A scalable data transmission scheme for implantable optogenetic visual prostheses.

Objective: This work described a video information processing scheme for optogenetic forms of visual cortical prosthetics.

Approach: The architecture is designed to perform a processing sequence: Initially simplifying the scene, followed by a pragmatic visual encoding scheme which assumes that initially optical stimulation will be stimulating bulk neural tissue rather than driving individual phosphenes. We demonstrate an optical encoder, combined with what we called a zero-run length encoding (zRLE) video compression and decompression scheme-to wirelessly transfer information to an implantable unit in an efficient manner.