Question

I’m a MATLAB beginner and I would like to know how I can acquire and save 20 images at 5 second intervals from my camera. Thank you very much.

Answer 1

To acquire the image, does the camera comes with some documented way to control it from a computer? MATLAB supports linking to outside libraries. Or you can buy the appropriate MATLAB toolbox as suggested by MatlabDoug.

To save the image, IMWRITE is probably the easiest option.

To repeat the action, a simple FOR loop with a PAUSE will give you roughly what you want with very little work:

 for ctr = 1:20
   img = AcquireImage(); % your function goes here
   fname = ['Image' num2str(ctr)]; % make a file name
   imwrite(img, fname, 'TIFF');
   pause(5); % or whatever number suits your needs
 end

If, however, you need exact 5 second intervals, you’ll have to dive into TIMERs. Here’s a simple example:

function AcquireAndSave
  persistent FileNum;
  if isempty(FileNum)
    FileNum = 1;
  end
  img = AcquireImage();
  fname = ['Image' num2str(FileNum)];
  imwrite(img, fname, 'TIFF');
  disp(['Just saved image ' fname]);
  FileNum = FileNum + 1;
end

>> t = timer('TimerFcn', 'ShowTime', 'Period', 5.0, 'ExecutionMode', 'fixedRate');
>> start(t); 
...you should see the disp line from AcquireAndSave repeat every 5 seconds...
>> stop(t);
>> delete(t);