Open3D is Joining 2019 Google Season of Docs

Open3D is Joining 2019 Google Season of Docs

News: We're proud to announce that Open3D is selected as one of the participating open-source projects for 2019 Google Season of Docs (GSoD) program. We're recruiting 1-2 technical writers for this project via the program. By participating in GSoD with Open3D, you'll spend three months working closely with the Open3D team, learn about this state-of-the-art 3D data processing library, build up your open-source contribution, and receive stipends. Star Open3D on GitHub and apply today! Please read this blog post for project ideas. To apply, please (1) fill this application survey form and (2) visit GSoD official site for GSoD application instructions. Contact us if you have any questions! 

 

Links:
(1) Google Season of Docs (GSoD): https://developers.google.com/season-of-docs
(2) Timelines: https://developers.google.com/season-of-docs/docs/timeline
(3) Stipends ($6,000 USD equivalent): https://developers.google.com/season-of-docs/docs/tech-writer-stipends
(4) Open3D blog post for project ideas: http://www.open3d.org/index.php/2019/04/11/season-of-docs-for-open3d
(5) Fill out this survey from: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdYZJuYTsBV8C0Ta6cXPJgWqTsnd0l19rIAR9Xr7dBPt0Ftqw/viewform?usp=sf_link . You'll also need to apply through the GSoD official site as well.

 

 

1. Project description

Open3D is an open-source library that supports rapid development of software that deals with 3D data. The Open3D frontend exposes a set of carefully selected data structures and algorithms in both C++ and Python. The backend is highly optimized and is set up for parallelization. Open3D was developed from a clean slate with a small and carefully considered set of dependencies. It can be set up on different platforms and compiled from source with minimal effort. The code is clean, consistently styled, and maintained via a clear code review mechanism. Open3D has been used in a number of published research projects and is actively deployed in the cloud. We welcome contributions from the open-source community.

You can see the progress of Open3D through the different video releases we have published:

 

2. Organization

Open3D lives under the umbrella of the non-profit Open Source Vision Foundation (OSVF.org). OSVF provides support with the administration and coordination of the resources needed for the development of Open3D. The Open3D project has originally created within the Intelligent Systems Lab (ISL) at Intel, and the development of Open3D is still done in collaboration with ISL.

The main contributors of Open3D are:

The management of the project is done by German Ros and Vladlen Koltun.

3. Relevant links

  • Github repository [link]
  • Documentation page [link]
  • Contact e-mail [link]
  • Chat with us via Discord [link]
  • YouTube channel [link]

4. Project ideas

Below you can find our proposed ideas to improve Open3D documentation. Please, feel free to contact us to propose alternative ideas or changes to the current ideas. During the 3-month period, you're expected to complete 3 or more of the following projects.

  • Project 1 name: Upgrade and extend Open3D contributor’s guide
  • Description: Contributor’s guides are the main entry point to collaborate in an open source project. This project requires the creation of a new contributor’s guide that explains step-by-step how contributors can send their contributions to Open3D. These steps include:
    • How to find the current road map of Open3D and which features may be interesting
    • How to prepare a pull request to Open3D
    • How to interact with reviewers
    • What are the standards used by Open3D
  • Related material:
    • The current version of the contributor’s guide can be found here.
  • Project 2 name: Complete Python API documentation
  • Description: Open3D is a multi-language library, that has support for both C++ and Python. There is an initial version of the Python documentation done using Sphinx, which contains basic docstrings for each method and class of Open3D. In this project, we would like to extend the docstrings in a way that makes the functionality clearer, by rephrasing and extending the existing.
  • Related material:
    • The current version of the Python API documentation can be found here.
  • Project 3 name: Complete C++ API documentation
  • Description: Open3D is a multi-language library, that has support for both C++ and Python. There is an initial version of the Python documentation done using Sphinx http://www.open3d.org/docs/index.html#python-api-index. However, C++ documentation has not been completed for the most part of the library. C++ documentation is generated by Doxygen with docstring in the source code. In this project, we would like to fill in missing C++ docstrings, with the reference of Python docstrings.
  • Related material:
  • Project 4 name: High-level docs of core data structures
  • Description: Open3D implements several core data structures, such as PointCloud, TriangleMesh, VoxelGrid, LineSet, Octree, camera parameters and etc. Making sure that users understand the main concepts and usage of the data structures is central to the Open3D library. The current documentation we have is organized as tutorials, which is not well-structured for reference. The scope of this project includes:
    • Review current tutorial documentation at http://www.open3d.org/docs/tutorial/Basic/index.html and get familiar with the basic data structures.
    • Refactor the tutorials structured around each data structure.
    • For each data structure, provide a high-level overview, data structure API and example usage details.
  • Related material:
    • The current version of the contributor’s guide can be found here.
  • Project 5 name: Documentation of high-level users’ use cases, aka How-to do X using Open3D
  • Description: We would like to provide a section in our official documentation explaining how to perform basic functionalities using the Open3D library. Most of this information already exists within the current documentation, but it needs to be refactored and adapted to follow a common format. Examples of these functionalities would be:
    • How to load and visualize a point cloud using Open3D?
    • How to create an Octree from a Point cloud?
    • How to use your own camera poses for point cloud visualization?
    • Etc.
  • Related material:
    • Examples of these use cases can be seen here.

5. Mentors and point of contact

  • Technical writers will be mentored by two key contributors to Open3D, Yixing Lao, and Qian-Yi Zhou. Both Yixing and Qian-Yi have a deep understanding of the Open3D project as well as the process of automatic generation of documentation. They are both recognized industry leaders and their mentoring will definitely be a positive influence for technical writers.
  • If you would like to help us to improve our documentation, please contact German Ros [mail]