Wireless transmission of neuronal recordings using a portable real-time discrimination/compression algorithm

A design challenge of portable wireless neural recording systems is the tradeoff between bandwidth and power consumption. This paper investigates the compression of neuronal recordings in real-time using a novel discriminating Linde-Buzo-Gray algorithm (DLBG) that preserves spike shapes while filtering background noise. The technique is implemented in a low power digital signal processor (DSP) which is capable of wirelessly transmitting raw neuronal recordings. Depending on the signal to noise ratio of the recording, the compression ratio can be tailored to the data to maximally preserve power and bandwidth. The approach was tested in real and synthetic data and achieved compression ratios between 184:1 and 10:1.