MATLAB is being used as a platform for laboratory exercises in the Image Processing. MATLAB is a data analysis and visualisation tool designed to make matrix manipulation as simple as possible. In addition, it has powerful graphics capabilities and its own programming language. In MATLAB a single variable is a 1 x 1 matrix, a string is a 1 x n matrix of chars. An image is a n x m matrix of pixels (studentnet.cs.manchester.ac.uk).
MATLAB is started from within the Windows environment by clicking the icon that should be on the desktop. MATLAB’s integrated development environment (IDE) has five components: the Command Window, the Workspace Browser, the Current Directory Window, the Command History Window and zero or more Figure Windows that are active only to display graphical objects. Figure 1 describes the MATLAB IDE. The Command window is where commands and expressions are typed and results are presented as appropriate.
The workspace is the set of variables that have been created during a session. They are displayed in the Workspace Browser. Additional information about a variable is available there, some variables can also be edited. The current directory window displays the contents of the current working directory and the paths of previous working directories. The working directory may be altered. MATLAB uses a search path to find files. The search path includes the current directory, all of the installed toolboxes plus any other paths that the user has added via the Set Path dialogue accessed from the File menu.
The command history window gives a historical view of the current and previous sessions. Commands appearing here can be reexecuted. MATLAB provides an editor for writing scripts. It is invoked by typing edit in the command window. Scripts are stored with the extension .m and are therefore also known as m-files. Help on any MATLB command can be found in the Help Browser which is entered via the menu bar or by typing help browser in the command window.
MATLAB’s integrated development environment