Matlab and GUI does not respond when a mex file it calls is running.

Hi all,

I have a Matlab GUI developed using GUIDE. One of the menu option calls a mex file which is a image segmentation algorithm and is computationally intensive. When I click on the menu option of the GUI, it calls the mex executable which runs for around 15-20 minutes (depending on the size of data). The issue is not about the long run time. During the duration of program running, neither Matlab nor the GUI responds and 'Not Responding' message appears on top bar for both Matlab and GUI similar to when some Windows program does not respond.

I understand this is because the process is running and is busy. Can anyone please explain in more technical detail what exactly is going on in terms of OS and processes?

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Thanks in advance for your time and reply,

Ram.