Creating your own electrode array

This example shows how to create a new ElectrodeArray object.

As the base class for all electrode arrays in pulse2percept, the ElectrodeArray class provides a blue print for the functionality that every electrode array should have.

First and foremost, an ElectrodeArray contains a collection of Electrode objects, and new electrodes can be added via the add_electrodes method.

In addition, individual electrodes in the array can be accessed by indexing using either their pre-assigned names (a string) or their place in the array (integer).

Arranging electrodes in a circle

In this example, we want to build a new type of electrode array that arranges all of its electrodes in a circle.

To do this, we need to create a new class CircleElectrodeArray that is a child of ElectrodeArray:

class CircleElectrodeArray(ElectrodeArray):
    """Electrodes arranged in a circle"""
    ...

This way, the CircleElectrodeArray class can access all public methods of ElectrodeArray.

The constructor then has the job of creating all electrodes in the array and placing them at the appropriate location; for example, by using the add_electrodes method.

The constructor of the class should accept a number of arguments:

  • n_electrodes: how many electrodes to arrange in a circle
  • radius: the radius of the circle
  • x_center: the x-coordinate of the center of the circle
  • y_center: the y-coordinate of the center of the circle

For simplicity, we will use DiskElectrode objects of a given radius (100um), although it would be relatively straightforward to allow the user to choose the electrode type.

from pulse2percept.implants import ElectrodeArray, DiskElectrode
import collections as coll
import numpy as np


class CircleElectrodeArray(ElectrodeArray):

    def __init__(self, n_electrodes, radius, x_center, y_center):
        """Electrodes arranged in a circle

        Electrodes will be named 'A0', 'A1', ...

        Parameters
        ----------
        n_electrodes : int
            how many electrodes to arrange in a circle
        radius : float
            the radius of the circle (microns)
        x_center, y_center : float
            the x,y coordinates of the center of the circle (microns),
            where (0,0) is the center of the fovea
        """
        # The job of the constructor is to create the electrodes. We start
        # with an empty collection:
        self._electrodes = coll.OrderedDict()
        # We then generate a number `n_electrodes` of electrodes, arranged on
        # the circumference of a circle:
        for n in range(n_electrodes):
            # Angular position of the electrode:
            ang = 2.0 * np.pi / n_electrodes * n
            # Create the disk electrode:
            electrode = DiskElectrode(x_center + np.cos(ang) * radius,
                                      y_center + np.sin(ang) * radius, 0, 100)
            # Add the electrode to the collection:
            self.add_electrode('A' + str(n), electrode)

Using the CircleElectrodeArray class

To use the new class, we need to specify all input arguments and pass them to the constructor:

n_electrodes = 10
radius = 1000  # radius in microns
x_center = 0  # x-coordinate of circle center (microns)
y_center = 0  # y-coordinate of circle center (microns)

# Create a new instance of type CircleElectrodeArray:
earray = CircleElectrodeArray(n_electrodes, radius, x_center, y_center)
print(earray)
CircleElectrodeArray(electrodes=OrderedDict,
                     n_electrodes=10)

Individual electrodes can be accessed by their name or integer index:

earray[0]

earray['A0']

earray[0] == earray['A0']
True

Visualizing the electrode array

Electrode arrays come with their own plotting method:

plot custom electrode array
<Axes: xlabel='x (microns)', ylabel='y (microns)'>

By default, the method will use the current Axes object or create a new one if none exists. Alternatively, you can specify ax= yourself.

Extending the CircleElectrodeArray class

Similar to extending ElectrodeArray for our purposes, we can extend CircleElectrodeArray.

To add new functionality, we could simply edit the above constructor. However, nobody stops us from creating our own hierarchy of classes.

For example, we could build a FlexibleCircleElectrodeArray that allows us to remove individual electrodes from the array:

class FlexibleCircleElectrodeArray(CircleElectrodeArray):

    def remove(self, name):
        """Deletean electrode from the array

        Parameters
        ----------
        name : int, string
            the name of the electrode to be removed
        """
        del self.electrodes[name]

Note how we didn’t even specify a constructor. By default, the class inherits all (public) functionality from its parent, including its constructor. So the following line will create the same electrode array as above:

flex_earray = FlexibleCircleElectrodeArray(
    n_electrodes, radius, x_center, y_center)
print(flex_earray)
FlexibleCircleElectrodeArray(electrodes=OrderedDict,
                             n_electrodes=10)

A single electrode can be removed by passing its name to the remove method:

# Remove electrode 'A1'
flex_earray.remove('A1')

# Replot the implant:
flex_earray.plot()
plot custom electrode array
<Axes: xlabel='x (microns)', ylabel='y (microns)'>

Total running time of the script: ( 0 minutes 0.238 seconds)

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