[Numpy-discussion] Expanding the scope of numpy.unpackbits and numpy.packbits to include more than uint8 type

[Rashiq Azhan]

I would like this feature to be added since I think it can very useful
when there is a need to process data that cannot be included in uint8.
One of my personal requirements is modifying a 10-bit, per channel,
images held in a NumPy array but I cannot do that using the specified
functions. They are eloquent solution and works well with the with
NumPy functions as long as the data is uint8.