Here is a status update from the ImageJ team at LOCI: where we’re at, what’s next, and what tasks we see as the most important to keep ImageJ moving forward.
Top priority
First and foremost, we’re on the cusp of submitting a paper describing the structure of ImageJ2, which is a critical step towards future funding efforts.
On the technical side, Curtis Rueden just wrote the first ImageJ code using Java 8 functionality, which will continue drive our need to migrate. One recent and fundamental step in this direction is the release of the 3D update site: providing Java 7- and 8-compatible versions of 3D ImageJ plugins (previously relegated to Java 6).
Next steps
In the coming months we have several projects of interest. In approximate order of our priority:
- SCIFIO blockization - better-integrating the ImgLib2 data model and moving from Planes to a general block-based API
- Rich images - a polishing pass at the ImageJ data model
- Robust-IO - generalizing image I/O sources
- Increasing the sophistication of ImageJ Ops
- SciJava-Common 3.x
- Increased collaboration with KNIME (LOCI is pleased to have Gabriel Einsdorf on loan from Konstanz!)
- Improved ImageJ1-ImageJ2 synchronization
- Formalizing developer roles and responsibilities (which will make an “Adopt-a-plugin” program possible!)
Long-term plans
- Better support for arbitrarily large planes (via google-maps style scaling)
- Improved support for arbitrarily large images (i.e., with huge numbers of planes or blocks)
- JavaFX-based UI
Continued support
While not directly tied to any one issue or reportable task, LOCI will continue to support:
- The ImageJ community—especially with the success of the new forum
- LOCI scientific collaborations
- Technical training, via continued presentations, workshops and wiki guides.
