Recommended schema updates to be included in openMINDS v5.0 release - viewer specification

[UlrikeS91]

Viewer Specification (VS)

• make optional:
  • 'anchorPoint' - not sure why it is required but I don't think that we have a single instance stating this

[lzehl]

@UlrikeS91 this we can't do. every schema should have at least one required property. We then need to rethink what we want to have required here.

[lzehl]

To be honest: I don't see the point of specifying a color if the anchor point cannot be provided so my gut tells me: keep the anchorPoint required, since providing ViewerSpecifications is optional.

[UlrikeS91]

I think that it would be better to require the display color. My reasoning is the following:

1. parcellation models may advise (or have it hardcoded) a display color for their parcellation entities, but the anchor point cannot be generalized due to its dependency on the used coordinate space which can vary in the application of a parcellation model

2. we have virtually no instances that state anchor points; yes, some atlases provide this in their documentation and others may be able to fill in something regardless of their documentation, but this will require contact with the atlas developer and potentially stating something that is not documented anywhere (the latter is not really a problem, though) - Example: WHSSDatlas has no documented anchor points, a software developer has created a list for some versions which is not even accessible to me without asking him directly and the latest version has none yet

3. display colors can be used for other purposes (e.g., color coding in plots following analysis) than for viewing the annotations in 3D visualization of the atlas - Example: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2020.101906; Ingvild has used them as color code in her plots representing the neuron densities in the respective atlas regions (e.g., Figure 2)

I see two options here:
Option 1

• make 'preferredDisplayColor' required instead of 'anchorPoint' in the viewer specification schema

Option 2

• remove 'preferredDisplayColor' from viewer specification schema
• create a new property 'preferredColor' or just 'color' on the atlas annotation schema (basically moving the color from viewer specs to atlas annotation)
• keep 'anchorPoint' required in viewer specification schema (then, if it should be used, we expect this point to be stated

Option 2 makes it possible to state the color, keeping the anchor point required and NOT breaking any openMINDS defined requirements anymore. It is probably also the most logical way to go considering my third argument (i.e., the colors are used for more than viewers). Also it would likely reduce the size of our instances since both the anchor point and the color can then be stated for the annotation directly (i.e., we do not have to use the viewer specs in the instances unless somebody wants to add even more information).