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brainhops.io.transformations.itk.nifti

ITK nonlinear warps stored as NIfTI vector images, in LPS space.

ITK (and therefore ANTs, which writes its warps through ITK) stores a dense displacement field as a NIfTI vector image. Three facts define the encoding, and each one differs from the RAS NIfTI fields of brainhops.io.transformations.nifti:

  1. Layout. The array is five-dimensional: (X, Y, Z, 1, 3) for a 3-D field, (X, Y, 1, 1, 2) for a 2-D one -- the spatial axes, singletons in place of the dimensions the image does not have, and the vector components in the fifth axis. ITK's NiftiImageIO always writes dim[0] = 5 for a vector image, sets dim[4] = 1 when the image has fewer than four dimensions, and stores the components in dim[5].

  2. Intent code. ITK writes NIFTI_INTENT_VECTOR (1007) for a vector image. Since ITK 5.4 it writes NIFTI_INTENT_DISPVECT (1006) instead only when the image's metadata dictionary explicitly asks for it.

  3. Frame of the vectors. The voxel-to-world affine in the header is the usual NIfTI RAS sform/qform: ITK negates the first two rows of its LPS direction and origin when it writes them. The vector values are not converted for a VECTOR (1007) file, so they stay in ITK's LPS physical space. A DISPVECT (1006) file is the exception: since ITK 5.4, ITK flips the first two components of a three-component DISPVECT image between RAS (in the file) and LPS (in memory), both on reading and on writing. It never converts a two-component one.

So, for a point x of the field's grid, an ITK displacement field maps x_lps -> x_lps + u_lps(x). In RAS world, the same displacement is (-u_x, -u_y, u_z).

The same holds in 2-D. ITK negates the x and y rows of the geometry of an image of any dimension when it writes or reads a NIfTI, so a 2-D ITK image lives in (L, P), and a 2-D displacement (u_x, u_y) is (-u_x, -u_y) in (R, A). Both dimensions are read by the same classes; the endpoints are the ITK spaces of the field's dimension, LPSmm in 3-D and (L, P) in millimetres in 2-D -- the spaces the .tfm and .h5 readers use, so a warp and an affine from ITK name the same space.

Sources
  • ITK, Modules/IO/NIFTI/src/itkNiftiImageIO.cxx (WriteImageInformation, SetNIfTIOrientationFromImageIO, ReadImageInformation, and ConvertRASToFromLPS_*), and Modules/IO/NIFTI/include/itkNiftiImageIO.h (ConvertRASVectors, off by default, and ConvertRASDisplacementVectors, on by default, both new in v5.4.0). https://github.com/InsightSoftwareConsortium/ITK/blob/v5.4.0/Modules/IO/NIFTI/src/itkNiftiImageIO.cxx
  • NiTransforms, nitransforms/io/itk.py, ITKDisplacementsField: it requires the (X, Y, Z, 1, 2|3) shape and the vector intent, and it negates components 0 and 1 to go between ITK (LPS) and RAS. https://github.com/nipy/nitransforms/blob/master/nitransforms/io/itk.py
  • ANTs writes the warps of antsRegistration (<prefix><n>Warp.nii.gz, <prefix><n>InverseWarp.nii.gz) with an itk::ImageFileWriter of the displacement field image (itk::ants::WriteTransform, Utilities/itkantsReadWriteTransform.h; file names from RegTypeToFileName, Examples/antsRegistrationTemplateHeader.cxx), so they follow the encoding above. These readers therefore also answer to hint="ants", exactly as they do to hint="itk".
Telling an ITK field from a RAS NIfTI field

NIfTI has no field that says which frame the vector values live in, so the header alone cannot always tell. The readers here are honest about that:

Header Read as, without a hint
VECTOR (1007), ITK's layout ambiguous: AmbiguousFormatError
VECTOR (1007), named "Mapping" RAS coordinates (SPM12, brainhops)
DISPVECT (1006) RAS displacements
no intent (0) RAS coordinates

The RAS readers are NiftiRASCoordinatesField and NiftiRASDisplacementField, in brainhops.io.transformations.nifti.

  • VECTOR is exactly what ITK writes, but it is a generic code that any software may use, and ITK itself does not treat its vectors as spatial by default. So the ITK displacement reader and the RAS reader claim it with equal confidence, and loading such a file without more evidence raises AmbiguousFormatError rather than guessing a frame.
  • The intent name is that evidence when it is "Mapping": SPM12 names its y_ deformations so, and so does brainhops' RAS coordinates writer, while ITK's NiftiImageIO never writes an intent name (and ANTs writes through it). The ITK reader does not claim such a file.
  • An explicit hint decides: load(path, hint="itk") (or "ants") reads the file as an ITK displacement field, whatever its intent code, and hint="itk.coordinates" as an ITK coordinates field. Calling the class directly, ItkNiftiDisplacementField.from_file(path), does the same.
  • DISPVECT and no intent stay with the RAS readers. A DISPVECT file holds RAS displacements, which is also what ITK 5.4 and later assumes of one. Read with a hint, a three-component DISPVECT file has its RAS vectors converted to LPS, as ITK does.
  • ITK and ANTs only ever write displacements. A field of absolute LPS coordinates is never claimed from the file's content, because nothing in a NIfTI header separates it from a displacement field.
  • ANTs' file names (*Warp.nii.gz) are not used as evidence: they are a convention of one program, not of the format.

Two- and three-dimensional fields are supported. ITK can also write a four-dimensional vector image, with its fourth dimension in the NIfTI time axis, but NIfTI has no geometry for that axis, and it is not read.

Classes

ItkNiftiCoordinatesField

ItkNiftiCoordinatesField(
    _transformations: tuple[Transformation, ...]
    | None = None,
)

Bases: ItkNiftiField

Field of LPS coordinates, stored as an ITK NIfTI vector image.

Each voxel holds the absolute LPS position it maps to. The field maps LPS to LPS (or (L, P) to (L, P) in 2-D), as the Sequence of two named slots:

Slot Transformation
lps2voxel LPS world coordinates to the field's voxels
coordinates the field of LPS coordinates, on that grid

ITK and ANTs only write displacement fields, and a NIfTI header cannot say whether its vectors are displacements or positions, so this reader never claims a file from its content. Ask for it with hint="itk.coordinates", or use the class directly.

Attributes

PREFIXES class-attribute
PREFIXES: tuple[str, ...] = ()

Filename prefixes required by this parser, e.g. ("y_", "iy_").

An empty tuple means "no constraint". A parser that constrains the prefix is more specific than one that does not, and wins ties.

Declaring EXTENSIONS and PREFIXES separately states the cross-product implicitly, which is how these conventions actually work: SPM's four names are {y_, iy_} x {.nii, .nii.gz}.

header property writable
header: Nifti1Header | None

The NIfTI header associated with this object.

If a header was explicitly set by the user (at construction or later), this will be pointing to that header.

Otherwise, if the object was created from a NIfTI header, this will be pointing to that header.

Otherwise, if the object was created from a NIfTI image, this will be pointing to the header of that image.

Example

    import nibabel as nb
    image1 = nb.load("image1.nii")
    image2 = nb.load("image2.nii")
    NiftiParser(image1).header                        # `image1.header`
    NiftiParser(header=image2.header).header          # `image2.header`
    NiftiParser(image1, header=image2.header).header  # `image2.header`
    obj = NiftiParser(image1)
    obj.header = image2.header
    obj.header                                        # `image2.header`
data property writable
data: ArrayProtocol | None

The image data, read lazily from image and cached, unless it has been set explicitly.

The axes that the intent code marks as irrelevant, such as a singleton axis before a vector's components, are dropped.

system property writable
system: CoordinateSystem | None

The voxel coordinate system, derived from header, unless it has been set explicitly.

The axes that the intent code marks as irrelevant are dropped. None when there is no header to derive it from.

lps2voxel property
lps2voxel: Transformation | None

The affine from LPS world coordinates to the field's voxels.

PRIORITY class-attribute
PRIORITY: int = -1

Under hint="itk", a file in ITK's layout with another intent than VECTOR is claimed by neither ITK reader, and both match its extension, so the two genuinely tie. ITK and ANTs mean a displacement, so this reader yields to that one.

coordinates property
coordinates: Transformation | None

The field of LPS coordinates, on the field's grid.

Methods:

sniff classmethod
sniff(
    file: FileOrContentLike,
    error: bool | Type[Exception] = False,
    **kwargs,
) -> type | None

On a dispatcher, identify which registered format would read file. On a concrete format, score how confident it is that file, in any supported form, is its own.

sniff_file classmethod
sniff_file(
    file: FileLike,
    error: bool | Type[Exception] = False,
    **kwargs,
) -> type | None

On a dispatcher, identify which registered format would read the file (path or file-like object). On a concrete format, score how confident it is that the file is its own.

sniff_filename classmethod
sniff_filename(
    filename: FilenameLike,
    error: bool | Type[Exception] = False,
    **kwargs,
) -> float

Determine if the given filename is of the type that this parser can handle.

Parameters:

Name Type Description Default
filename FilenameLike

The filename to sniff.

required
error bool | type[Exception]

If not False, raise an error if the filename cannot be sniffed.

False
**kwargs

Parser-specific options.

{}

Returns:

Type Description
float

Confidence that the filename is of this type, in [0, 1].

sniff_fileobj classmethod
sniff_fileobj(
    file: IO,
    error: bool | Type[Exception] = False,
    *,
    version: int | None = None,
    **kwargs,
) -> float

Score how confident the class is that an open file object holds a NIfTI-1 or NIfTI-2 header, or a header of the given version when one is passed.

sniff_content classmethod
sniff_content(
    content: ContentLike,
    error: bool | Type[Exception] = False,
    **kwargs,
) -> type | None

On a dispatcher, identify which registered format would read the content (text or bytes). On a concrete format, score how confident it is that the content is its own.

sniff_bytes classmethod
sniff_bytes(
    data: bytes,
    error: bool | Type[Exception] = False,
    **kwargs,
) -> float

Score how confident the class is that bytes hold a NIfTI-1 or NIfTI-2 header.

sniff_text classmethod
sniff_text(
    text: str,
    error: bool | Type[Exception] = False,
    **kwargs,
) -> type | None

On a dispatcher, identify which registered format would read the text. On a concrete format, score how confident it is that the text is its own.

sniff_lines classmethod
sniff_lines(
    lines: Iterable[str],
    error: bool | Type[Exception] = False,
    **kwargs,
) -> type | None

On a dispatcher, identify which registered format would read the lines. On a concrete format, score how confident it is that the lines are its own.

sniff_line classmethod
sniff_line(
    line: str,
    error: bool | Type[Exception] = False,
    **kwargs,
) -> type | None

On a dispatcher, identify which registered format would read the line. On a concrete format, score how confident it is that the line is its own.

load classmethod
load(other: FileOrContentLike, **kwargs) -> Self

On a dispatcher, pick the best-matching registered format and build an instance of it from other. On a concrete format, build an instance of this class from other, in any supported form.

from_spec classmethod
from_spec(spec: SourceSpec, **kwargs) -> Self

Load a structured source specification through this dispatcher.

from_file classmethod
from_file(file: FileLike, **kwargs) -> Self

Build the object from a NIfTI file.

A local path is handed to nibabel by name, so that it owns the file handle and can memory-map the voxels: its array proxy reads them lazily, long after the call returns. A remote path is opened through its own backend instead, since nibabel would take its name for a local file. See _load_nifti.

from_filename classmethod
from_filename(filename: FilenameLike, **kwargs) -> Self

Build an object from a filename.

Parameters:

Name Type Description Default
filename FilenameLike

The filename to parse.

required
**kwargs

Parser-specific options.

{}

Returns:

Type Description
obj

The parsed object.

from_fileobj classmethod
from_fileobj(fileobj: BinaryIO, **kwargs) -> Self

Build the object from an open NIfTI file object, image data included when the stream allows reading it.

from_content classmethod
from_content(content: ContentLike, **kwargs) -> Self

On a dispatcher, pick the best-matching registered format and build an instance of it from the content (text or bytes). On a concrete format, build an instance of this class from the content.

from_bytes classmethod
from_bytes(data: bytes, **kwargs) -> Self

Build the object from bytes in NIfTI format.

from_text classmethod
from_text(text: str, **kwargs) -> Self

On a dispatcher, pick the best-matching registered format and build an instance of it from the text. On a concrete format, build an instance of this class from the text.

from_lines classmethod
from_lines(lines: Iterable[str], **kwargs) -> Self

On a dispatcher, pick the best-matching registered format and build an instance of it from the lines. On a concrete format, build an instance of this class from the lines.

from_line classmethod
from_line(line: str, **kwargs) -> Self

On a dispatcher, pick the best-matching registered format and build an instance of it from the line. On a concrete format, build an instance of this class from the line.

save
save(file: FileLike, **kwargs) -> None

Write the object to a file (path or file-like object).

This is the generic front door to the to_* family. It is named save rather than to because to already means something else on the data models these parsers are mixed into: Transformation.to converts an object to another type. A writer's to was shadowed by it on every writable transformation.

Parameters:

Name Type Description Default
file FileLike

The file to write to.

required
**kwargs

Parser-specific options.

{}
to_file
to_file(file: FileLike, **kwargs) -> None

Write the object to a NIfTI file.

A path is written gzipped when its name ends in .gz: a local path is handed to nibabel by name, and a remote one is opened through its own backend. See _save_nifti. A file-like object is written the uncompressed NIfTI bytes.

to_filename
to_filename(filename: FilenameLike, **kwargs) -> None

Write the object to a filename.

Parameters:

Name Type Description Default
filename FilenameLike

The filename to write to.

required
**kwargs

Parser-specific options.

{}
to_fileobj
to_fileobj(file: IO, **kwargs) -> None

Write the uncompressed NIfTI-1 encoding of the object to an open file object.

to_bytes
to_bytes(**kwargs) -> bytes

Return the uncompressed NIfTI-1 encoding of the object.

to_text
to_text(**kwargs) -> str

Return a text version of the file.

Parameters:

Name Type Description Default
**kwargs

Parser-specific options.

{}

Returns:

Type Description
str

A text version of the file.

to_lines
to_lines(**kwargs) -> Iterator[str]

Return a text version of the file as an iterable of lines.

Parameters:

Name Type Description Default
**kwargs

Parser-specific options.

{}

Returns:

Type Description
Iterator[str]

An iterable of lines representing the object.

to_line
to_line(**kwargs) -> str

Return a line representing the object.

Parameters:

Name Type Description Default
**kwargs

Parser-specific options.

{}

Returns:

Type Description
str

A line representing the object.

from_dict classmethod
from_dict(other: Mapping, *args, **kwargs) -> Self

Create an instance of the class from a dictionary-like object.

Only keys in the dictionary that match keyword-like fields of this class, or the keywords its constructor takes without storing them (its InitVars, such as the matrix= of an Affine), will be used. Other keys are ignored, but see from_other, which refuses them.

Additional positional and/or keyword arguments can be provided, and will take precedence over the values in the dictionary.

A key naming a field that this class fixes (a field that cannot be passed to its constructor) is checked instead of used: a dictionary that sets it to anything other than None or the value of this class is refused with a ValueError.

from_instance classmethod
from_instance(other: Any, *args, **kwargs) -> Self

Create an instance from an instance of a similar class.

The data model copies the fields both classes share, by name. A field that a file format declares for its own use -- such as the nibabel image and header of the NIfTI and MGH formats -- is only copied from an object of that same format: from any other object, a field of the same name holds something else (a NIfTI image is no MGH image), so this class's default is kept instead. Saving a NIfTI image to MGH, or the converse, therefore converts the data model only, and the format-specific state is rebuilt by the writer.

from_other classmethod
from_other(other: Any, *args, **kwargs) -> Self

Create an instance from a file, or from anything the data model reads.

A path (str or os.PathLike), an open file, bytes or a structured source (SourceSpec) is read with load: on a dispatcher such as FileBasedImage, the best-matching registered format reads it, and on a concrete format, that format does. Any other value is handed to the data model's own from_other, which reads a mapping field by field, copies an instance of a similar class, and passes anything else to the constructor.

Parameters:

Name Type Description Default
other Any

A file, its content, a mapping, or an instance of a similar class.

required
*args

Constructor arguments. A file is read with keyword options only.

()
**kwargs

Format-specific options when reading a file, and field values otherwise.

{}

Returns:

Type Description
obj

The object that was built.

Raises:

Type Description
TypeError

If positional arguments come with a file to read.

from_nibabel classmethod
from_nibabel(nifti: _NiftiObject, **kwargs) -> Self

Build the field from a nibabel header or image.

The header must be in ITK's layout, so a file that is not an ITK field is refused here, from its header alone, rather than when its chain is first built.

sniff_nibabel classmethod
sniff_nibabel(
    nifti: _NiftiObject,
    error: bool | Type[Exception] = False,
    **kwargs,
) -> float

Score how confident the class is that an already-loaded nibabel header or image matches this format.

The header's magic number is checked first. A header that passes is then scored for how well it matches this particular format, as opposed to another kind of NIfTI-based format.

input
input() -> CoordinateSystem | None

The anatomical space the field maps from.

output
output() -> CoordinateSystem | None

The anatomical space the field maps to.

compute
compute(
    mode: ModeLike = True,
    *,
    simplify: SimplifyLike = "analytic",
    factor: bool = False,
) -> Transformation

Compute the resulting transform of the sequence of transformations.

Assuming that mode=True:

  • If all transformations in the sequence are affine-like transformations, compute() returns an affine-like transform.

  • If the first (= rightmost) transform in the sequence is a coordinate field, compute() returns a coordinate field.

  • If the first (= rightmost) transform in the sequence is an affine-like transform, and the sequence contains at least one non-affine-like transform, compute() returns a sequence of two transformations:

  • the composition of all affine-like transformations that appear before the first non-affine-like transform in the sequence, and

  • the composition of all transformations in the sequence, starting from the first non-affine-like transform in the sequence.
Parameters

mode : [list of] name or type, optional Kinds of transformations to compose. * If True (default): compose every kind in the sequence. * If False: compose nothing (simplify-only). * If a (list of) transformation type(s): compose only pairs of transformations of these kinds. simplify : simplify policy, default="analytic" Whether to simplify sub-transformations prior to composition, and how hard to try to simplify them. * "analytic" (the default) looks at the type structure only; * "numeric" looks at the numeric values of the transformation; * False/"none"/None disables simplification. factor : bool, default=False Whether to rewrite the sequence into its axis-group normal form [grid?, F_1..F_m, Pi_perm?]: a leading grid (if any), one axis-preserving subspace factor per group of axes that transform together, and a trailing reindex permutation. Off by default, so the result is byte-for-byte the plain compute() result. Nothing is ever composed across groups; mode still decides whether the restricted pieces inside a group compose. A chain that creates or drops axes is left unfactored. With mode=False nothing is computed, so factor has nothing to act on and is ignored.

simplify
simplify(
    policy: SimplifyLike = "analytic",
    *,
    compute: ModeLike | bool | None = False,
) -> Self

Simplify this transformation under a per-kind policy.

Convenience sugar for compute: t.simplify(policy, compute=mode) is t.compute(mode, simplify=policy).

By default simplify() does no computation at all: compute=False maps to mode=False, which composes nothing (no matrices multiplied, no fields sampled, no lazy inverse materialized). It only downcasts each leaf under policy (analytic by default). Pass an explicit compute=<mode> to also compose that kind.

Parameters:

Name Type Description Default
policy simplify policy

The simplify policy, in the grammar compute accepts.

"analytic"
compute [list of] name or type

The compose mode. The default, False, composes nothing (mode=False in compute); None would compose every kind. A real mode passes straight through.

False
square
square(compute: bool = False, **kwargs) -> Transformation

Return the square of this transformation, self @ self.

The square is the sequence [self, self], which composes when it is computed. It is defined for a transformation that maps a space to itself.

Parameters:

Name Type Description Default
compute bool

Whether to compute the result now rather than return it lazily.

False
**kwargs

Passed to compute when compute is true.

{}

Raises:

Type Description
DomainError

If the transformation does not map a space to itself.

sqrt
sqrt(compute: bool = False, **kwargs) -> Transformation

Return the principal square root of this chain.

The chain is first simplified, which costs nothing. A chain [P, *X, P^-1], where P^-1 is the lazy inverse of P, or both are affines whose product is exactly the identity, is a change of coordinates around X, and its square root is [P, sqrt(X), P^-1]: a field stored in voxels between a world-to-voxel affine and its lazy inverse keeps that form. Any other chain is composed now, and the square root of the transformation it composes to is returned.

Raises:

Type Description
DomainError

If the chain does not map a space to itself, or if the square root of what it reduces to is not defined.

NotImplementedError

If the chain does not compose to a single transformation.

to
to(
    cls: Type[Transformation] | None = None, **kwargs
) -> Transformation

Convert this chain to a different type or encoding.

See Transformation.to. A chain has no tangent of its own -- the tangent of a composition is not the sum of the tangents -- so log= re-encodes the transformation it reduces to, and anything else is refused before it is computed:

  • a chain that simplifies to one transformation is that one;
  • a change of coordinates [P, *X, P^-1] (see sqrt) keeps its ends, and re-encodes X: the flow of a velocity commutes with the conjugation, so this is exact. A velocity read between a world-to-voxel affine and its inverse (|svf) is turned into its displacement that way;
  • a chain of affines is composed, which is cheap and exact.

Any other chain -- one with a field, between ends that do not undo each other -- raises ConversionError.

transformations
transformations() -> tuple[Transformation, ...]

The chain of transformations that the field encodes.

It is built from the NIfTI header and data on first access, and cached. Assigning to it overrides the derived chain.

to_nibabel
to_nibabel(
    like: Any = None, **overrides
) -> Nifti1Image | Nifti2Image

Build the nibabel image of this field of LPS coordinates.

The coordinates are written, unconverted, as a VECTOR (1007) image of shape (X, Y, Z, 1, 3), or (X, Y, 1, 1, 2) in 2-D, and the inverse of the lps2voxel affine becomes a voxel-to-RAS sform and qform.

When like is given, non-encoding header fields are copied from it. Keyword arguments override header fields last.

ItkNiftiDisplacementField

ItkNiftiDisplacementField(
    _transformations: tuple[Transformation, ...]
    | None = None,
)

Bases: ItkNiftiField

ITK displacement field, stored as a NIfTI vector image.

This is how ITK, and ANTs through it, store a dense nonlinear warp, such as antsRegistration's <prefix>1Warp.nii.gz. The field maps LPS to LPS, as x_lps -> x_lps + u_lps(x_lps), and is the Sequence of three named slots that the ITK warp blocks use too:

Slot Transformation
lps2voxel LPS world coordinates to the field's voxels
displacement the displacement field, in voxel units
voxel2lps the field's voxels back to LPS world

The field may be 3-D, stored as (X, Y, Z, 1, 3) and mapping LPS to LPS, or 2-D, stored as (X, Y, 1, 1, 2) and mapping (L, P) to (L, P).

The displacements are interpolated linearly and extended with the nearest value outside the grid, which is the default interpolator of ITK's DisplacementFieldTransform (VectorLinearInterpolateNearestNeighborExtrapolateImageFunction).

A VECTOR (1007) file with ITK's layout is claimed with certainty, but so is it by the RAS NIfTI field reader: the header alone cannot tell the two apart, so loading one without a hint is ambiguous. An explicit hint="itk" (or hint="ants") decides, and also reaches a file in ITK's layout with any other intent code.

Attributes

PREFIXES class-attribute
PREFIXES: tuple[str, ...] = ()

Filename prefixes required by this parser, e.g. ("y_", "iy_").

An empty tuple means "no constraint". A parser that constrains the prefix is more specific than one that does not, and wins ties.

Declaring EXTENSIONS and PREFIXES separately states the cross-product implicitly, which is how these conventions actually work: SPM's four names are {y_, iy_} x {.nii, .nii.gz}.

PRIORITY class-attribute
PRIORITY: int = 0

Explicit tie-breaker, consulted only when specificity cannot decide. Higher wins. Leave at 0 unless two parsers genuinely collide.

header property writable
header: Nifti1Header | None

The NIfTI header associated with this object.

If a header was explicitly set by the user (at construction or later), this will be pointing to that header.

Otherwise, if the object was created from a NIfTI header, this will be pointing to that header.

Otherwise, if the object was created from a NIfTI image, this will be pointing to the header of that image.

Example

    import nibabel as nb
    image1 = nb.load("image1.nii")
    image2 = nb.load("image2.nii")
    NiftiParser(image1).header                        # `image1.header`
    NiftiParser(header=image2.header).header          # `image2.header`
    NiftiParser(image1, header=image2.header).header  # `image2.header`
    obj = NiftiParser(image1)
    obj.header = image2.header
    obj.header                                        # `image2.header`
data property writable
data: ArrayProtocol | None

The image data, read lazily from image and cached, unless it has been set explicitly.

The axes that the intent code marks as irrelevant, such as a singleton axis before a vector's components, are dropped.

system property writable
system: CoordinateSystem | None

The voxel coordinate system, derived from header, unless it has been set explicitly.

The axes that the intent code marks as irrelevant are dropped. None when there is no header to derive it from.

lps2voxel property
lps2voxel: Transformation | None

The affine from LPS world coordinates to the field's voxels.

degree class-attribute
degree: int = 1

The spline degree used to interpolate the field.

bound class-attribute

The boundary condition used outside of the field of view.

displacement property
displacement: Transformation | None

The displacement field, in the voxel units of its grid.

voxel2lps property
voxel2lps: Transformation | None

The affine from the field's voxels back to LPS world.

Methods:

sniff classmethod
sniff(
    file: FileOrContentLike,
    error: bool | Type[Exception] = False,
    **kwargs,
) -> type | None

On a dispatcher, identify which registered format would read file. On a concrete format, score how confident it is that file, in any supported form, is its own.

sniff_file classmethod
sniff_file(
    file: FileLike,
    error: bool | Type[Exception] = False,
    **kwargs,
) -> type | None

On a dispatcher, identify which registered format would read the file (path or file-like object). On a concrete format, score how confident it is that the file is its own.

sniff_filename classmethod
sniff_filename(
    filename: FilenameLike,
    error: bool | Type[Exception] = False,
    **kwargs,
) -> float

Determine if the given filename is of the type that this parser can handle.

Parameters:

Name Type Description Default
filename FilenameLike

The filename to sniff.

required
error bool | type[Exception]

If not False, raise an error if the filename cannot be sniffed.

False
**kwargs

Parser-specific options.

{}

Returns:

Type Description
float

Confidence that the filename is of this type, in [0, 1].

sniff_fileobj classmethod
sniff_fileobj(
    file: IO,
    error: bool | Type[Exception] = False,
    *,
    version: int | None = None,
    **kwargs,
) -> float

Score how confident the class is that an open file object holds a NIfTI-1 or NIfTI-2 header, or a header of the given version when one is passed.

sniff_content classmethod
sniff_content(
    content: ContentLike,
    error: bool | Type[Exception] = False,
    **kwargs,
) -> type | None

On a dispatcher, identify which registered format would read the content (text or bytes). On a concrete format, score how confident it is that the content is its own.

sniff_bytes classmethod
sniff_bytes(
    data: bytes,
    error: bool | Type[Exception] = False,
    **kwargs,
) -> float

Score how confident the class is that bytes hold a NIfTI-1 or NIfTI-2 header.

sniff_text classmethod
sniff_text(
    text: str,
    error: bool | Type[Exception] = False,
    **kwargs,
) -> type | None

On a dispatcher, identify which registered format would read the text. On a concrete format, score how confident it is that the text is its own.

sniff_lines classmethod
sniff_lines(
    lines: Iterable[str],
    error: bool | Type[Exception] = False,
    **kwargs,
) -> type | None

On a dispatcher, identify which registered format would read the lines. On a concrete format, score how confident it is that the lines are its own.

sniff_line classmethod
sniff_line(
    line: str,
    error: bool | Type[Exception] = False,
    **kwargs,
) -> type | None

On a dispatcher, identify which registered format would read the line. On a concrete format, score how confident it is that the line is its own.

load classmethod
load(other: FileOrContentLike, **kwargs) -> Self

On a dispatcher, pick the best-matching registered format and build an instance of it from other. On a concrete format, build an instance of this class from other, in any supported form.

from_spec classmethod
from_spec(spec: SourceSpec, **kwargs) -> Self

Load a structured source specification through this dispatcher.

from_file classmethod
from_file(file: FileLike, **kwargs) -> Self

Build the object from a NIfTI file.

A local path is handed to nibabel by name, so that it owns the file handle and can memory-map the voxels: its array proxy reads them lazily, long after the call returns. A remote path is opened through its own backend instead, since nibabel would take its name for a local file. See _load_nifti.

from_filename classmethod
from_filename(filename: FilenameLike, **kwargs) -> Self

Build an object from a filename.

Parameters:

Name Type Description Default
filename FilenameLike

The filename to parse.

required
**kwargs

Parser-specific options.

{}

Returns:

Type Description
obj

The parsed object.

from_fileobj classmethod
from_fileobj(fileobj: BinaryIO, **kwargs) -> Self

Build the object from an open NIfTI file object, image data included when the stream allows reading it.

from_content classmethod
from_content(content: ContentLike, **kwargs) -> Self

On a dispatcher, pick the best-matching registered format and build an instance of it from the content (text or bytes). On a concrete format, build an instance of this class from the content.

from_bytes classmethod
from_bytes(data: bytes, **kwargs) -> Self

Build the object from bytes in NIfTI format.

from_text classmethod
from_text(text: str, **kwargs) -> Self

On a dispatcher, pick the best-matching registered format and build an instance of it from the text. On a concrete format, build an instance of this class from the text.

from_lines classmethod
from_lines(lines: Iterable[str], **kwargs) -> Self

On a dispatcher, pick the best-matching registered format and build an instance of it from the lines. On a concrete format, build an instance of this class from the lines.

from_line classmethod
from_line(line: str, **kwargs) -> Self

On a dispatcher, pick the best-matching registered format and build an instance of it from the line. On a concrete format, build an instance of this class from the line.

save
save(file: FileLike, **kwargs) -> None

Write the object to a file (path or file-like object).

This is the generic front door to the to_* family. It is named save rather than to because to already means something else on the data models these parsers are mixed into: Transformation.to converts an object to another type. A writer's to was shadowed by it on every writable transformation.

Parameters:

Name Type Description Default
file FileLike

The file to write to.

required
**kwargs

Parser-specific options.

{}
to_file
to_file(file: FileLike, **kwargs) -> None

Write the object to a NIfTI file.

A path is written gzipped when its name ends in .gz: a local path is handed to nibabel by name, and a remote one is opened through its own backend. See _save_nifti. A file-like object is written the uncompressed NIfTI bytes.

to_filename
to_filename(filename: FilenameLike, **kwargs) -> None

Write the object to a filename.

Parameters:

Name Type Description Default
filename FilenameLike

The filename to write to.

required
**kwargs

Parser-specific options.

{}
to_fileobj
to_fileobj(file: IO, **kwargs) -> None

Write the uncompressed NIfTI-1 encoding of the object to an open file object.

to_bytes
to_bytes(**kwargs) -> bytes

Return the uncompressed NIfTI-1 encoding of the object.

to_text
to_text(**kwargs) -> str

Return a text version of the file.

Parameters:

Name Type Description Default
**kwargs

Parser-specific options.

{}

Returns:

Type Description
str

A text version of the file.

to_lines
to_lines(**kwargs) -> Iterator[str]

Return a text version of the file as an iterable of lines.

Parameters:

Name Type Description Default
**kwargs

Parser-specific options.

{}

Returns:

Type Description
Iterator[str]

An iterable of lines representing the object.

to_line
to_line(**kwargs) -> str

Return a line representing the object.

Parameters:

Name Type Description Default
**kwargs

Parser-specific options.

{}

Returns:

Type Description
str

A line representing the object.

from_dict classmethod
from_dict(other: Mapping, *args, **kwargs) -> Self

Create an instance of the class from a dictionary-like object.

Only keys in the dictionary that match keyword-like fields of this class, or the keywords its constructor takes without storing them (its InitVars, such as the matrix= of an Affine), will be used. Other keys are ignored, but see from_other, which refuses them.

Additional positional and/or keyword arguments can be provided, and will take precedence over the values in the dictionary.

A key naming a field that this class fixes (a field that cannot be passed to its constructor) is checked instead of used: a dictionary that sets it to anything other than None or the value of this class is refused with a ValueError.

from_instance classmethod
from_instance(other: Any, *args, **kwargs) -> Self

Create an instance from an instance of a similar class.

The data model copies the fields both classes share, by name. A field that a file format declares for its own use -- such as the nibabel image and header of the NIfTI and MGH formats -- is only copied from an object of that same format: from any other object, a field of the same name holds something else (a NIfTI image is no MGH image), so this class's default is kept instead. Saving a NIfTI image to MGH, or the converse, therefore converts the data model only, and the format-specific state is rebuilt by the writer.

from_other classmethod
from_other(other: Any, *args, **kwargs) -> Self

Create an instance from a file, or from anything the data model reads.

A path (str or os.PathLike), an open file, bytes or a structured source (SourceSpec) is read with load: on a dispatcher such as FileBasedImage, the best-matching registered format reads it, and on a concrete format, that format does. Any other value is handed to the data model's own from_other, which reads a mapping field by field, copies an instance of a similar class, and passes anything else to the constructor.

Parameters:

Name Type Description Default
other Any

A file, its content, a mapping, or an instance of a similar class.

required
*args

Constructor arguments. A file is read with keyword options only.

()
**kwargs

Format-specific options when reading a file, and field values otherwise.

{}

Returns:

Type Description
obj

The object that was built.

Raises:

Type Description
TypeError

If positional arguments come with a file to read.

from_nibabel classmethod
from_nibabel(nifti: _NiftiObject, **kwargs) -> Self

Build the field from a nibabel header or image.

The header must be in ITK's layout, so a file that is not an ITK field is refused here, from its header alone, rather than when its chain is first built.

sniff_nibabel classmethod
sniff_nibabel(
    nifti: _NiftiObject,
    error: bool | Type[Exception] = False,
    **kwargs,
) -> float

Score how confident the class is that an already-loaded nibabel header or image matches this format.

The header's magic number is checked first. A header that passes is then scored for how well it matches this particular format, as opposed to another kind of NIfTI-based format.

input
input() -> CoordinateSystem | None

The anatomical space the field maps from.

output
output() -> CoordinateSystem | None

The anatomical space the field maps to.

compute
compute(
    mode: ModeLike = True,
    *,
    simplify: SimplifyLike = "analytic",
    factor: bool = False,
) -> Transformation

Compute the resulting transform of the sequence of transformations.

Assuming that mode=True:

  • If all transformations in the sequence are affine-like transformations, compute() returns an affine-like transform.

  • If the first (= rightmost) transform in the sequence is a coordinate field, compute() returns a coordinate field.

  • If the first (= rightmost) transform in the sequence is an affine-like transform, and the sequence contains at least one non-affine-like transform, compute() returns a sequence of two transformations:

  • the composition of all affine-like transformations that appear before the first non-affine-like transform in the sequence, and

  • the composition of all transformations in the sequence, starting from the first non-affine-like transform in the sequence.
Parameters

mode : [list of] name or type, optional Kinds of transformations to compose. * If True (default): compose every kind in the sequence. * If False: compose nothing (simplify-only). * If a (list of) transformation type(s): compose only pairs of transformations of these kinds. simplify : simplify policy, default="analytic" Whether to simplify sub-transformations prior to composition, and how hard to try to simplify them. * "analytic" (the default) looks at the type structure only; * "numeric" looks at the numeric values of the transformation; * False/"none"/None disables simplification. factor : bool, default=False Whether to rewrite the sequence into its axis-group normal form [grid?, F_1..F_m, Pi_perm?]: a leading grid (if any), one axis-preserving subspace factor per group of axes that transform together, and a trailing reindex permutation. Off by default, so the result is byte-for-byte the plain compute() result. Nothing is ever composed across groups; mode still decides whether the restricted pieces inside a group compose. A chain that creates or drops axes is left unfactored. With mode=False nothing is computed, so factor has nothing to act on and is ignored.

simplify
simplify(
    policy: SimplifyLike = "analytic",
    *,
    compute: ModeLike | bool | None = False,
) -> Self

Simplify this transformation under a per-kind policy.

Convenience sugar for compute: t.simplify(policy, compute=mode) is t.compute(mode, simplify=policy).

By default simplify() does no computation at all: compute=False maps to mode=False, which composes nothing (no matrices multiplied, no fields sampled, no lazy inverse materialized). It only downcasts each leaf under policy (analytic by default). Pass an explicit compute=<mode> to also compose that kind.

Parameters:

Name Type Description Default
policy simplify policy

The simplify policy, in the grammar compute accepts.

"analytic"
compute [list of] name or type

The compose mode. The default, False, composes nothing (mode=False in compute); None would compose every kind. A real mode passes straight through.

False
square
square(compute: bool = False, **kwargs) -> Transformation

Return the square of this transformation, self @ self.

The square is the sequence [self, self], which composes when it is computed. It is defined for a transformation that maps a space to itself.

Parameters:

Name Type Description Default
compute bool

Whether to compute the result now rather than return it lazily.

False
**kwargs

Passed to compute when compute is true.

{}

Raises:

Type Description
DomainError

If the transformation does not map a space to itself.

sqrt
sqrt(compute: bool = False, **kwargs) -> Transformation

Return the principal square root of this chain.

The chain is first simplified, which costs nothing. A chain [P, *X, P^-1], where P^-1 is the lazy inverse of P, or both are affines whose product is exactly the identity, is a change of coordinates around X, and its square root is [P, sqrt(X), P^-1]: a field stored in voxels between a world-to-voxel affine and its lazy inverse keeps that form. Any other chain is composed now, and the square root of the transformation it composes to is returned.

Raises:

Type Description
DomainError

If the chain does not map a space to itself, or if the square root of what it reduces to is not defined.

NotImplementedError

If the chain does not compose to a single transformation.

to
to(
    cls: Type[Transformation] | None = None, **kwargs
) -> Transformation

Convert this chain to a different type or encoding.

See Transformation.to. A chain has no tangent of its own -- the tangent of a composition is not the sum of the tangents -- so log= re-encodes the transformation it reduces to, and anything else is refused before it is computed:

  • a chain that simplifies to one transformation is that one;
  • a change of coordinates [P, *X, P^-1] (see sqrt) keeps its ends, and re-encodes X: the flow of a velocity commutes with the conjugation, so this is exact. A velocity read between a world-to-voxel affine and its inverse (|svf) is turned into its displacement that way;
  • a chain of affines is composed, which is cheap and exact.

Any other chain -- one with a field, between ends that do not undo each other -- raises ConversionError.

transformations
transformations() -> tuple[Transformation, ...]

The chain of transformations that the field encodes.

It is built from the NIfTI header and data on first access, and cached. Assigning to it overrides the derived chain, which is how a field that was not read from a file is built.

to_nibabel
to_nibabel(
    like: Any = None, **overrides
) -> Nifti1Image | Nifti2Image

Build the nibabel image that ITK would write for this field.

The displacements are rotated from voxel units back into LPS millimetres and written, unconverted, as a VECTOR (1007) image of shape (X, Y, Z, 1, 3), or (X, Y, 1, 1, 2) in 2-D. The grid's voxel-to-LPS affine becomes a voxel-to-RAS sform and qform.

When like is given, non-encoding header fields are copied from it. Keyword arguments override header fields last.

ItkNiftiField

ItkNiftiField(
    _transformations: tuple[Transformation, ...]
    | None = None,
)

Bases: ImmutableSequence, NiftiBasedTransformation

A field stored in an ITK NIfTI vector image, from LPS to LPS.

The vectors of the image are in ITK's LPS physical space, while the NIfTI header carries the usual voxel-to-RAS affine. This base reads both, and leaves to its subclasses what the vectors mean: displacements (ItkNiftiDisplacementField) or absolute coordinates (ItkNiftiCoordinatesField).

The same code reads 2-D and 3-D fields: the dimension is read off the header, and the endpoints are the ITK spaces of that dimension -- (L, P) in 2-D and LPSmm in 3-D, both in millimetres.

The chain is made of named slots, so the field is an ImmutableSequence: editing it in place raises TypeError.

Abstract: it is not decorated with @register_format, so it never takes part in dispatch.

Attributes

PREFIXES class-attribute
PREFIXES: tuple[str, ...] = ()

Filename prefixes required by this parser, e.g. ("y_", "iy_").

An empty tuple means "no constraint". A parser that constrains the prefix is more specific than one that does not, and wins ties.

Declaring EXTENSIONS and PREFIXES separately states the cross-product implicitly, which is how these conventions actually work: SPM's four names are {y_, iy_} x {.nii, .nii.gz}.

PRIORITY class-attribute
PRIORITY: int = 0

Explicit tie-breaker, consulted only when specificity cannot decide. Higher wins. Leave at 0 unless two parsers genuinely collide.

header property writable
header: Nifti1Header | None

The NIfTI header associated with this object.

If a header was explicitly set by the user (at construction or later), this will be pointing to that header.

Otherwise, if the object was created from a NIfTI header, this will be pointing to that header.

Otherwise, if the object was created from a NIfTI image, this will be pointing to the header of that image.

Example

    import nibabel as nb
    image1 = nb.load("image1.nii")
    image2 = nb.load("image2.nii")
    NiftiParser(image1).header                        # `image1.header`
    NiftiParser(header=image2.header).header          # `image2.header`
    NiftiParser(image1, header=image2.header).header  # `image2.header`
    obj = NiftiParser(image1)
    obj.header = image2.header
    obj.header                                        # `image2.header`
data property writable
data: ArrayProtocol | None

The image data, read lazily from image and cached, unless it has been set explicitly.

The axes that the intent code marks as irrelevant, such as a singleton axis before a vector's components, are dropped.

system property writable
system: CoordinateSystem | None

The voxel coordinate system, derived from header, unless it has been set explicitly.

The axes that the intent code marks as irrelevant are dropped. None when there is no header to derive it from.

lps2voxel property
lps2voxel: Transformation | None

The affine from LPS world coordinates to the field's voxels.

Methods:

sniff classmethod
sniff(
    file: FileOrContentLike,
    error: bool | Type[Exception] = False,
    **kwargs,
) -> type | None

On a dispatcher, identify which registered format would read file. On a concrete format, score how confident it is that file, in any supported form, is its own.

sniff_file classmethod
sniff_file(
    file: FileLike,
    error: bool | Type[Exception] = False,
    **kwargs,
) -> type | None

On a dispatcher, identify which registered format would read the file (path or file-like object). On a concrete format, score how confident it is that the file is its own.

sniff_filename classmethod
sniff_filename(
    filename: FilenameLike,
    error: bool | Type[Exception] = False,
    **kwargs,
) -> float

Determine if the given filename is of the type that this parser can handle.

Parameters:

Name Type Description Default
filename FilenameLike

The filename to sniff.

required
error bool | type[Exception]

If not False, raise an error if the filename cannot be sniffed.

False
**kwargs

Parser-specific options.

{}

Returns:

Type Description
float

Confidence that the filename is of this type, in [0, 1].

sniff_fileobj classmethod
sniff_fileobj(
    file: IO,
    error: bool | Type[Exception] = False,
    *,
    version: int | None = None,
    **kwargs,
) -> float

Score how confident the class is that an open file object holds a NIfTI-1 or NIfTI-2 header, or a header of the given version when one is passed.

sniff_content classmethod
sniff_content(
    content: ContentLike,
    error: bool | Type[Exception] = False,
    **kwargs,
) -> type | None

On a dispatcher, identify which registered format would read the content (text or bytes). On a concrete format, score how confident it is that the content is its own.

sniff_bytes classmethod
sniff_bytes(
    data: bytes,
    error: bool | Type[Exception] = False,
    **kwargs,
) -> float

Score how confident the class is that bytes hold a NIfTI-1 or NIfTI-2 header.

sniff_text classmethod
sniff_text(
    text: str,
    error: bool | Type[Exception] = False,
    **kwargs,
) -> type | None

On a dispatcher, identify which registered format would read the text. On a concrete format, score how confident it is that the text is its own.

sniff_lines classmethod
sniff_lines(
    lines: Iterable[str],
    error: bool | Type[Exception] = False,
    **kwargs,
) -> type | None

On a dispatcher, identify which registered format would read the lines. On a concrete format, score how confident it is that the lines are its own.

sniff_line classmethod
sniff_line(
    line: str,
    error: bool | Type[Exception] = False,
    **kwargs,
) -> type | None

On a dispatcher, identify which registered format would read the line. On a concrete format, score how confident it is that the line is its own.

load classmethod
load(other: FileOrContentLike, **kwargs) -> Self

On a dispatcher, pick the best-matching registered format and build an instance of it from other. On a concrete format, build an instance of this class from other, in any supported form.

from_spec classmethod
from_spec(spec: SourceSpec, **kwargs) -> Self

Load a structured source specification through this dispatcher.

from_file classmethod
from_file(file: FileLike, **kwargs) -> Self

Build the object from a NIfTI file.

A local path is handed to nibabel by name, so that it owns the file handle and can memory-map the voxels: its array proxy reads them lazily, long after the call returns. A remote path is opened through its own backend instead, since nibabel would take its name for a local file. See _load_nifti.

from_filename classmethod
from_filename(filename: FilenameLike, **kwargs) -> Self

Build an object from a filename.

Parameters:

Name Type Description Default
filename FilenameLike

The filename to parse.

required
**kwargs

Parser-specific options.

{}

Returns:

Type Description
obj

The parsed object.

from_fileobj classmethod
from_fileobj(fileobj: BinaryIO, **kwargs) -> Self

Build the object from an open NIfTI file object, image data included when the stream allows reading it.

from_content classmethod
from_content(content: ContentLike, **kwargs) -> Self

On a dispatcher, pick the best-matching registered format and build an instance of it from the content (text or bytes). On a concrete format, build an instance of this class from the content.

from_bytes classmethod
from_bytes(data: bytes, **kwargs) -> Self

Build the object from bytes in NIfTI format.

from_text classmethod
from_text(text: str, **kwargs) -> Self

On a dispatcher, pick the best-matching registered format and build an instance of it from the text. On a concrete format, build an instance of this class from the text.

from_lines classmethod
from_lines(lines: Iterable[str], **kwargs) -> Self

On a dispatcher, pick the best-matching registered format and build an instance of it from the lines. On a concrete format, build an instance of this class from the lines.

from_line classmethod
from_line(line: str, **kwargs) -> Self

On a dispatcher, pick the best-matching registered format and build an instance of it from the line. On a concrete format, build an instance of this class from the line.

save
save(file: FileLike, **kwargs) -> None

Write the object to a file (path or file-like object).

This is the generic front door to the to_* family. It is named save rather than to because to already means something else on the data models these parsers are mixed into: Transformation.to converts an object to another type. A writer's to was shadowed by it on every writable transformation.

Parameters:

Name Type Description Default
file FileLike

The file to write to.

required
**kwargs

Parser-specific options.

{}
to_file
to_file(file: FileLike, **kwargs) -> None

Write the object to a NIfTI file.

A path is written gzipped when its name ends in .gz: a local path is handed to nibabel by name, and a remote one is opened through its own backend. See _save_nifti. A file-like object is written the uncompressed NIfTI bytes.

to_filename
to_filename(filename: FilenameLike, **kwargs) -> None

Write the object to a filename.

Parameters:

Name Type Description Default
filename FilenameLike

The filename to write to.

required
**kwargs

Parser-specific options.

{}
to_fileobj
to_fileobj(file: IO, **kwargs) -> None

Write the uncompressed NIfTI-1 encoding of the object to an open file object.

to_bytes
to_bytes(**kwargs) -> bytes

Return the uncompressed NIfTI-1 encoding of the object.

to_text
to_text(**kwargs) -> str

Return a text version of the file.

Parameters:

Name Type Description Default
**kwargs

Parser-specific options.

{}

Returns:

Type Description
str

A text version of the file.

to_lines
to_lines(**kwargs) -> Iterator[str]

Return a text version of the file as an iterable of lines.

Parameters:

Name Type Description Default
**kwargs

Parser-specific options.

{}

Returns:

Type Description
Iterator[str]

An iterable of lines representing the object.

to_line
to_line(**kwargs) -> str

Return a line representing the object.

Parameters:

Name Type Description Default
**kwargs

Parser-specific options.

{}

Returns:

Type Description
str

A line representing the object.

from_dict classmethod
from_dict(other: Mapping, *args, **kwargs) -> Self

Create an instance of the class from a dictionary-like object.

Only keys in the dictionary that match keyword-like fields of this class, or the keywords its constructor takes without storing them (its InitVars, such as the matrix= of an Affine), will be used. Other keys are ignored, but see from_other, which refuses them.

Additional positional and/or keyword arguments can be provided, and will take precedence over the values in the dictionary.

A key naming a field that this class fixes (a field that cannot be passed to its constructor) is checked instead of used: a dictionary that sets it to anything other than None or the value of this class is refused with a ValueError.

from_instance classmethod
from_instance(other: Any, *args, **kwargs) -> Self

Create an instance from an instance of a similar class.

The data model copies the fields both classes share, by name. A field that a file format declares for its own use -- such as the nibabel image and header of the NIfTI and MGH formats -- is only copied from an object of that same format: from any other object, a field of the same name holds something else (a NIfTI image is no MGH image), so this class's default is kept instead. Saving a NIfTI image to MGH, or the converse, therefore converts the data model only, and the format-specific state is rebuilt by the writer.

from_other classmethod
from_other(other: Any, *args, **kwargs) -> Self

Create an instance from a file, or from anything the data model reads.

A path (str or os.PathLike), an open file, bytes or a structured source (SourceSpec) is read with load: on a dispatcher such as FileBasedImage, the best-matching registered format reads it, and on a concrete format, that format does. Any other value is handed to the data model's own from_other, which reads a mapping field by field, copies an instance of a similar class, and passes anything else to the constructor.

Parameters:

Name Type Description Default
other Any

A file, its content, a mapping, or an instance of a similar class.

required
*args

Constructor arguments. A file is read with keyword options only.

()
**kwargs

Format-specific options when reading a file, and field values otherwise.

{}

Returns:

Type Description
obj

The object that was built.

Raises:

Type Description
TypeError

If positional arguments come with a file to read.

to_nibabel
to_nibabel(**kwargs) -> Nifti1Image

Build the nibabel image that encodes this object.

Each concrete NIfTI format overrides this method to describe how its own contents map onto a NIfTI image. The other writer methods are defined in terms of this one.

sniff_nibabel classmethod
sniff_nibabel(
    nifti: _NiftiObject,
    error: bool | Type[Exception] = False,
    **kwargs,
) -> float

Score how confident the class is that an already-loaded nibabel header or image matches this format.

The header's magic number is checked first. A header that passes is then scored for how well it matches this particular format, as opposed to another kind of NIfTI-based format.

compute
compute(
    mode: ModeLike = True,
    *,
    simplify: SimplifyLike = "analytic",
    factor: bool = False,
) -> Transformation

Compute the resulting transform of the sequence of transformations.

Assuming that mode=True:

  • If all transformations in the sequence are affine-like transformations, compute() returns an affine-like transform.

  • If the first (= rightmost) transform in the sequence is a coordinate field, compute() returns a coordinate field.

  • If the first (= rightmost) transform in the sequence is an affine-like transform, and the sequence contains at least one non-affine-like transform, compute() returns a sequence of two transformations:

  • the composition of all affine-like transformations that appear before the first non-affine-like transform in the sequence, and

  • the composition of all transformations in the sequence, starting from the first non-affine-like transform in the sequence.
Parameters

mode : [list of] name or type, optional Kinds of transformations to compose. * If True (default): compose every kind in the sequence. * If False: compose nothing (simplify-only). * If a (list of) transformation type(s): compose only pairs of transformations of these kinds. simplify : simplify policy, default="analytic" Whether to simplify sub-transformations prior to composition, and how hard to try to simplify them. * "analytic" (the default) looks at the type structure only; * "numeric" looks at the numeric values of the transformation; * False/"none"/None disables simplification. factor : bool, default=False Whether to rewrite the sequence into its axis-group normal form [grid?, F_1..F_m, Pi_perm?]: a leading grid (if any), one axis-preserving subspace factor per group of axes that transform together, and a trailing reindex permutation. Off by default, so the result is byte-for-byte the plain compute() result. Nothing is ever composed across groups; mode still decides whether the restricted pieces inside a group compose. A chain that creates or drops axes is left unfactored. With mode=False nothing is computed, so factor has nothing to act on and is ignored.

simplify
simplify(
    policy: SimplifyLike = "analytic",
    *,
    compute: ModeLike | bool | None = False,
) -> Self

Simplify this transformation under a per-kind policy.

Convenience sugar for compute: t.simplify(policy, compute=mode) is t.compute(mode, simplify=policy).

By default simplify() does no computation at all: compute=False maps to mode=False, which composes nothing (no matrices multiplied, no fields sampled, no lazy inverse materialized). It only downcasts each leaf under policy (analytic by default). Pass an explicit compute=<mode> to also compose that kind.

Parameters:

Name Type Description Default
policy simplify policy

The simplify policy, in the grammar compute accepts.

"analytic"
compute [list of] name or type

The compose mode. The default, False, composes nothing (mode=False in compute); None would compose every kind. A real mode passes straight through.

False
square
square(compute: bool = False, **kwargs) -> Transformation

Return the square of this transformation, self @ self.

The square is the sequence [self, self], which composes when it is computed. It is defined for a transformation that maps a space to itself.

Parameters:

Name Type Description Default
compute bool

Whether to compute the result now rather than return it lazily.

False
**kwargs

Passed to compute when compute is true.

{}

Raises:

Type Description
DomainError

If the transformation does not map a space to itself.

sqrt
sqrt(compute: bool = False, **kwargs) -> Transformation

Return the principal square root of this chain.

The chain is first simplified, which costs nothing. A chain [P, *X, P^-1], where P^-1 is the lazy inverse of P, or both are affines whose product is exactly the identity, is a change of coordinates around X, and its square root is [P, sqrt(X), P^-1]: a field stored in voxels between a world-to-voxel affine and its lazy inverse keeps that form. Any other chain is composed now, and the square root of the transformation it composes to is returned.

Raises:

Type Description
DomainError

If the chain does not map a space to itself, or if the square root of what it reduces to is not defined.

NotImplementedError

If the chain does not compose to a single transformation.

to
to(
    cls: Type[Transformation] | None = None, **kwargs
) -> Transformation

Convert this chain to a different type or encoding.

See Transformation.to. A chain has no tangent of its own -- the tangent of a composition is not the sum of the tangents -- so log= re-encodes the transformation it reduces to, and anything else is refused before it is computed:

  • a chain that simplifies to one transformation is that one;
  • a change of coordinates [P, *X, P^-1] (see sqrt) keeps its ends, and re-encodes X: the flow of a velocity commutes with the conjugation, so this is exact. A velocity read between a world-to-voxel affine and its inverse (|svf) is turned into its displacement that way;
  • a chain of affines is composed, which is cheap and exact.

Any other chain -- one with a field, between ends that do not undo each other -- raises ConversionError.

from_nibabel classmethod
from_nibabel(nifti: _NiftiObject, **kwargs) -> Self

Build the field from a nibabel header or image.

The header must be in ITK's layout, so a file that is not an ITK field is refused here, from its header alone, rather than when its chain is first built.

input
input() -> CoordinateSystem | None

The anatomical space the field maps from.

output
output() -> CoordinateSystem | None

The anatomical space the field maps to.