Camtools

The v0.1.5 release of CamTools brings a host of new features, significant improvements, and various fixes to enhance the overall functionality and usability of the library.

New Features and Improvements

- **Render Geometries to Image**: Introduced the ability to render geometries to an image with custom camera parameters, improving flexibility in rendering (36).
- **Line Radius in Render Geometries**: Enabled `line_radius` support in `ct.render.render_geometries()` for `LineSet`, enhancing the visual representation of lines (38).
- **Efficient Image Cropping**: Enhanced the performance of image cropping, allowing for faster and more efficient operations (39).
- **Depth Image Rendering**: Added `ct.render.render_geometries` for rendering depth images, expanding the rendering capabilities (57).
- **Image Scaling for Depth to Point Cloud**: Added support for image scaling in `ct.project.depth_to_point_cloud()`, allowing for more versatile image processing (54).
- **Single Point Transformation**: Introduced functionality to transform a single point, providing more precise control in point manipulation (60).

Refactoring

- **Consistent Terminology**: Renamed up-down to top-bottom and ensured consistent use of `tblr` throughout the codebase (42).
- **Master to Main Transition**: Updated links and CI configurations to transition from `master` to `main`, aligning with modern repository practices (50).
- **Version Management**: Switched to using `importlib.metadata` for version management for Python 3.8 and above, modernizing the build process (51).
- **Projection API Enhancements**: Improved projection APIs to enhance their functionality and usability (53).
- **Dependency Management**: Removed `torch` dependency, ensuring it is only installed for image metrics, reducing unnecessary dependencies (55).
- **Depth to Point Cloud API Change**: Renamed `return_as_image` to `to_image` in `depth_to_point_cloud`, making the function naming more intuitive (58).
- **Utility Module Renaming**: Renamed `ct.utility` to `ct.util`, streamlining the utility module structure (45).

Fixes

- **Order Preservation in Loops**: Ensured order preservation for `mt_loop` and `mp_loop`, improving consistency in processing (44).
- **PNG Handling in Crop-Borders Tool**: Improved the handling of PNG files with alpha channels in the crop-borders tool (35).
- **OpenCV and OpenGL Conversion**: Fixed issues with transformations and pose conversions between OpenCV and OpenGL (52).
- **Device Assertion Removal**: Removed the assertion for the same device, fixing potential issues related to device handling (56).

Documentation and Build

- **Contribution Section**: Added a new contribution section to the documentation, encouraging community participation and providing guidelines for contributors (40).
- **Strict Editable Mode Installation**: Updated installation instructions to include strict editable mode, ensuring a more reliable setup process (48).

List of Changes
* add built-with-camtools badges in https://github.com/yxlao/camtools/pull/34
* fix: crop-boarders tool handle png with alpha channel in https://github.com/yxlao/camtools/pull/35
* new: render geometries to image with custom camera parameters in https://github.com/yxlao/camtools/pull/36
* new: extract rendering intrinsics (K) and extrinsics (T) set by Open3D in https://github.com/yxlao/camtools/pull/37
* new: support line_radius in ct.render.render_geometries() for LineSet in https://github.com/yxlao/camtools/pull/38
* perf: more efficient ct crop-boarders --same_crop in https://github.com/yxlao/camtools/pull/39
* docs: add contribution section in https://github.com/yxlao/camtools/pull/40
* feat: text renderer, artifact manager, image vstack in https://github.com/yxlao/camtools/pull/41
* refactor: rename up-down to top-bottom, use tblr consistently in https://github.com/yxlao/camtools/pull/42
* perf: faster cropping; parallel imread/crop; mt_loop and mp_loop helper functions in https://github.com/yxlao/camtools/pull/43
* fix: preserve order for mt_loop and mp_loop in https://github.com/yxlao/camtools/pull/44
* refactor: ct.utility->ct.util in https://github.com/yxlao/camtools/pull/45
* ci: disable concurrency in https://github.com/yxlao/camtools/pull/46
* docs: install with strict editable mode in https://github.com/yxlao/camtools/pull/48
* refactor: rename create_camera_frames to create_camera_frustums in https://github.com/yxlao/camtools/pull/49
* refactor: master->main for links and ci in https://github.com/yxlao/camtools/pull/50
* build: use importlib.metadata to get version for py>=3.8 in https://github.com/yxlao/camtools/pull/51
* fix: opencv<->opengl T and pose convert in https://github.com/yxlao/camtools/pull/52
* refactor: improved projection APIs in https://github.com/yxlao/camtools/pull/53
* new: support image scaling for ct.project.depth_to_point_cloud() in https://github.com/yxlao/camtools/pull/54
* refactor: remove torch dependency, only install torch for image metrics in https://github.com/yxlao/camtools/pull/55
* fix: remove assert same device in https://github.com/yxlao/camtools/pull/56
* new: ct.render.render_geometries as depth image in https://github.com/yxlao/camtools/pull/57
* refactor: return_as_image->to_image for depth_to_point_cloud in https://github.com/yxlao/camtools/pull/58
* new: transform a single point in https://github.com/yxlao/camtools/pull/60
* build: python version support update to 3.8 - 3.11 in https://github.com/yxlao/camtools/pull/63
* build: v0.1.5 version bump in https://github.com/yxlao/camtools/pull/65

**Full Changelog**: https://github.com/yxlao/camtools/compare/v0.1.4...v0.1.5

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For more details, visit the [CamTools GitHub repository](https://github.com/yxlao/camtools). Your feedback and contributions are welcome.

The v0.1.4 release of CamTools introduces a range of new features, improvements, and fixes.

New Features and Improvements

- **Up Triangle, Point-Plane Distance, Exact Camera Size**: Introduced new camera frame functionalities including up triangle and point-plane distance calculation (19).
- **Camera Pose from Spherical Coordinate System**: Added camera pose determination using spherical coordinates (20).
- **Command Line Tool for Image Compression**: Added new command-line tool for efficient PNG and JPG image compression (25).
- **Improved Readme Graphics**: Enhanced readme graphics for better visual appeal and information clarity (30).
- **CamTools Logo**: Introduced a new visual identity with the CamTools logo (29).

Refactoring

- **Camera Frame Creation APIs**: Refactored camera frame creation APIs to improve clarity and usability (22).
- **Project to Transform**: Renamed `ct.project.homo_project` to `ct.transform.transform_points` for better functional alignment (23).
- **Normalization and Plot Module Changes**: Moved functionalities from `ct.stat` to `ct.normalize` and removed `ct.plot` module (24).

Fixes

- **Handling Alpha PNGs and Avoiding Duplicated Compression**: Improved handling of PNGs with alpha channels and optimized image compression process (26).
- **Continuous Integration and Tests**: Addressed issues in CI and tests to ensure library stability and reliability (28).

Automation

- **Automatic PyPI Release Script**: Streamlined PyPI release process with an automated script (18).

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For more details, visit the [CamTools GitHub repository](https://github.com/yxlao/camtools). Your feedback and contributions are welcome.

The camtools v0.1.3 release features important bug fixes and API changes.

- Fix: Mesh ray cast depth calculation (11)
- Fix: Normalize by `K[2, 2]` when decomposing `P` (15)
- Refactor: Renamed blender->opengl, pinhole->opencv
python
ct.convert.T_opencv_to_opengl()
ct.convert.T_opengl_to_opencv()
ct.convert.pose_opencv_to_opengl()
ct.convert.pose_opengl_to_opencv()

- Fix `ct` command line tool module import issue
- Add unit test CI and PyPI CI

- Reduce dependency requirements
- Minor bug fixes

We are excited to announce the first release of CamTools, a comprehensive camera toolkit for computer vision. This release includes a variety of features that are useful for plotting, converting, projecting, and ray casting with camera parameters.

Some of the key features of CamTools v0.1.0 include:

- Plotting cameras with intrinsics and extrinsics, useful for debugging 3D reconstruction and NeRFs.
- Converting camera parameters. E.g., from `T` to `pose`, `T` to `R` and `t`, `pose` to camera center, decomposition of projection matrix to `K` and `T`, and more.
- Projection and ray casting. E.g., from 3D points to pixels, from depth image to 3D points, and from mesh to depth image.
- Image and depth I/O with strict type and range checks.
- Command-line tools for cropping image borders, drawing synchronized bounding boxes interactively, and more.
- More features such as solving line intersections, COLMAP tools, point normalization, and more.

We hope this release will be helpful to the computer vision community, and we look forward to receiving feedback and suggestions for future improvements.

Start using `camtools` with:
bash
pip install camtools


Refer to the [README](https://github.com/yxlao/camtools) for more details.