Getting Started

Getting Started with ISETCam

ISETCam models a camera in physical units, from scene radiance through optics, sensor capture, image processing, and display. This page takes you from a fresh checkout to one small camera calculation.

What you need

• A current desktop installation of MATLAB. The source tree does not declare a contemporary minimum release; the route below was checked in MATLAB R2025b.
• The Image Processing Toolbox for common image operations. Some specialized ISETCam workflows use additional toolboxes, so MATLAB will report a missing dependency when that specific workflow needs one.

For ISETCam alone, you do not need ISET3D, ISETBio, Docker, or the external validation repositories.

Install and initialize

Clone the current repository, or download its ZIP archive from ISET/isetcam. With Git, that is:

git clone https://github.com/ISET/isetcam.git

Start MATLAB, then add the checkout and its subdirectories to the path for this session. Replace the example path with the location of your clone.

isetcamRoot = fullfile(getenv('HOME'),'Documents','MATLAB','isetcam');
addpath(genpath(isetcamRoot));
which ieInit
ieInit

which ieInit should report a file inside your ISETCam checkout. ieInit starts a fresh ISETCam session and closes windows left from prior sessions.

Check the installation

Run the current optical-image introduction tutorial through the supported tutorial smoke-test runner:

run = ieTutorialTest('selection','t_oiIntroduction');
ieTestReport(run,'List','all');

The update that introduced this page ran that exact check successfully in MATLAB R2025b. You can also read the executable source: t_oiIntroduction.m.

Run a first camera calculation

The following compact calculation creates a default scene, forms its optical image, captures it with a sensor, processes the mosaic, and opens the resulting RGB image in an ISETCam window.

ieInit

scene  = sceneCreate;
oi     = oiCompute(oiCreate,scene);
sensor = sensorCompute(sensorCreate,oi);
ip     = ipCompute(ipCreate,sensor);

ipWindow(ip)

This is deliberately small. t_cameraIntroduction.m is the next source tutorial for working with the combined camera object: t_cameraIntroduction.m.

Where to go next

• Use Tutorials and scripts for the existing topic index while the new curated Tutorials page is prepared.
• Use the core pages for scene radiance, optical images, sensors, image processing, and displays.
• Read the evolving online Foundations of Image Systems Engineering (FISE) resource for the underlying ideas.

Extend the system

ISET3D adds physics-based 3D scene rendering, and ISETBio adds models of human visual encoding. Both extensions require ISETCam on the MATLAB path; ISETCam does not require either extension.