Unable to convert ImgLib2 BooleanType image to numpy/xarray bool

[elevans]

imglyb does not support converting bool type images to numpy. This means that users are unable to convert masks/thresholded images into python numpy/xarray objects.

Here is a minimal example:

import imagej
import scyjava as sj

# initialize
ij = imagej.init()

# load blobs
img = ij.io().open('blobs.tif')

# threshold image w/ ops
CreateNamespace = sj.jimport('net.imagej.ops.create.CreateNamespace')

img_invert = ij.op().namespace(CreateNamespace).img(img)
ij.op().image().invert(img_invert, img)
threshold = ij.op().threshold().otsu(img_invert)

# get threshold from java
py_threshold = ij.py.from_java(threshold)

Returns the traceback:

File "/home/edward/Documents/repos/loci/imglyb/imglyb/util.py", line 149, in _to_imglib
    raise NotImplementedError("Cannot convert dtype to ImgLib2 type yet: {}".format(source.dtype))
NotImplementedError: Cannot convert dtype to ImgLib2 type yet: bool

[elevans]

With @hinerm we determined that imglib2-unsafe needs to support BitType or BooleanType types.

To resolve this bug we need to:

• [ ] Add types BitType or BooleanType to imglib2-unsafe
• [ ] Update the numpy_dtype_to_conversion_method dictionary in imglyb/util.py.

[hinerm]

Technically this is an imglib2 BitType.

Adding support for this conversion requires:

• Implementing a converter in NumpyToImgLibConversions
• Creating a link to that converter in imglyb's util.py

This runs into several challenges including:

• Unsafe does not provide a getBoolean(address) method in the way it does for every other data type. Presumably you can use getByte(address) and cast? But I don't know for sure.
• BitType uses a LongAccess for storage. This makes the associated infrastructure that must be implemented much less straightforward.
• NativeBoolType seems like a simpler direct match for booleans but would require conversion of BitType images to NativeBoolType, and again only is reasonable if it's compatible with Unsafe.getByte(address).

At the moment we have logic to catch upsupported types and default them to float64. In the short term I think we should comment out the BitType support since it is not actually supported, and rely on the fallback support.

[ctrueden]

@hinerm It looks like NumPy bool typed images are booleans each stored as a byte, same as in Java. I.e. each element ends up being 8 bits under the hood. Therefore, as you say, NativeBoolType would indeed be the direct mapping.

For converting a BitType image to NumPy, we can use net.imglib2.converter.RealTypeConverters.copyFromTo(bitImg, nativeBoolImg), since it uses getReal/setRealDouble to do the copy, rather than get/set directly like net.imagej.util.Images.copy does.

So then the plan to implement this initially would be:

1. Augment imglyb to support conversion between Python bool and ImgLib2 NativeBoolType images.
2. Augment pyimagej's rai_to_numpy function to be smarter about types, with a new case covering conversion of BitType RAIs by allocating the new_numpy_image result as a NativeBoolType instead, and using RealTypeConverters rather than Images to do the copy.
3. Later down the line, consider doing something like what this SO post describes to create a NumPy image backed by 1-bit elements, and figure out if we can directly go between that and a BitType ImgLib2 image with zero copying.

[imagesc-bot]

This issue has been mentioned on Image.sc Forum. There might be relevant details there:

https://forum.image.sc/t/show-a-binary-image-in-pyimagej/58031/2

[gselzer]

I noticed this issue completely ignorant of this one, and just filed imglib/imglib2-unsafe#8

@hinerm It looks like NumPy bool typed images are booleans each stored as a byte, same as in Java. I.e. each element ends up being 8 bits under the hood. Therefore, as you say, NativeBoolType would indeed be the direct mapping.

But, now seeing this, I wonder if that is the correct fix... I don't know that it is an issue with the code, but I do think that it doesn't help with this issue.

Anyways, I'm going to try and fix this, as https://github.com/imagej/napari-imagej/issues/69 doesn't do much for us without this feature. The only way to get a Mesh in stock ImageJ Ops is via a BooleanType 3D image, which we cannot get due to this.