28.2. MATLAB and Photoshop
MATLAB (short for Mathematics Laboratory) is a computing environment and programming language used in engineering, scientific, and many other technical industries. MathWorks, the makers of MATLAB, describe it as follows on their Web site:
MATLAB is a high-level language and interactive environment that enables you to perform computationally intensive tasks faster than with traditional programming languages such as C, C++, and Fortran.
MATLAB offers toolboxes that expand its capabilities to perform such tasks as plotting functions and algorithms, financial modeling and analysis, signal processing, technical computing, and image processing.
Photoshop integration with MATLAB was added in Photoshop CS3 Extended. This integration provides functions that allow pixels to be sent to Photoshop for manipulation, or brought into MATLAB for analysis and visualization. This capability was originally included for the benefit of professionals working in the scientific and engineering fields, but artists and designers have been taking advantage of its ability to analyze images for tasks such as generating custom color palette.
The MATLAB software must be installed on your computer in order to take advantage of integration with Photoshop. MATLAB isn't free, and it isn't a part of the Photoshop installation, so you'd know if you had it on your computer. If you use MATLAB, most likely you're part of a workgroup or academic group, or you're a student, and you have access ...
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