Best microcontroller for Matlab interfacing?

I am looking for a controller that will 1. Receive data from an IR sensor, 2. Trigger the camera for Matlab, 3. receives data from Matlab after image processing, 4. Runs the respective motor. Please suggest an inexpensive and efficient solution. I don't have any experience with microcontroller programming so if any of these tasks can be performed by Matlab directly please let me know.

Thanks in advance.