Method and system for providing stimulation inputs to a visual prosthesis implant
Stimulation inputs are provided to a visual prosthesis implant. The images captured by a video decoder are received and digitized to provide a plurality of video frames; integrity of the video frames is checked, the checked video frames are filtered, and the filtered video frames are converted to stimulation inputs. A similar system is also disclosed.
1. A method for providing stimulation inputs to a visual prosthesis implant, comprising:
a) receiving images captured by a video decoder;
b) digitizing the images to provide a plurality of video frames;
c) checking the video frames for errors and generating checked video frames;
d) filtering the checked video frames using a predetermined spatial map to provide filtered video frames; and
e) converting the filtered video frames to stimulation inputs suitable to stimulate visual neural tissue to create visual percepts according to a binary filter point for the visual prosthesis implant.
2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the binary filter point is programmable.
3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the binary filter point is user selectable.
4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein converting the filter video frames to stimulation input further includes using a brightness map.
5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein b), c), and d) are performed on a digital signal processor (DSP), the DSP configured to be connected with the visual prosthesis implant.
6. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the DSP is located in a video processing unit (VPU).
7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein filtering is by way of a Difference of Gaussian (DoG) filter to provide filtered video frames.
8. The method according to claim 7 , wherein the DoG filter is determined by a center Gaussian variance, a surround Gaussian variance, a center Gaussian weight, and a surround Gaussian weight.
9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the video decoder is configured to be connectable to a camera and wherein a)-d) are performed with a connected camera.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the video decoder is configured to be connectable to a camera and wherein a)-e) are performed with a disconnected camera.
11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the filtered video frames are 6×10 grayscale pixilated images.
12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the visual prosthesis implant comprises an electrode array, the method comprising adopting an arbitrary pixel to electrode array space mapping.
13. The method of claim 1 , wherein d) further includes a mapping of luminance to electrical stimulation parameters.
14. The method of claim 13 , further including a transformation between pixel brightness and amplitude.
15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the transformation is selected between a constant transformation, a linear transformation and an exponential transformation.
16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method is set for a multiple patient environment.