How to measure intensity in 16bit image using improfile?

I'm used this code to measure intensity in a line using improfile tools . The plot show data intensity in 0-255 (8bit), my question how to change bit into 16bit?

I = imread('IMG_1737.JPG');
x = [2032 2032];
y = [0 size(I,1)];
c = improfile(I,x,y);
figure
subplot(2,1,1)
imshow(I);
hold on
plot(x,y,'r')
subplot(2,1,2)
%plot(c(:,1,1),'r')
hold on
plot(c(:,1,2),'g')
%plot(c(:,1,3),'b')

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

Use the uint16 function, like

I = uint16(I);

or

c = uint16(c);

I or c will now be 16 bit but their values will still be the values from the original image. They will not be automatically multiplied by 256, which would be deceptive/dangerous.