Image Classification - Wish List?

Hello all,

I'm looking for some feedback and ideas regarding the need to improve
image classification abilities in GRASS GIS. ?My understanding is that
since the required classification techniques aren't available in
GRASS, the researchers doing that work are found elsewhere. ?Hopefully
this is a good place to find those experts?

For those that aren't already aware of it, Google Summer of Code
provides support for students to spend the summer programming for Open
Source software projects. ?The GRASS GIS idea list included the
following items that caught my eye:

4. Implement image segmentation algorithms and tools
5. Implement region-based classification
6. Implement hierarchical classification tools (e.g. being able to
create a large class "forest", with subclasses of different types of
forests)

The methods currently implemented in GRASS are at:
http://grass.osgeo.org/wiki/Image_classification

From discussions on the grass-dev mail list, I understand that

some/many of the new algorithms to meet these needs are implemented in
R and other software.

I'm wondering:

What tools/workflow are used for this type of work?
Are the current methods OK, or would some integration in GRASS be better?
Are any algorithms not available in other software that couldshould be
implemented in GRASS?
Are any experts in image classification willing to mentor or provide
informal advice about the subject matter this summer? ?(There is one
volunteer to mentor from the software side, it would be nice to have
someone to answer questions about the classification techniques.)

Thanks for any and all input!
Eric