JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a highly portable, human-readable and "fat-free" text format to represent complex and hierarchical data. It is as powerful as XML, but less verbose. JSON format is widely used for data-exchange in applications, and is essential for the wild success of Ajax and Web2.0. We envision that JSON will serve as a mainstream data-exchange format for scientific research in the near future, and fulfill part of the roles achieved by HDF5.
JSONlab is a free and open-source implementation of a JSON encoder and a decoder in the native MATLAB language. It can be used to convert a MATLAB data structure (array, struct, cell, struct array and cell array) into JSON formatted string, or decode a JSON file into MATLAB data. JSONlab supports both MATLAB and GNU Octave (a free MATLAB clone).
JSONlab was developed by Qianqian Fang at the Optics Division, Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School.