MATLAB in unexpected places

05 Apr 2011
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96 Comments
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This topic is for unexpected or bizarre or humorous references to MATLAB. Specific citations would be appreciated.

96 Comments

Image Analyst
Image Analyst on 31 Dec 2024
Here it is at the 2022 World Cup Championship, held by Lionel Messi of Argentina.
Steve Eddins
Steve Eddins on 25 Dec 2024
Computer screen shown on the TV show "The Americans"
The TV show "The Americans" was a show about Soviet Union secret agents pretending to be a normal American couple in 1981-82 or so. In the 2nd season's final episode, a military officer shows an FBI agent a computer screen that's supposed to be showing some code from a top-secret computer program called Echo. When the code flashed by I thought it looked odd, more modern than I would have expected for an early 80s program. So I paused the show and took a closer look. I was very amused to see that the top half of the screen contains MATLAB code of a type that did not exist until about 20 years after the show's time period.
The MATLAB code was clearly generated using GUIDE, an old MATLAB tool for GUI development. [full resolution image link]
When I showed this to my MathWorker friend Jason, he did a little investigating and discovered the code's origin. It's from a File Exchange contribution called MATLAB Simulations for Radar Systems Design by Bassem Mahafza.
Originally posted on my MATLAB Central blog and lightly edited for reposting here
Image Analyst
Image Analyst on 26 Dec 2024
I'm not familiar with the 3 lines after the guidata() line, nor have I seen a "end select" line before. What do they do?
Adam Danz
Adam Danz on 26 Dec 2024
It looks like the top half of the script was taken from linear_array_gui.m in the FEX submission and the bottom half was added in. I guess GUIDE code doesn't look criminal enough 😂
They should have just run the spy command!
spy
Michelle Hirsch
Michelle Hirsch on 30 Dec 2024
ChatGPT suggests that the bottom of the file is Ada-inspired.
Adam Danz
Adam Danz on 26 Dec 2024
Ha! This is amazing. Great find.
Image Analyst
Image Analyst on 24 Dec 2024
Ohio license plate below:
California license plate:
Walter Roberson
Walter Roberson on 4 Mar 2022
Using MATLAB to simulate a million golf-balls
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-pLRX3L-fg
And running Snake
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOpBcfbAgPg
Walter Roberson
Walter Roberson on 16 Dec 2021
https://youtu.be/MHTizZ_XcUM
Mark Rober uses MATLAB to control automatic dart board.
Walter Roberson
Walter Roberson on 4 Oct 2015

According to Ancestry.com, John and Mary Matlab lived in Schuylkill, Pennsylvania in about 1910, along with their children Mary Matlab, John Matlab, and Steve Matlab .

Frances Mupad lived in New York, New York in about 1840.

(I was looking for information on the history of MuPAD and was startled to see genealogy records ;-) )

Adam Danz
Adam Danz on 16 Dec 2024
😂 I'm just seeing this thread now. I grew up near Schuylkill PA.
I also added those youtube videos to my watch list.
Walter Roberson
Walter Roberson on 7 Oct 2015

For some reason I keep thinking that somewhere out there, some author most have created a character, 'Steve Matlab, PI" (Private Investigator); or perhaps they made him a policeman. Maybe a high-stakes Forensic Accountant investigating the flow of criminal money. But certainly not "Steve Matlab, Caricature Artist", or "Steve Matlab Clowns For All Occasions".

This is what I think about what I cannot sleep at night.

Walter Roberson
Walter Roberson on 19 Jul 2015

Christmas (Kiritimati) Island, http://cobblab.blogspot.ca/2013_09_01_archive.html

Jan
Jan on 19 Jul 2015
This answer has been marked as potential spam. I'm afraid it advertises the use of Matlab in an unexpected place.
Anyway, I've removed the flag.
Walter Roberson
Walter Roberson on 14 May 2015
MATLAB mention in a humor post about Programming Vehicles:
http://crashworks.org/if_programming_languages_were_vehicles/
Fabio Freschi
Fabio Freschi on 16 Sep 2014
http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1289
second scene
Doug Hull
Doug Hull on 16 Sep 2014
The is a MATLAB box in the background in the movie Contact when Elie runs in after hearing first message.

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