Novice module can open images from a url

skimage/novice/_novice.py

@@ -1,6 +1,10 @@
 import os
 import imghdr
+import shutil
 from collections import namedtuple
+from io import BytesIO
+from urlparse import urlparse
+from urllib2 import urlopen
 
 import numpy as np
 from skimage import io
@@ -19,7 +23,7 @@ colors = namedtuple('colors', color_dict.keys())(**color_dict)
 
 def open(path):
     """Return Picture object from the given image path."""
-    return Picture(path=os.path.abspath(path))
+    return Picture(path=path)
 
 
 def _verify_picture_index(index):
@@ -212,7 +216,16 @@ class Picture(object):
         elif path is not None:
             self.array = img_as_ubyte(io.imread(path))
             self._path = path
-            self._format = imghdr.what(path)
+
+            # Copy to in-memory buffer to get format (in case path was a url)
+            if urlparse(path).scheme == "":
+                self._format = imghdr.what(path)
+            else:
+                data = BytesIO()
+                shutil.copyfileobj(urlopen(path), data)
+                data.seek(0)
+                self._format = imghdr.what(data)
+                del data
         elif array is not None:
             self.array = array
         elif xy_array is not None: