how use beagleboard for image processing

Respected Sir,
                      I wanted to implement the image processing task
such as finding the centroid of the image given to the camera. I have
done such kind of work on the computer with the help of the MATLAB.
Now to do same kind of work on linux platform in beagleboard which
software should i use.
                      I am beginer to use beaagleboard. Is it possible
to run the C code on the beagleboard. If i am going wrong please give
directions to accomplish my work.
                      Thanking you.