Binary descriptors for OpenCV

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Hi Guix,

I’d like to draw your attention to https://issues.guix.gnu.org/64945.
It’s a patch that adds binary descriptors to OpenCV.

These descriptors are the result of a very expensive computation, which
could be performed with lots of memory and GPUs.  The result is a small
number of very small descriptors in binary format, which OpenCV can use
as an input to a feature detection algorithm.

This is probably one of the simplest cases of machine learning output;
the output is small and compared to other machine learning models
require only a small amount of computation.  But it’s above the
threshold for our build farm and not something we can have users
recompute on install.

The software used to generate these descriptors is freely licensed, and
the descriptors are living in the twilight zone of assets that are not
quite software but clearly not just decorative either.  They are large
arguments to image feature detection algorithms, much like an image mask
would be.

What shall we do with this patch?  Can we accept it or does it cross a
line we don’t want to cross?

-- 
Ricardo