A General Purpose Algorithm for Coding/Decoding Continuous Signal to Spike Form

Abstract

An algorithm called Symmetric Integro-Differential Conversion (SIDC) serving to encode continuous real-valued signal to spike form is described. One dynamic numeric signal is converted to 4 spike trains. 2 spiking signal lines serve as a low-pass filter, while 2 other play the role of high-pass filter. The algorithm is computationally efficient and has only one parameter – the desired mean spike frequency in the output spike sequences. This approach allows accurate encoding signals with high variability of spectral properties. A reverse conversion algorithm is proposed which is used to assure that the resulting spike signal preserves information about the original signal to a sufficient extent. Artificial signals being a sum of a sinusoid and a random walk process are utilized to show that the target spike frequency parameter does not require fine tuning - good conversion quality is demonstrated if its value is approximately two orders of magnitude less than the input signal measurement frequency.