Ultralytics

🌟 Summary
Ultralytics 'v8.2.76' release includes updates focused on improving documentation, adding new plugins, and enhancing code functionality.

📊 Key Changes
- **Documentation Updates**:
- Introduced `mkdocs-macros-plugin` for better content duplication across docs.
- Added video support in documentation for enhanced visualization.
- Corrected bibliography formatting and references.
- **Code Enhancements**:
- Improved error handling and handling of large inputs in the SAHI integration example.
- Added a workaround for YouTube test skips in GitHub Actions to avoid unauthorized errors.
- Adjusted `convert_segment_masks_to_yolo_seg` function for better user guidance.
- **Dependencies**:
- Included `mkdocs-macros-plugin` in the list of development dependencies for documentation builds.

🎯 Purpose & Impact
- **Better Documentation Management**:
- Usage of `mkdocs-macros-plugin` allows for content reuse, making docs maintenance easier and more consistent.
- Enhanced documentation aesthetics and correctness help users better understand and utilize the tools.
- **Improved Code Base**:
- The SAHI example now provides more robust handling, which may prevent runtime errors when processing videos.
- Setting up better error skips in testing ensures smoother Continuous Integration (CI) workflows.
- **User Guidance**:
- The `convert_segment_masks_to_yolo_seg` function now includes clearer instructions, aiding users in effectively preparing their datasets.

These improvements collectively enhance the user experience by providing clearer documentation, more robust code examples, and smoother testing and deployment workflows. 🌟

What's Changed
* Update Docs CSS by glenn-jocher in https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/pull/15062
* Use macros for Docs tables de-duplication by ambitious-octopus in https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/pull/14990
* Delete `/macros` dir from Docs site by glenn-jocher in https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/pull/15068
* Delete macros from sitemap.xml by glenn-jocher in https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/pull/15105
* Add https://youtu.be/EeDd5P4eS6A to docs by RizwanMunawar in https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/pull/15107
* Optimized SAHI video inference by RizwanMunawar in https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/pull/15183
* Update `convert_segment_masks_to_yolo_seg` to support custom datasets by RizwanMunawar in https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/pull/15176
* `ultralytics 8.2.76` Autobackend TensorRT/Triton Segment metadata fix by Y-T-G in https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/pull/15185


**Full Changelog**: https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/compare/v8.2.75...v8.2.76

🌟 Summary
Release `v8.2.75` features Docker environment updates and refinements to inference API documentation, improving operational efficiency and user guidance.

📊 Key Changes
- **Dockerfile Updates:** Added several environment variables and optimized configurations to improve Docker builds and runtime behavior.
- **Inference API Documentation:** Expanded and detailed the usage of the Inference API, introducing the Dedicated Inference API for Pro users.
- **Technical Documentation:** Various minor adjustments in documentation to clarify usage and parameters.

🎯 Purpose & Impact
- **Enhanced Docker Builds:**
- **Environment Variables:** Adding environment variables like `PYTHONUNBUFFERED`, `PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE`, `PIP_NO_CACHE_DIR`, and `PIP_BREAK_SYSTEM_PACKAGES` can lead to more efficient Docker container operations and fewer errors.
- **Git Configuration:** Simplifying git configuration steps to avoid potential misconfigurations, making it more straightforward for developers.
- **Efficient Pip Usage:** Removing `--no-cache-dir` from some of the pip install commands can reduce build times by caching dependencies.

- **Inference API Enhancements:**
- **Dedicated API:** Providing Pro users with a robust, scalable, and low-latency inference solution by leveraging Google Cloud infrastructure, greatly benefiting those requiring high performance and reliability.
- **Documentation Improvements:** Clearer instructions and examples for both shared and dedicated API usage, ensuring users can implement these features with ease.

- **Usability Improvements:**
- **Documentation Refinements:** Minor adjustments and clarifications to help users better understand and utilize the APIs and system configurations, improving overall user experience, especially for new users.

What's Changed
* Fix Docker git permissions by glenn-jocher in https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/pull/14995
* Dedicated Inference API Docs by sergiuwaxmann in https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/pull/14992
* Update HUB Inference API Docs by RizwanMunawar in https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/pull/15035
* Add `allow_background_images=True` in split_dota.py by Galasnow in https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/pull/15037
* `ultralytics 8.2.75` new Docs author profiles by glenn-jocher in https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/pull/15050

New Contributors
* Galasnow made their first contribution in https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/pull/15037

**Full Changelog**: https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/compare/v8.2.74...v8.2.75

🌟 Summary
Release v8.2.74 introduces enhancements for NVIDIA Jetson support, improved export options, and tracking updates.

📊 Key Changes
- **GitHub Actions**: Updated to include additional status code (`401`).
- **Documentation Updates**:
- Expanded NVIDIA Jetson support, now including JetPack 6.0.
- Improved OpenVINO export options, adding support for dynamic input sizes.
- Added a contributor `mfloto`.
- **Trackers Configuration**:
- Added `fuse_score` option to BoT-SORT and ByteTrack trackers.
- **Code Adjustments**: Conditionally fuse confidence scores with IoU distances in trackers.

🎯 Purpose & Impact
- **Security and Reliability**:
- The GitHub Actions update makes the system more robust by handling `401 Unauthorized` statuses 💪.
- **Enhanced Hardware Support**:
- Documentation on JetPack 6.0 expands the usability of YOLOv8 across more NVIDIA Jetson devices, providing detailed setup instructions 🚀.
- **Export Flexibility**:
- The dynamic input size support in OpenVINO exports enhances the model's flexibility and compatibility 🎨.
- **Tracking Improvements**:
- The `fuse_score` option in trackers improves the accuracy and reliability of object tracking by leveraging both confidence and IoU metrics 🎯.

What's Changed
* Ignore Vimeo 401 'unauthorized' errors by glenn-jocher in https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/pull/14980
* fix example for plotting Ray Tune history by mfloto in https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/pull/14970
* Update NVIDIA Jetson Docs with JetPack 6 by lakshanthad in https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/pull/14939
* Fix OpenVINO Export Docs by ambitious-octopus in https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/pull/14918
* `ultralytics 8.2.74` add `fuse_score=True` BoT-SORT and ByteTrack arg by Laughing-q in https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/pull/14965

New Contributors
* mfloto made their first contribution in https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/pull/14970

**Full Changelog**: https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/compare/v8.2.73...v8.2.74

🌟 Summary

The v8.2.73 release of Ultralytics introduces significant updates to the Segment Anything Model (SAM) architecture, including new support for SAM 2, which enhances real-time image segmentation capabilities and documentation improvements.

📊 Key Changes

- **Addition of SAM 2 Models**: Introduced new methods for building various SAM 2 models, including `build_sam2_t`, `build_sam2_s`, `build_sam2_b`, and `build_sam2_l`.
- **Enhanced Documentation**: Added comprehensive documentation for SAM and SAM 2 modules, including blocks, decoders, encoders, and memory attention modules.
- **Updated Predictors**: Integrated SAM2Predictor for advanced segmentation prediction, enhancing the overall prediction framework.
- **Expanded API References**: Updated the API references to include new SAM2 modules and their functionalities, ensuring better clarity and usability for developers.

🎯 Purpose & Impact

- **Improved Segmentation Capabilities**: The addition of SAM 2 models significantly enhances the real-time image segmentation capabilities, allowing users to leverage advanced features for more accurate and efficient segmentation tasks.
- **Comprehensive Documentation**: The improved and expanded documentation provides detailed references and examples for both SAM and SAM 2 models, making it easier for users to understand and implement the models in their projects.
- **Upgraded Prediction Framework**: The integration of SAM2Predictor ensures that the prediction framework is robust and capable of handling advanced segmentation tasks, benefiting users with more reliable and efficient predictions.

🔧 Technical Details

- **Model Initialization**: Enhanced the initialization and building process for SAM and SAM 2 models, ensuring that the models are correctly configured with the specified architecture parameters.
- **Attention Mechanisms**: Improved attention mechanisms with the introduction of SAM2TwoWayAttentionBlock and SAM2TwoWayTransformer, providing more efficient attention computations in the models.

What's Changed
* `ultralytics 8.2.73` Meta SAM2 Refactor by Laughing-q in https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/pull/14867


**Full Changelog**: https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/compare/v8.2.72...v8.2.73

🌟 Summary
Ultralytics 'v8.2.72' release focuses on enhancing disk space management, updating documentation, refining model code, and improving testing.

📊 Key Changes
- **Disk Space Management**: Added a step in CI workflows to clean up tool cache, potentially freeing up to 10GB of disk space.
- **Documentation**:
- Improved `CONTRIBUTING.md` with better references and added an FAQ section.
- Updated ROS Quickstart guide for better clarity and specific use cases.
- **Model Enhancements**:
- Adjustments in SAM prediction models for better handling of bounding boxes and points.
- Refined Transformer model's `forward` method.
- **Testing Improvements**: Added extra checks for Torch compatibility in tests.

🎯 Purpose & Impact
- **Disk Space Management**:
- **Purpose**: Ensure workflows run smoothly without disk space issues.
- **Impact**: Enhanced reliability in CI pipelines, preventing build failures due to insufficient disk space. 🧹💾
- **Documentation**:
- **Purpose**: Provide clearer guidance and support to contributors.
- **Impact**: Makes contributing easier and more accessible, fostering community contributions. 📖👥
- **Model Enhancements**:
- **Purpose**: Optimize model predictions and enhance functionality.
- **Impact**: Improves performance and accuracy of object detection and other tasks. 📈🤖
- **Testing Improvements**:
- **Purpose**: Ensure better compatibility and comprehensive testing.
- **Impact**: Increases robustness and reliability of the software across different environments. ✅🧪

These updates collectively aim to improve the project's maintainability, user experience, and performance.

What's Changed
* Delete Docker Cache before building Image by lakshanthad in https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/pull/14894
* ROS quickstart meta description by ambitious-octopus in https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/pull/14932
* Fix the docstring of xywhr2xyxyxyxy by patel-zeel in https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/pull/14934
* Fixed `circle_label` and `text_label` docstrings by jk4e in https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/pull/14909
* Fix `is_url()` and `check_disk_space()` docstrings in downloads.py by jk4e in https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/pull/14923
* Update MLP module for RTDETR backward compatibility by Laughing-q in https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/pull/14901
* Corrects CONTRIBUTING.md relative link to CLA.md by Burhan-Q in https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/pull/14857
* `ultralytics 8.2.72` SAM 2 multiple-`bboxes` support by Laughing-q in https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/pull/14928

New Contributors
* patel-zeel made their first contribution in https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/pull/14934

**Full Changelog**: https://github.com/ultralytics/ultralytics/compare/v8.2.71...v8.2.72

🌟 Summary
The Ultralytics `v8.2.71` release focuses on refining model training commands, enhancing the CLI, and fixing some documentation inconsistencies.

📊 Key Changes
- **Matrix Parallelism**: Increased max-parallel jobs from 6 to 10.
- **Retry Logic Modification**: Adjusted retry wait time from 30 to 60 seconds.
- **Documentation Fixes**: Corrected CLI commands for training (`yolo classify train`, `yolo segment train`, `yolo obb train`, `yolo pose train`) and removed some outdated notes on SAM 2.
- **Gitignore Update**: Added `requirements.txt`, `setup.py`, and other files to the `.gitignore` list.
- **CLI Enhancements**: Updated CLI task options to include `obb` and added a new mode `benchmark`.

🎯 Purpose & Impact
- **Enhanced Parallelism**: Increasing max parallel jobs accelerates CI workflows, thereby improving overall efficiency and quicker feedback loops. 🚀
- **Improved Job Reliability**: With longer wait times before retrying jobs, the update aims to reduce the number of job failures, making the process more robust. 🛠️
- **Command Accuracy**: The corrected training commands ensure that users are employing the right commands, reducing the chances of errors and improving user experience. ✅
- **Refined CLI Use**: The added `obb` task option and `benchmark` mode provide users with more versatility and capabilities within the CLI, enabling better performance analysis and use-case flexibility. 💡