Leginon

h1. redux

redux is a library for loading an image, doing some basic processing and generating a viewable image.

!redux_basic_idea.png!

h2. Goals

* simple to use python library

* simple to use network daemon that can answer requests for an image and the pipeline of processing to do on it

* simple to use command line client that uses either the network daemon or locally imported python library to do processing

* complex behind-the-scenes result caching

h2. Potential uses

* a command line program like xv or imagemagick to view myami images and generate publication quality results

* preparing image for display in Leginon, including contrast adjustments, binning, power spectrum, etc

* any functions in leginon/appion where you need to either bin or calculate power spectrum

* preparing image for display on web pages.  web server can contact redux server.  this can replace php-mrc module which no longer compiles with php > 5.2

h2. Current design as of 5/12/2011

!redux_more_detail.png!

h2. New Ideas as of 7/13/2011

Investigating  "gstreamer":http://gstreamer.freedesktop.org  as a framework on which to build redux.  gstreamer allows plugins called "elements" to be connected together to form a pipeline or graph that does multimedia processing.  Here is an example application built using the command line program "gst-launch":

<pre>gst-launch filesrc location=example.png ! pngdec ! jpegenc ! filesink location=test.jpg</pre>

h2. README file:

<pre>

INTRODUCTION

Redux is a utility for running a pipeline of simple image processing routines.

The main purpose is to produce display worthy images (JPEG, PNG, etc) from

raw MRC images.  It includes a caching mechanism to reduce processing time at

the expence of disk or memory usage.

INSTALL:

prerequisites: python2.6 and above, numpy, scipy, pyfilesystem, pyami, numextension

	Install using "python setup.py install" or just use a local sandbox and just

make sure redux is in your pythonpath

USING IT:

There are two basic ways to use redux.  The first is to use it directly as a

python package.  You import redux and do processing in your python script.

The second is to start a redux server, which can be located elsewhere on your

network.  You then make requests to the server using the client of your choice

(python, php, etc.).

TRY IT:

	Run the stand-alone redux script (bin/redux).  Without any options or

arguments, it will print out a help message.

To Do:

	cache management, clean up old files, etc.

	server and client config scripts

	security

</pre>