slidefun

R = SLIDEFUN(FUN, W, V) evaluates the function FUN to a moving window of W consecutive elements of the vector V.
The function FUN is specified by a function handle or a function name and should return a scalar for a vector input. W specifies the size of the window and should be a positive integer. At the two edges of the vector less than W elements will be used. R will have the same size as V.
Effectively SLIDEFUN applies the function FUN to a moving window of consecutive elemens V(x0:(x0+W)) using FEVAL, and returns the result in R(x).
The window [x0:(x0+W)] is relative to the current point x in V. R = SLIDEFUN(FUN, W, V, WINDOWMODE) denotes the type of windowing being used: central (default), backward and forward.

R = SLIDEFUN(FUN,W,V,WINDOWMODE, P1,P2,...) provides for aditional parameters which are passed to the function FUN.

Example 1) Sliding max filter - return the maximum of every three consecutive elements:
V = [1 2 3 9 4 2 1 1 5 6] ;
R = slidefun(@max, 3, V)
% -> [2 3 9 9 9 4 2 5 6 6]
% So R(i) = max(R(i-1:i+1)) ;
% and R(1) = max(V(1:2))
More examples are provided in the help section.

Part of it's functionality has been implemented in base matlab (e.g. by movsum, movmean)