Alpha Release 0.12.0-alpha.4 of Strand Camera and Braid

[Andrew Straw]

I would like to announce the alpha release of Strand Camera and Braid 0.12.0-alpha.4. These programs are meant for low-latency tracking of animals with single cameras (Strand Camera) or multiple cameras (Braid). The release is available at https://github.com/strawlab/strand-braid/releases/tag/0.12.0-alpha.4 .

Please report any bugs or other issues at https://github.com/strawlab/strand-braid/issues and please use this Google Group https://groups.google.com/g/multicams for more general discussion.

Here is a copy of the changelog for this release:

## 0.12.0 - 2024-01-31

Changes since 0.11.0 are listed. This is a pre-release and has not been fully tested.

### Added

* Support for saving video .mp4 files in Strand Camera, `braid-process-video`,
  `strand-convert`, and other utilities. Video is encoded with the H.264 codec
  and metadata, including precise timestamps, are stored in the h264 stream. To
  do compression, the [openh264 encoder](https://github.com/cisco/openh264) is
  always available. With [appropriate NVENC
  hardware](https://developer.nvidia.com/video-encode-and-decode-gpu-support-matrix-new),
  hardware-accelerated encoding is also supported.
* Added support from Allied Vision Technologies cameras using the Vimba driver.
  In the braid .toml configuration file, specify the camera with `start_backend =
  "vimba"`.
* Braid can now start saving MP4 files in all cameras with a single button.
  Furthermore, additional support for post-triggering of all cameras can be
  done.
* Added support to save raw, uncompressed video to the MP4 container format.
* Save camera gamma to MP4 files.
* Strand Cam defaults to including the camera name in the saved MP4, FMF, uFMF,
  and April Tags .csv.gz files.
* Substantial improvements to the `braid-process-video` program for processing
  saved videos and data.
* For Strand Cam and Braid, simplify defaults so that `cargo build --release` is
  as close to just working as possible. The browser frontends still need to be
  built but an explicit compile time error is shown if this remains to be done.
* Build for Ubuntu 22.04 (Jammy)
* On systems with an Nvidia GPU, set the default encoding for MP4 video saving
  to H264 using NvEnc hardware.
* New light mode for browser UI. Selection between dark and light mode is done
  according to browser and OS preferences.
* Security of web sessions is simplified. Braid and Strand Camera now use a
  cookie signing secret which is persisted to disk and does not require the user
  to set. A token is needed for the first request via HTTP but typically the
  token-free URL can be used for subsequent requests.
* Binary release compiled with Basler Pylon version 7.3.

### Changed

* No longer saves .mkv files. (Will now save .mp4 files instead.)
* Parameter `fps` for `FakeSync` trigger mode renamed `framerate`.
* Braid no longer runs an in-process strand-cam but rather launches a child
  process for each camera. This enables support of other camera drivers and will
  enable braid to run with cameras from multiple vendors. This builds off the
  remote camera support.
* Remote cameras for braid are specified using `start_backend = "remote"` in the
  `[[cameras]]` section of the Braid `.toml` configuration file. (To update,
  replace `remote_camera = true` with `start_backend = "remote"`. The default
  setting is now `start_backend = "pylon"` to enable Basler Pylon cameras to
  continue with existing Braid `.toml` configuration files.)
* Rename command line program `offline-retrack` to `braid-offline-retrack`.
* MP4 and FMF files use frame timestamps computed from the triggerbox device if
  available.
* When saving MP4, FMF and April Tag CSV files, default filenames include the
  camera name.
* Rename command line program `strand-cam-offline-kalmanize` to
  `flytrax-csv-to-braidz`.

### Fixed

* Browser caching is turned off. This reduces disk usage.
* When saving MP4 files, the maximum framerate parameter is respected.
* The `alpha` parameter in the feature detector was inadvertently ignored. This
  has been corrected. Thanks to Antoine Cribellier for noticing this.