MATLAB: How to insert an image in the 2-D and 3-D plots in MATLAB 8.2 (R2013b)

Question

I want to display an image inside a 2-D plot and a 3-D plot. How can I do it?

 

Answer 1

For 2-D plots:

You can use the function IMAGE. 

The following example plots an image at the center of a scatter plot:

 

img = imread('peppers.png');             % Load a sample image

scatter(rand(1,20)-0.5,rand(1,20)-0.5);  % Plot some random data
hold on;                                 % Add to the plot

image([-0.1 0.1],[0.1 -0.1],img);        % Plot the image

 

 

For 3-D plots:

The IMAGE function is no longer appropriate. 

In this case you will have to create a 3-D surface using the SURF function and texture map the image onto it. 

The following example shows how to put an image in the middle of a 3-D scatter plot:

 

[xSphere,ySphere,zSphere] = sphere(16);          % Points on a sphere
scatter3(xSphere(:),ySphere(:),zSphere(:),'.');  % Plot the points
axis equal;   % Make the axes scales match
hold on;      % Add to the plot
xlabel('x');
ylabel('y');
zlabel('z');
img = imread('peppers.png');     % Load a sample image
xImage = [-0.5 0.5; -0.5 0.5];   % The x data for the image corners
yImage = [0 0; 0 0];             % The y data for the image corners
zImage = [0.5 0.5; -0.5 -0.5];   % The z data for the image corners
surf(xImage,yImage,zImage,...    % Plot the surface
     'CData',img,...
     'FaceColor','texturemap');