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117 votes
📚 New Book Announcement: "Image Processing Recipes in MATLAB" 📚
I am delighted to share the release of my latest book, "Image Processing Recipes in MATLAB," co-authored by my dear friend and colleague Gustavo Benvenutti Borba.
This 'cookbook' contains 30 practical recipes for image processing, ranging from foundational techniques to recently published algorithms. It serves as a concise and readable reference for quickly and efficiently deploying image processing pipelines in MATLAB.
Gustavo and I are immensely grateful to the MathWorks Book Program for their support. We also want to thank Randi Slack and her fantastic team at CRC Press for their patience, expertise, and professionalism throughout the process.
___________
David
David
Last activity on 23 May 2024

A colleague said that you can search the Help Center using the phrase 'Introduced in' followed by a release version. Such as, 'Introduced in R2022a'. Doing this yeilds search results specific for that release.
Seems pretty handy so I thought I'd share.
Bringing the beauty of MathWorks Natick's tulips to life through code!
Remix challenge: create and share with us your new breeds of MATLAB tulips!
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2784 votes
A high school student called for help with this physics problem:
  • Car A moves with constant velocity v.
  • Car B starts to move when Car A passes through the point P.
  • Car B undergoes...
  • uniform acc. motion from P to Q.
  • uniform velocity motion from Q to R.
  • uniform acc. motion from R to S.
  • Car A and B pass through the point R simultaneously.
  • Car A and B arrive at the point S simultaneously.
Q1. When car A passes the point Q, which is moving faster?
Q2. Solve the time duration for car B to move from P to Q using L and v.
Q3. Magnitude of acc. of car B from P to Q, and from R to S: which is bigger?
Well, it can be solved with a series of tedious equations. But... how about this?
Code below:
%% get images and prepare stuffs
figure(WindowStyle="docked"),
ax1 = subplot(2,1,1);
hold on, box on
ax1.XTick = [];
ax1.YTick = [];
A = plot(0, 1, 'ro', MarkerSize=10, MarkerFaceColor='r');
B = plot(0, 0, 'bo', MarkerSize=10, MarkerFaceColor='b');
[carA, ~, alphaA] = imread('https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2013/07/12/11/58/car-145008_960_720.png');
[carB, ~, alphaB] = imread('https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2014/04/03/10/54/car-311712_960_720.png');
carA = imrotate(imresize(carA, 0.1), -90);
carB = imrotate(imresize(carB, 0.1), 180);
alphaA = imrotate(imresize(alphaA, 0.1), -90);
alphaB = imrotate(imresize(alphaB, 0.1), 180);
carA = imagesc(carA, AlphaData=alphaA, XData=[-0.1, 0.1], YData=[0.9, 1.1]);
carB = imagesc(carB, AlphaData=alphaB, XData=[-0.1, 0.1], YData=[-0.1, 0.1]);
txtA = text(0, 0.85, 'A', FontSize=12);
txtB = text(0, 0.17, 'B', FontSize=12);
yline(1, 'r--')
yline(0, 'b--')
xline(1, 'k--')
xline(2, 'k--')
text(1, -0.2, 'Q', FontSize=20, HorizontalAlignment='center')
text(2, -0.2, 'R', FontSize=20, HorizontalAlignment='center')
% legend('A', 'B') % this make the animation slow. why?
xlim([0, 3])
ylim([-.3, 1.3])
%% axes2: plots velocity graph
ax2 = subplot(2,1,2);
box on, hold on
xlabel('t'), ylabel('v')
vA = plot(0, 1, 'r.-');
vB = plot(0, 0, 'b.-');
xline(1, 'k--')
xline(2, 'k--')
xlim([0, 3])
ylim([-.3, 1.8])
p1 = patch([0, 0, 0, 0], [0, 1, 1, 0], [248, 209, 188]/255, ...
EdgeColor = 'none', ...
FaceAlpha = 0.3);
%% solution
v = 1; % car A moves with constant speed.
L = 1; % distances of P-Q, Q-R, R-S
% acc. of car B for three intervals
a(1) = 9*v^2/8/L;
a(2) = 0;
a(3) = -1;
t_BatQ = sqrt(2*L/a(1)); % time when car B arrives at Q
v_B2 = a(1) * t_BatQ; % speed of car B between Q-R
%% patches for velocity graph
p2 = patch([t_BatQ, t_BatQ, t_BatQ, t_BatQ], [1, 1, v_B2, v_B2], ...
[248, 209, 188]/255, ...
EdgeColor = 'none', ...
FaceAlpha = 0.3);
p3 = patch([2, 2, 2, 2], [1, v_B2, v_B2, 1], [194, 234, 179]/255, ...
EdgeColor = 'none', ...
FaceAlpha = 0.3);
%% animation
tt = linspace(0, 3, 2000);
for t = tt
A.XData = v * t;
vA.XData = [vA.XData, t];
vA.YData = [vA.YData, 1];
if t < t_BatQ
B.XData = 1/2 * a(1) * t^2;
vB.XData = [vB.XData, t];
vB.YData = [vB.YData, a(1) * t];
p1.XData = [0, t, t, 0];
p1.YData = [0, vB.YData(end), 1, 1];
elseif t >= t_BatQ && t < 2
B.XData = L + (t - t_BatQ) * v_B2;
vB.XData = [vB.XData, t];
vB.YData = [vB.YData, v_B2];
p2.XData = [t_BatQ, t, t, t_BatQ];
p2.YData = [1, 1, vB.YData(end), vB.YData(end)];
else
B.XData = 2*L + v_B2 * (t - 2) + 1/2 * a(3) * (t-2)^2;
vB.XData = [vB.XData, t];
vB.YData = [vB.YData, v_B2 + a(3) * (t - 2)];
p3.XData = [2, t, t, 2];
p3.YData = [1, 1, vB.YData(end), v_B2];
end
txtA.Position(1) = A.XData(end);
txtB.Position(1) = B.XData(end);
carA.XData = A.XData(end) + [-.1, .1];
carB.XData = B.XData(end) + [-.1, .1];
drawnow
end
From Alpha Vantage's website: API Documentation | Alpha Vantage
Try using the built-in Matlab function webread(URL)... for example:
% copy a URL from the examples on the site
URL = 'https://www.alphavantage.co/query?function=TIME_SERIES_DAILY&symbol=IBM&apikey=demo'
% or use the pattern to create one
tickers = [{'IBM'} {'SPY'} {'DJI'} {'QQQ'}]; i = 1;
URL = ...
['https://www.alphavantage.co/query?function=TIME_SERIES_DAILY_ADJUSTED&outputsize=full&symbol=', ...
+ tickers{i}, ...
+ '&apikey=***Put Your API Key here***'];
X = webread(URL);
You can access any of the data available on the site as per the Alpha Vantage documentation using these two lines of code but with different designations for the requested data as per the documentation.
It's fun!
isstring
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2455 votes
Dear MATLAB contest enthusiasts,
I believe many of you have been captivated by the innovative entries from Zhaoxu Liu / slanderer, in the 2023 MATLAB Flipbook Mini Hack contest.
Ever wondered about the person behind these creative entries? What drives a MATLAB user to such levels of skill? And what inspired his participation in the contest? We were just as curious as you are!
We were delighted to catch up with him and learn more about his use of MATLAB. The interview has recently been published in MathWorks Blogs. For an in-depth look into his insights and experiences, be sure to read our latest blog post: Community Q&A – Zhaoxu Liu.
But the conversation doesn't end here! Who would you like to see featured in our next interview? Drop their name in the comments section below and let us know who we should reach out to next!
Hey MATLAB Community! 🌟
In the vibrant landscape of our online community, the past few weeks have been particularly exciting. We've seen a plethora of contributions that not only enrich our collective knowledge but also foster a spirit of collaboration and innovation. Here are some of the noteworthy contributions from our members.

Interesting Questions

Victor encountered a puzzling error while trying to publish his script to PDF. His post sparked a helpful discussion on troubleshooting this issue, proving invaluable for anyone facing similar challenges.
Devendra's inquiry into interpolating and smoothing NDVI time series using MATLAB has opened up a dialogue on various techniques to manage noisy data, benefiting researchers and enthusiasts in the field of remote sensing.

Popular Discussions

Adam Danz's AMA session has been a treasure trove of insights into the workings behind the MATLAB Answers forum, offering a unique perspective from a staff contributor's viewpoint.
The User Following feature marks a significant enhancement in how community members can stay connected with the contributions of their peers, fostering a more interconnected MATLAB Central.

From File Exchange

Robert Haaring's submission is a standout contribution, providing a sophisticated model for CO2 electrolysis, a topic of great relevance to researchers in environmental technology and chemical engineering.

From the Blogs

Sivylla's comprehensive post delves into the critical stages of AI model development, from implementation to validation, offering invaluable guidance for professionals navigating the complexities of AI verification.
In this engaging Q&A, Ned Gulley introduces us to Zhaoxu Liu, a remarkable community member whose innovative contributions and active engagement have left a significant impact on the MATLAB community.
Each of these contributions highlights the diverse and rich expertise within our community. From solving complex technical issues to introducing new features and sharing in-depth knowledge on specialized topics, our members continue to make MATLAB Central a vibrant and invaluable resource.
Let's continue to support, inspire, and learn from one another
Don't use / What are Projects?
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Updating some of my educational Livescripts to 2024a, really love the new "define a function anywhere" feature, and have a "new" idea for improving Livescripts -- support "hidden" code blocks similar to the Jupyter Notebooks functionality.
For example, I often create "complicated" plots with a bunch of ancillary items and I don't want this code exposed to the reader by default, as it might confuse the reader. For example, consider a Livescript that might read like this:
-----
Noting the similar structure of these two mappings, let's now write a function that simply maps from some domain to some other domain using change of variable.
function x = ChangeOfVariable( x, from_domain, to_domain )
x = x - from_domain(1);
x = x * ( ( to_domain(2) - to_domain(1) ) / ( from_domain(2) - from_domain(1) ) );
x = x + to_domain(1);
end
Let's see this function in action
% HIDE CELL
clear
close all
from_domain = [-1, 1];
to_domain = [2, 7];
from_values = [-1, -0.5, 0, 0.5, 1];
to_values = ChangeOfVariable( from_values, from_domain, to_domain )
to_values = 1×5
2.0000 3.2500 4.5000 5.7500 7.0000
We can plot the values of from_values and to_values, showing how they're connected to each other:
% HIDE CELL
figure
hold on
for n = 1 : 5
plot( [from_values(n) to_values(n)], [1 0], Color="k", LineWidth=1 )
end
ax = gca;
ax.YTick = [];
ax.XLim = [ min( [from_domain, to_domain] ) - 1, max( [from_domain, to_domain] ) + 1 ];
ax.YLim = [-0.5, 1.5];
ax.XGrid = "on";
scatter( from_values, ones( 5, 1 ), Marker="s", MarkerFaceColor="flat", MarkerEdgeColor="k", SizeData=120, LineWidth=1, SeriesIndex=1 )
text( mean( from_domain ), 1.25, "$\xi$", Interpreter="latex", HorizontalAlignment="center", VerticalAlignment="middle" )
scatter( to_values, zeros( 5, 1 ), Marker="o", MarkerFaceColor="flat", MarkerEdgeColor="k", SizeData=120, LineWidth=1, SeriesIndex=2 )
text( mean( to_domain ), -0.25, "$x$", Interpreter="latex", HorizontalAlignment="center", VerticalAlignment="middle" )
scaled_arrow( ax, [mean( [from_domain(1), to_domain(1) ] ) - 1, 0.5], ( 1 - 0 ) / ( from_domain(1) - to_domain(1) ), 1 )
scaled_arrow( ax, [mean( [from_domain(end), to_domain(end)] ) + 1, 0.5], ( 1 - 0 ) / ( from_domain(end) - to_domain(end) ), -1 )
text( mean( [from_domain(1), to_domain(1) ] ) - 1.5, 0.5, "$x(\xi)$", Interpreter="latex", HorizontalAlignment="center", VerticalAlignment="middle" )
text( mean( [from_domain(end), to_domain(end)] ) + 1.5, 0.5, "$\xi(x)$", Interpreter="latex", HorizontalAlignment="center", VerticalAlignment="middle" )
-----
Where scaled_arrow is some utility function I've defined elsewhere... See how a majority of the code is simply "drivel" to create the plot, clear and close? I'd like to be able to hide those cells so that it would look more like this:
-----
Noting the similar structure of these two mappings, let's now write a function that simply maps from some domain to some other domain using change of variable.
function x = ChangeOfVariable( x, from_domain, to_domain )
x = x - from_domain(1);
x = x * ( ( to_domain(2) - to_domain(1) ) / ( from_domain(2) - from_domain(1) ) );
x = x + to_domain(1);
end
Let's see this function in action
Show code cell
from_domain = [-1, 1];
to_domain = [2, 7];
from_values = [-1, -0.5, 0, 0.5, 1];
to_values = ChangeOfVariable( from_values, from_domain, to_domain )
to_values = 1×5
2.0000 3.2500 4.5000 5.7500 7.0000
We can plot the values of from_values and to_values, showing how they're connected to each other:
Show code cell
-----
Thoughts?
I recently had issues with code folding seeming to disappear and it turns out that I had unknowingly disabled the "show code folding margin" option by accident. Despite using MATLAB for several years, I had no idea this was an option, especially since there seemed to be no references to it in the code folding part of the "Preferences" menu.
It would be great if in the future, there was a warning that told you about this when you try enable/disable folding in the Preferences.
I am using 2023b by the way.
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In the MATLAB editor, when clicking on a variable name, all the other instances of the variable name will be highlighted.
But this does not work for structure fields, which is a pity. Such feature would be quite often useful for me.
I show an illustration below, and compare it with Visual Studio Code that does it. ;-)
I am using MATLAB R2023a, sorry if it has been added to newer versions, but I didn't see it in the release notes.
Welcome to MATLAB Central's first Ask Me Anything (AMA) session! Over the next few weeks, I look forward to addressing any questions or curiosities you might have about MATLAB, the forum, sasquatches, or whatever's on your mind. Having volunteered as a contributor to this community before joining MathWorks, I'm excited to act as a bridge between these two worlds. Let's kick things off by sharing a little-known fact about the forum’s staff contributors!
A couple of years ago, before I joined MathWorks as a developer on the Graphics and Charting team, I often wondered who were the MathWorkers with the [staff] moniker answering questions in the Answers forum. Is their MATLAB Central activity part of their day-to-day job expectations? Do they serve specific roles on some kind of community outreach team? Is their work in the forum voluntary in the same way that non-staff contributors volunteer their time?
Now that I'm on the inside, I'd like to share a secret with my fellow MATLAB users and MATLAB Central enthusiasts: with the exception of the MathWorks Support Team, staff participation in the Answers forum is completely voluntary! The staff contributions you see in the forum arise from pure intrinsic motivation to connect with users, help people out of ruts, and spread the word about our product!
For example, Steven Lord has contributed 20-150 answers per month for 9 years! Steven is a quality engineer for core MATLAB numerical functions. Cris LaPierre develops training material and has been a faithful contributor in the forum for almost 6 years! Kojiro Saito and Akira Agata have been tackling Japanese content for more than 7 years! There are many others who have inspired me as a user, and I am honored to now call colleagues: Peter Perkins, Michio, Joss Knight, Alan Weiss, Jiro Doke, Edric Ellis, and many others who deserve appreciation.
The forum's success hinges on the invaluable contributions from the majority of non-staff volunteers, whose dedication and expertise fuel our community. But I know I wasn't alone in wondering about these staff contributors, so now you're in on the secret!
I'm curious to know what other topics you're interested in learning about. Ask me anything!
Temporary print statements are often helpful during debugging but it's easy to forget to remove the statements or sometimes you may not have writing privileges for the file. This tip uses conditional breakpoints to add print statements without ever editing the file!
What are conditional breakpoints?
Conditional breakpoints allow you to write a conditional statement that is executed when the selected line is hit and if the condition returns true, MATLAB pauses at that line. Otherwise, it continues.
The Hack: use ~fprintf() as the condition
fprintf prints information to the command window and returns the size of the message in bytes. The message size will always be greater than 0 which will always evaluate as true when converted to logical. Therefore, by negating an fprintf statement within a conditional breakpoint, the fprintf command will execute, print to the command window, and evalute as false which means the execution will continue uninterupted!
How to set a conditional break point
1. Right click the line number where you want the condition to be evaluated and select "Set Conditional Breakpoint"
2. Enter a valid MATLAB expression that returns a logical scalar value in the editor dialog.
Handy one-liners
Check if a line is reached: Don't forget the negation (~) and the line break (\n)!
~fprintf('Entered callback function\n')
Display the call stack from the break point line: one of my favorites!
~fprintf('%s\n',formattedDisplayText(struct2table(dbstack)))
Inspect variable values: For scalar values,
~fprintf('v = %.5f\n', v)
Use formattedDisplayText to convert more complex data to a string
~fprintf('%s\n', formattedDisplayText(v)).
Make sense of frequent hits: In some situations such as responses to listeners or interactive callbacks, a line can be executed 100s of times per second. Incorporate a timestamp to differentiate messages during rapid execution.
~fprintf('WindowButtonDownFcn - %s\n', datetime('now'))
Closing
This tip not only keeps your code clean but also offers a dynamic way to monitor code execution and variable states without permanent modifications. Interested in digging deeper? @Steve Eddins takes this tip to the next level with his Code Trace for MATLAB tool available on the File Exchange (read more).
Summary animation
To reproduce the events in this animation:
% buttonDownFcnDemo.m
fig = figure();
tcl = tiledlayout(4,4,'TileSpacing','compact');
for i = 1:16
ax = nexttile(tcl);
title(ax,"#"+string(i))
ax.ButtonDownFcn = @axesButtonDownFcn;
xlim(ax,[-1 1])
ylim(ax,[-1,1])
hold(ax,'on')
end
function axesButtonDownFcn(obj,event)
colors = lines(16);
plot(obj,event.IntersectionPoint(1),event.IntersectionPoint(2),...
'ko','MarkerFaceColor',colors(obj.Layout.Tile,:))
end
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2537 votes
We're thrilled to unveil a new feature in the MATLAB Central community: User Following.
Our community is so lucky to have many experienced MATLAB experts who generously share their knowledge and insights across different applications, including Answers, File Exchange, Discussions, Contests, or Blogs.
With the introduction of User Following feature, you can now easily track new content across different areas and engage in discussions with people you follow. Simply click the ‘Follow’ button located on their profile page to start.
Depending on your communication setting, you will receive notifications via email and/or view updates in your ‘Followed Activity’ feeds. To tailor your feed, select the ‘People’ filter and focus on activities from those you follow.
We strongly encourage you to take advantage of the User Following feature to foster learning and collaboration within our vibrant community.
Who will be the first person you choose to follow? Share your answer in the comments section below and let's inspire each other to explore new horizons together.