I want to convert a matlab figure into a binary column vector as would be produced by fread

I have generated a plot in matlab:

fig = surf(peaks)

I need it to be in the form of a column vector in order to be used as input for the following base64 encoding function:

str64 = matlab.net.base64encode(im_uint8);

The way I am currently doing it is by first saving the plot as png and then reading the binary file as follow:

saveas(fig,'plot1.png')
fid = fopen( 'plot1.png', 'r' );
im = fread(fid);
im_uint8 = uint8(im);
fclose(fid);

Then I can easily call the encoding function. The thing is this saving/reading steps take quite sometimes and I would like to avoid them. I have tried without sucess so far to go from the variable fig above to the variable im.

Is there anyone with a solution for this?

PS: I do not have the image processing toolbox.

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

Perhaps you want this:

p = uint8(peaks(:)); % p will be a uint8 column vector of your data.

[Tulkkas]

It is going into that direction but it misses I gues the PNG encoding. Basically your p vetor is of size 1406520x1 where the variable im that I read using fred is of size 23473x1. If I tried to encode the p as you proposed using base64 encoding, it does get properly decoded after.

[Tulkkas]

Basically the end question, is there a way to encode a figure from matlab workspace using the base64 encoding without exporting first the figure in png or jpeg and read it after?