ITK/Release 4.11

New Features

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• Wrapping Improvements

 - Python GetArrayFromImage() and GetImageFromArray() from ITKBridgeNumPy are directly accessible from the Python itk namespace.
 - The itk package loads much faster: individual modules are loaded only when required.
 - Conversion of ITK images from and to NumPy array using Bridge NumPy supports RGB, RGBA, and Vector images.
 - VNL vectors and VNL matrices can be converted from and to NumPy objects with respectively the new couple of functions GetArrayFromVnlVector()/GetVnlVectorFromArray() and GetArrayFromVnlMatrix()/GetVnlMatrixFromArray()
 - The global timestamp is used across all ITK Python modules when built statically
 - Wrap additional classes such as KernelFunctionBase
 - itk_python_add_test CMake function added for Python script testing in ITK modules

• New Remote Modules

 - DVMeshNoise
   - Perturbing mesh vertices with additive gaussian noise
   - http://hdl.handle.net/10380/3567
 - PerformanceBenchmarking
   - Accurate benchmarking of computational performance
   - http://hdl.handle.net/10380/3557
 - PrincipalComponentsAnalysis
   - Principal components analysis of scalar, vector, and mesh vertex data
   - http://hdl.handle.net/10380/3386
 - RLEImage
   - Run-length encoded memory compression scheme for itk::Image
   - http://hdl.handle.net/10380/3562
 - MorphologicalContourInterpolation
   - N-D morphological contour interpolation
   - http://hdl.handle.net/10380/3563
 - GenericLabelInterpolator
   - A generic interpolator for multi-label images
   - http://hdl.handle.net/10380/3506
 - MultipleImageIterator
   - Iterate over multiple images simultaneously
   - http://hdl.handle.net/10380/3455
 - FixedPointInverseDisplacementField
  - Computes inverse displacement field
  - http://hdl.handle.net/10380/3222

• Core Improvements

 - New ITK_TEMPLATE_EXPORT for templated classes resolves cross-binary dynamic_cast on Mac OSX
 - New MersenneTwisterRandomVariateGenerator instances are initialized with different seeds
 - Use compiler feature detection in CMake for C++11 features, etc.
 - New CMake macro itk_module_add_library for creating libraries in ITK modules
 - Improved support for ccache and distcc with CMAKE_<LANG>_COMPILER_LAUNCHER (CMake >=3.4 required)
 - Support for .sha512 ExternalData content links
 - GitHub Pages and data.kitware.com ExternalData repositories added
 - GPGPU system support for C++11
 - Support of new compilers: Visual Studio 15 and XCode 8.2.1 (clang-800.0.42.1)

• Filtering Improvements

 - HessianToObjectnessMeasure moved out of the ITKReview module
 - New UnsharpMaskImageFilter for image edge enhancement

• IO Improvements

 - TransformFactory class has been moved to a separate module
 - Spline order added to BSplineTransform identifier
 - Improved NIFTI orientation support

• Documentation Improvements

 - Updates to the Software Guide, Doxygen, Wiki and Sphinx Examples

• Third Party Library Updates

 - pygccxml updated to v1.8.0
 - VNL updated to latest upstream (2016.07.06)
 - SWIG updated to v3.0.11
 - KWSys updated to latest upstream (2016.11.21)
 - HDF5 updated to v1.8.17
 - SCIFIO updated to latest upstream (2016.12.01)
 - DCMTK updated to 3.6.1_20121012
 - CastXML to latest upstream (2016.01.28)

• Improved Code Coverage -- we are at 85.44%!

 - Jon Haitz-Legarreta's extensive code coverage improvements
 - https://blog.kitware.com/why-should-we-spend-time-writing-tests/