Matlab for a Robot camera processing

[The Big B]

Hi,

I was thinking of trying to use a usb webcam in conjunction with matlab to try to create a means of obstacle detection for a robot. I remember in first year we were able to use matlab to analyse an image but what I'm trying to figure out is if I can control the webcam from my matlab program and then process the image after increments of for example 1 second? or do I need to create a separate program to take the picture and then have the matlab program access this file to analyse the image.

If anyone has tried it before could you let me know if it's possible and what I need to do it.

Thanks,
Big b