Engineering and Algorithm Design for an Image Processing API: A Technical Report on ITK - the Insight Toolkit

TLDR

Developed from the NLM Visible Human Project, ITK is a free, open‑source API in beta that focuses on 3D medical image segmentation and registration with multimodal, multiresolution, and cross‑platform support. The paper presents the design and implementation of ITK, an API for medical image segmentation and registration, and discusses the authors’ assumptions, design choices, and lessons learned. ITK was developed using modern software engineering practices, notably generic programming with C++ templates, and includes publicly available tools for distributed consortium‑based development. The authors report on their assumptions, design decisions, and lessons learned during ITK’s development.

Abstract

We present the detailed planning and execution of the Insight Toolkit (ITK), an application programmers interface (API) for the segmentation and registration of medical image data. This public resource has been developed through the NLM Visible Human Project, and is in beta test as an open-source software offering under cost-free licensing. The toolkit concentrates on 3D medical data -segmentation and registration algorithms, multimodal and multiresolution capabilities, and portable platform independent support for Windows, Linux/Unix systems. This toolkit was built using current practices in software engineering. Specifically, we embraced the concept of generic programming during the development of these tools, working extensively with C++ templates and the freedom and flexibility they allow. Software development tools for distributed consortium-based code development have been created and are also publicly available. We discuss our assumptions, design decisions, and some lessons learned.