentation
5. Felzenszwalb's regions splitting algorithm
6. Normalized graph cut based segmentation

I will also add HOG features to ImageFeatures. Link to my proposal.

[annimesh2809]

Nice! The intersection came out as:

1. Thresholding algorithms (1, 1)
2. k-means clustering (6, 2)
3. Watershed transformation (8, 4)

I like the Vincent and Soille's algorithm that you suggested for Watershed transformation.

@timholy Would you like to assign these algorithms to us or should we do this on our own?

Also, I was thinking of discussing the API for these algorithms. They have many practical applications and will be used with object detection and compression algorithms, hence I was thinking of having a consistent API for all these algos. This way users can easily test which one is most suitable for their needs without any hassle of referring to the documentation every time.

[SimonDanisch]

There are already various implementations of k-means! Please ping me if you want to integrate them into a package.. I've an implementation flying around, which runs on the GPU/ or multi threaded.

[timholy]

@timholy Would you like to assign these algorithms to us or should we do this on our own?

Any way is fine with me. If I picked I'd just flip a coin 😛, so if the two of you want to work it out together that would be great. Or, if you want to work on that code together (or at least review the others' PR), that would be fine too.

And definitely, I agree that some kind of interchangeable-parts API would be really great.

There are already various implementations of k-means!

They'd already figured that out when they submitted their proposals 😄. The main thing that needs to be done is a nice wrapper so that the array of colors, in a suitable colorspace, is passed to a standard kmeans.

[annimesh2809]

After discussing with @tejus-gupta, we both agreed upon the following:

Algorithms implemented by @tejus-gupta:

1. Thresholding - Otsu's methods and adaptive thresholding
2. Image Segmentation using Mean shift
3. Watershed segmentation
4. Felzenszwalb's regions splitting algorithm
5. Normalised graph cut based segmentation

Algorithms implemented by me:

1. Seeded region growing
2. Unseeded region growing
3. Region splitting and merging using quadtrees.
4. Fast scanning algorithm
5. k-means clustering + seed generation using k-means++ (Using clustering.jl)
6. Fuzzy c-means clustering

Before implementing any of these algorithms, we would be sharing ideas and discussing it extensively amongst us. Some of the difficult algorithms might require working on the code together.

[annimesh2809]

@timholy @tejus-gupta Should we place these segmentation algorithms in ImageFeatures.jl or in a seperate package? Also other than github, is there any place for discussing ideas and issues regarding JuliaImages (like a gitter, slack, irc channel)?

[timholy]

I don't have strong feelings, but I wonder if an ImageSegmentation package would be appropriate?

As for discussing ideas, there are at least three ways:

• On GitHub, there's https://github.com/JuliaImages/meta,
• Images.jl is kind of a catch-all, so you can open issues there (or elsewhere)
• @juliohm just created a gitter https://gitter.im/JuliaImages/Lobby. I'm not sure what needs to be done to "advertise" it.