I have recently found a Matlab program (TraitLab) that I would like to try and use, but I do not have a Matlab license. Given that I thought GNU Octave and Matlab are mostly compatible, I tried to run it in octave, but the GUI way to run the program depends on loading a .fig file (now I know that I can use load to get the struct content of that file, but that does not make it a figure I can pass around to various GUI functions), and the headless way to run it reports many parse errors about
nested functions not implemented in this context
Is there an obvious way to get a function written for Matlab that shows these two symptoms to run under Octave?
I have downloaded TraitLab and it is obvious to me that it is a program that will need heavy modification for you to run on octave, which you probably don't have time (or possibly expert knowledge) to implement.
In this case you really only have two other options.
1) Write to the developers and ask them if they could re-implement their code in such a way to make it Octave compatible. I wouldn't hold my breath since it's an academic library, but it's always worth pointing out that there is demand for Octave compatible code. Also given this is old code, it's still worth contacting the stats lab in oxford, since they may have moved to a different codebase that might also suit your needs (e.g. I know that a lot of stats people in oxford have made the switch to julia).
2) In the meantime, if you really want to run this but you don't have matlab, find a matlab installation (e.g. from a friend, or at your university) and create a standalone-version using Matlab's "Application Compiler".
OR
Consider buying matlab. It has a reputation for being prohibitively expensive, partly because University-wide licences do cost an arm and a leg. But for personal use (especially if you are a student?), with the right licence and only the necessary toolkits, it's actually not as prohibitively expensive as you might think.
Related
If a company works on matlab projects, then how do they provide the client the project? I mean which file do they send to the client as they cannot hand over the client the whole codes and data ?
It would depend on lots of things, such as the nature of the product you are building for the client, your relationship and contractual agreement with them, and whether they need to modify the product in the future.
When I carry out consultancy on MATLAB projects for a company, I usually supply them with MATLAB source code. Part of the contract would typically say that they own the code (and the copyright to the code) that I produce for them, and they can then do pretty much whatever they want with it.
If you have a different relationship, where you continue to own the code and need to prevent them from reading it and/or modifying it, then the issue is really the same as it is for any other language: you rely on a mixture of technological restrictions and legal restrictions, designed to be as restrictive as you need while minimizing inconvenience for the end-user.
For example,
You can obfuscate your code using the command pcode. That will prevent almost everyone who isn't extremely determined from seeing your code and modifying it (there are some loopholes though), but they will still be able to run it within MATLAB. Downsides might be that your code may become unexecutable in a future version of MATLAB, so you may need to support it again to fix that later. To mitigate this, you could specify in your contract or license agreement that only specific versions of MATLAB will be supported.
You can use MATLAB Compiler to produce a standalone library or executable that contains the code in an encrypted form. Downsides might be that they would rather use the code from within MATLAB. An upside would be that unlike the first option it doesn't require MATLAB, so you're not vulnerable to backward-compatibility issues in future.
You can include licence-management code within your MATLAB application. You can either roll your own, perhaps by calling a bit of Java for the cryptography (you will likely not be able make it very secure, unless you're very talented, but you'll probably be able to make something simple and workable), or you can buy third-party C libraries that do it well, and call them from MATLAB.
You can simply put copyright lines in your code saying that you own the copyright, and licence the code to them under specific terms, such as that they may view it, use it, but not modify or redistribute it. If you really want, you could ask them to also sign a non-disclosure agreement requiring them not to discuss the content of the code with third parties.
Although the technological restrictions available are a little different in MATLAB than they would be for a compiled language such as C or Java, at the end of the day those are only ever there to keep honest people honest - anyone determined will be able to get around them eventually, and they may well inconvenience the honest people, annoying them into disliking your product or service.
Better to use a mixture of very light technological restrictions, crystal-clear contract and licensing terms, and trust.
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You can use the Matlab Compiler and compile your codes in to an exe file for windows. This is what is usually expected by a company. Some who have R&D themselves might ask you for the original m-code, or specific functions depending on your relationship/contract with them. I've been asked to give m-code several times, and it says on my contract that I am suppose to give this information to them. (UK based)
Still very new to MATLAB and to programming in general, I got stuck in understanding how to best make profit from what is documented in the official MATLAB documentation in the chapter Calling External Functions. I am by now not capable to judge which of the many offered pathways might be the most effective one to go for, in terms of how easy a pathway can be learned by a beginner and which one could on the long term most easy and clear in the MATLAB code be applied over and over again.
To put it in a very practical question: as, for instance, the third party image processing function libraries ITK or OpenCV provide Java, C++, C and Python interfaces, and MATLAB has functionality to address such interfaces, which interface should a beginner in programming chose? Is one of them usable in a clearer laid out design and thus easier to get warm with and quicker to learn to apply?
I am afraid to now hear from everybody something like "well, it depends what you want to do", and my answer could only be "don´t know yet, I am learning programming and prefer to first gain some general success by going for the cleaner designed and easier to understand approach, and thus would like to get a recommendation where to start".
Please let me add this to my question and concerns: Highly respected Yair Altman states on his internet page "undocumentedmatlab.com" in the commercial for his "Undocumented Secrets of Matlab-Java Programming" book, that the Matlab programming environment would rely on Java for numerous tasks, including networking, data-processing algorithms and graphical user-interface (GUI). I derive from this statement that learning to specially connect MATLAB to JAVA will have significant advantages, THE MATHWORKS itself seem to have decided to take advantage of such connection when implementing MATLAB.
But I can also see, that THE MATHWORKS by providing for MATLAB the MEX functionality seems to lean towards a tight C/C++ incorporation, providing also MEX besides the other possibilities to call external C functions.
For me as a beginner it is now confusing to uncover which route of connectivity to external languages could be taken as the "standard" or "first to be recommended" one. Do any of you experienced programmers would have some arguments for me which route to first focus on? It is a long journey to learn programming, and I would not like to waste time on poorly recommended pathways.
This question sounds like: "I am still learning how to drive, still not a very experienced driver. Please give me your tips about how to change a flat tire, what is the best tire to get a flat tire on, passenger side rear? what are the best places to get a flat tire, is it the mall or my office parking lot or the middle of the street."
Let me give you some tips:
Changing a tire will not make you a more knowledgeable driver. You will learn very few things from doing it and it is a frustrating experience and it is not worth your time right now. Learn how to drive.
Explanation: Making MATLAB call Java/C++/C or whatever other language will not make you a better MATLAB programmer, and frankly is of secondary importance. Until the first sentence of your question isn't "I'm still new to MATLAB and programming in general" you're wasting your time. Like changing a flat tire, connecting MATLAB to other languages is not something cool, or interesting, in fact it is the opposite: it is frustrating, error prone and boring.
The day will come when you will have a flat tire. That day the location where you get it and which tire it is will become secondary. You will need to learn how to change it and you will. Trust me you will.
Explanation: You don't get to decide in what language the code that solves the exact problem you have right now is written. The same way you don't get to decide where you get the flat tire. The day will come when you already know C++ and need MATLAB to call into some C++ code (either your code or someone else's). That day you will need to learn how to write a mex file in C++ and compile it for your platform and invoke your code. Or the day will come when you need to invoke Java, and then you will learn how to call into Java.
Obsessing over this when you don't know what you need to do and you're clearly not technically equipped to do it is just a waste of time.
To Start with you can look for Interfacing MATLAB and Java (It is easiest way to learn)
Afterwards, Go for Interfacing MATLAB and C++
1. Create Classes and Gateway in C++ for MATLAB and create executable mex file
2. Create MATLAB function and Wrap in C++ (Shared C/C++ library approach)
Afterwards, Go for creating Excel Addins and Invoke those addins in Excel Sheets
Meanwhile you can look for dll referencing in C#.net application /VB.net application
Are there any tools or algorithm in Matlab or OpenCv, which will take multiple images of any object as input (from different location around the object) and produce the 3D coordinate of the object in the world.
Like Naveh said, in OpenCV the building blocks are there, but putting it together is something you would have to do.
That being said, people have generated a number of SfM tools in both C++ and Matlab. Depending on your goals there are a number of prepackaged things you can look at:
-There is a SfM Matlab Toolbox here, I have not personally used it but I've seen it a number of times.
-If you are just looking for a black-box solution, check out Visual SfM, it is a GUI-fied version of a common SfM workflow.
-A while ago I put together a guide for installing the Visual SfM components individually on Fedora, if you wanted to dig into them. I'm not sure how relevant it is now but it might help.
Regardless, you should certainly educate yourself on the processes involved in creating 3D structure from imagery. It is a complicated process with many details which need to be understood.
What you are asking for is a fully fledged structure from motion algorithm. I don't think such a thing exists in MATLAB or OpenCV right off the shelf. However, the building blocks required for such an algorithm are there.
I suggest you do some background reading to better understand what specific algorithm will suit your needs. A good place to start is in Richard Szeliski's textbook, chapter 7. A free draft is available here. This book is recommended both in general as a good computer vision textbook, and specifically as well for your question, in which Szeliski himself is quite an expert.
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I've been using OpenCV for quite a while now and was wondering if switching to MATLAB would be a good idea. As far as I know they are both the same with MATLAB built over underlying OpenCV libraries. OpenCV is open source which is a definite advantage and supported on more platforms.
I'm trying algorithms specific for Pupil Detection so I need the results to be really precise.
Does anyone know any advantages by way of speed or processing or inbuilt functions that MATLAB uses?
If you already know OpenCV then stick with OpenCV. Currently OpenCV is the most comprehensive open source library for computer vision and it has large user community. OpenCV has more functions for computer vision than Matlab. Many of its functions are implemented on GPU. The library is being continuously updated (an updated version is released approximately every 3 to 4 months). In general C++ OpenCV code runs faster than Matlab code (if it's not fast enough, you can make it faster by optimizing the source code).
Matlab is useful for rapid prototyping and Matlab code is very easy to debug. It has good documentation and support. However, as others have mentioned, Matlab is not open source, its licence is pretty pricey, and its programs are not portable. Matlab is an interpreted language and it negatively affects its performance. Performance matters a lot in computer vision, especially if you are doing real time video processing. Its programs can be made fast too, however you will have to rely on high-level functions (i.e. built-in functions professionally written in C), mex functions (your own compiled C code), and you'll have to learn how to vectorize your code to achieve decent speed.
You haven't mentioned how you are using OpenCV so I am going to assume that you are using C++; in case you are using Python, please read this page..
If you are planning to use GPU for processing, then I would suggest you stick to C++.. Of course, there are loads of other optimizations you can do to your code..
For MATLAB, there are some fairly basic things that can be done as well..
At the end of the day, I would say that the closer you are to machine level language, the better your performance is going to be. But of course, using C can be a pain since there is a HIGH chance of writing unoptimized code and memory leaks. For this reason, C++ gives the best trade-off..
HTH
Your question does not really make sense.
OpenCV is a C++-library for carrying out computer vision tasks. Apart from C++, there is support for other programming languages via bindings.
MATLAB is a full scientific suite that consists of a massive IDE with its own language.
If you want your code to run in MATLAB, then you write MATLAB code. But then you will also need to install a 4GB IDE, and pay for a fairly expensive license.
My personal choice is to use OpenCV with the Python language bindings, as this gives me a nice scripting interface to do matrix operations (arguably somewhat more cluttered than MATLAB's) while still having easy access to OpenCV-functions.
If you really understand about opencv means definitly you never think about switching from opencv to matlab.
You can use opencv with python or cpp and even java etc., also.
Actually, you should not consider opencv only to complete your whole task.
Like opencv, other libraries also exists.
For example,
numpy -> for fast numeric calculation
matplotlib -> to show figure window etc., like matlab.
scipy -> for fast scientific calculation.
If you use your_programming_language + opencv + matplotlib + numpy + scipy definitly you will wonder about opencv.
And, don't worry about how to mingle these libraries together. Just mention their name and do your actual coding. Thats all.
i'm a computer systems engineering undergraduate student, i just want to know what advantages MATLAB has over SCILAB and vice versa other than that SCILAB is freeware.
i mean from a computer engineer point of view.
thanks
I can't get into the nitty-gritty details, as I haven't used SCILAB extensively.
But from a bird's eye view, MATLAB is a very polished software, with decades of development behind it. And a price to match. It has a huge array of specialized packages, good support, a reasonably well designed UI, and it's generally user-friendly enough for non-computer engineers to work with. It's also very common in the industry, so it's not a bad thing to have on your resume.
But if you don't have very complex needs (which I suspect, given the use I made of MATLAB during my undergrad years) and you don't need the robustness and polish of a professional package, SCILAB will probably meet your needs.
And since it's based on the MATLAB language, what you'll learn can be transferred later on if your needs change, or you find yourself working in an environment where MATLAB is the default.
Scilab is to MATLAB as OpenOffice is to MS Office. That is to say, it's a not-quite-a-clone, and it's not as polished. You do get most of the functionality of MATLAB, and the price is much more agreeable.
That said, if you want a free/open pretend MATLAB, I personally prefer Octave, since the syntax is closer to MATLAB's.
If you aren't bothered about MATLAB compatibility, then check out the statistics language/environment R, which is delightful.
Matlab is the de-facto industrial standard, is ready now and here, and has a big firm behind to push it.
Scilab has been for long time the open source alternative, but honestly it never appealed me. I think that or they never belived enough on the project, or that you need too much money to make a valid product of this kind.
And it is a real pity, since we desperately need a good open source alternative, because being open source is the only way to be very efficient on different platform: actually matlab is very good at prototyping small-medium programs, but since it is closed source, it's very difficult to scale it up, to supercomputers for example, requiring often a complete rewrite of the code.
Sage might be the third way, it has a lot of potential, and I would bet on it. Check it. It doesn't reinvent the wheel like Scilab did, but take existing software and merge it in a new program. It is based on python which gained a lot of momentum in the computing world, since it has shown to be both easy enough to quick prototype, and versatile enough to run on exotic platforma like supercomputers or GPGPU.
# MatlabDoug
It is feasible in small-medium environment, but on very big task the flexibility of open source is invaluable.
Starting from low-level tool like open-mpi that allows you to finely tune your applications, through higher-level framework like PETSc that lift a lot of work from your shoulders, to java and python implementations that let you concentrate on the algorithms forgetting about many of the headaches of the lower level languages.
But the real proof is that an astonishing majority of the top500 supercompunters prefers open source alternatives.