simple lighting problem using code

I'm working on a masters project at University, where I'm investigating different photometric stereo techniques. This requires me to write a piece of code, which when run, it triggers four lights to flash, one after the other. I appreciate this is probably (hopefully) a really simple problem but my coding experience is quite limited and I'm not sure how to link the code to the flash lights, whether this be through the use of an FPGA or some other micro controller.

I'm thinking of using a counter, after 1 count light 1 will turn on, after another count light 2 will turn on and so on...

Ideally I'd like to use C or use Matlab. What is the best way to write this code and what is the best method of linking this code to the flash lights?

Thank

What hardware are you using for the lights? Do you want this all to be standalone (using say an Arduino or a Raspberry pi) or do you want to connect the lights to a pc/laptop and control them from that?