source: branches/pixel-map-branch/docs/future.tex @ 1441

Last change on this file since 1441 was 255, checked in by Matthew Whiting, 17 years ago
  • Mostly Guide changes, thanks to the xspace package. Some alteration of the statistics calculation description, thanks to the new statsec parameter.
  • Also changed the default value of the reconDim parameter -- now default is 1-dimensional.
File size: 1.9 KB
RevLine 
[158]1\secA{Future developments}
2
[162]3Here are lists of planned improvements and a wish-list of
[158]4features that would be nice to include (but are not planned in the
[162]5immediate future). Let me know if there are items not on these lists,
6or items on the list you would like prioritised.
[158]7
[162]8Planned developments:
[158]9\begin{itemize}
[162]10\item Parallelisation of the code, to improve speed particularly on
11multi-core machines.
[158]12
13\item Better determination of the noise characteristics of
14  spectral-line cubes, including understanding how the noise is
[162]15  generated and developing a model for it.
[158]16 
17\item Include more source analysis. Examples could be: shape
18  information; measurements of HI mass; more variety of measurements
[162]19  of velocity width and profile.
[158]20
21\item Improved ability to reject interference, possibly on the
[162]22  spectral shape of features.
[158]23
24\item Ability to separate (de-blend) distinct sources that have been
[162]25  merged.
26\end{itemize}
[158]27
[162]28Wish-list:
29\begin{itemize}
30\item Incorporation of Swinburne's S2PLOT
31\footnote{\href{http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/s2plot/}
32{http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/s2plot/}} code for improved
33visualisation.
[158]34\item Link to lists of possible counterparts (\eg via NED/SIMBAD/other
[162]35  VO tools?).
[158]36
37\item On-line web service interface, so a user can upload a cube and
[162]38  get back a source-list.
[158]39
[255]40\item Embed \duchamp in a GUI, to move away from the text-based
[162]41  interaction.
[158]42\end{itemize}
43
[208]44\secA{Why \duchamp?}
45
46Well, it's important for a program to have a name, and the initial
47working title of \emph{cubefind} was somewhat uninspiring. I wanted to
48avoid the classic astronomical approach of designing a cute acronym,
49and since it is designed to work on cubes, I looked at naming it after
50a cubist. \emph{Picasso}, sadly, was already taken \citep{minchin99},
51so I settled on naming it after Marcel Duchamp, another cubist, but
52also one of the first artists to work with ``found objects''.
53
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