Installing and Running InfoPACK

Installing InfoPACK

Hardcopy installation instructions are delivered with the software cdrom. Alternatively installation instructions specific to each supported operating system are in the file INSTALL.txt which can be found in the top level installation directory, or alternatively in the top level distribution directory (which is what is delivered in compressed format on the software cdrom).

Running InfoPACK

The routines can be accessed in several easy-to-use ways:

From the Graphical User Interface:

The GUI provides a point and click environment from which any of the InfoPACK routines can be invoked. Successive routines may be invoked in this way. For details on how to invoke the GUI for each supported operating system, see the file README.txt which can be found in the top level installation directory.

For each routine, the GUI presents the user with a dialogue box to help specifying the parameters accepted by the routine. For each routine, one or more default parameter sets are available (for example the segmentation routine segment provides the choice of fast, default, sensitive settings) or users can specify their own choice of parameters.

For the routine specified, the GUI effectively calls the corresponding Python script; the basic script commands are echoed on the console so that you can see what is going on. In this way, user scripts specifying complex processing chains can be built up experimentally and ``on the fly''. Operations are file to file, and memory is cleared after the operation is complete.

Operation of the GUI is the subject of chapter 5.

From a Python script:

Single routines may instead be called from the system command line prompt. Users can thus develop complete Image Understanding processing chains, of both InfoPACK and other routines, by composing appropriate shell or batch scripts.

For details on how to invoke command line scripts under each supported operating system, see the file README.txt which can be found in the top level installation directory.

From a Python shell or program:

All InfoPACK routines can be invoked as Python function calls from within a Python shell or Python program. The routine procedures are automatically made available from the module infopack and may be called directly or from within the users own script. When called directly from the console, online reminders are provided for the required parameters.

Python provides an integrated development environment for researching and developing complete Image Understanding processing chains including calls to InfoPACK routines.

Sample data is included with the InfoPACK distribution in the images subdirectory of the main installation directory. Also located there is a README file that explains in some detail how to process the sample data with several different routines.

More details on running InfoPACK and commentary on the main routines can be found in chapter 4. Appendices A and B contain exact syntaxes for the Python Scripts and Functions including descriptions of all parameters and their default values.