source: branches/pixel-map-branch/docs/future.tex @ 236

Last change on this file since 236 was 208, checked in by Matthew Whiting, 18 years ago
  • Enabled saving and reading in of a smoothed array, in manner directly analogous to that for the recon array.
    • New file : src/Cubes/readSmooth.cc
    • The other new functions go in existing files eg. saveImage.cc
    • Renamed some functions (like writeHeader...) to be more obvious what they do.
    • The reading in is taken care of by new function Cube::readSavedArrays() -- handles both smoothed and recon'd arrays.
    • Associated parameters in Param class
    • Clarified names of FITS header strings in duchamp.hh.
  • Updated the documentation to describe the ability to smooth a cube.
  • Added description of feedback mechanisms in the Install appendix.
  • Also, Hanning class improved to guard against memory leaks.


File size: 1.9 KB
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1\secA{Future developments}
2
3Here are lists of planned improvements and a wish-list of
4features that would be nice to include (but are not planned in the
5immediate future). Let me know if there are items not on these lists,
6or items on the list you would like prioritised.
7
8Planned developments:
9\begin{itemize}
10\item Parallelisation of the code, to improve speed particularly on
11multi-core machines.
12
13\item Better determination of the noise characteristics of
14  spectral-line cubes, including understanding how the noise is
15  generated and developing a model for it.
16 
17\item Include more source analysis. Examples could be: shape
18  information; measurements of HI mass; more variety of measurements
19  of velocity width and profile.
20
21\item Improved ability to reject interference, possibly on the
22  spectral shape of features.
23
24\item Ability to separate (de-blend) distinct sources that have been
25  merged.
26\end{itemize}
27
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.
34\item Link to lists of possible counterparts (\eg via NED/SIMBAD/other
35  VO tools?).
36
37\item On-line web service interface, so a user can upload a cube and
38  get back a source-list.
39
40\item Embed \duchamp\ in a GUI, to move away from the text-based
41  interaction.
42\end{itemize}
43
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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