Active Confocal Imaging Systems and Methods for Visual Prostheses

The disclosure features systems and methods for providing information to a user about the user's environment. The systems feature a detection apparatus configured to obtain image information about the environment, where the image information corresponds to information at multiple distances relative to a position of the user within the environment, and an electronic processor configured to obtain focal plane distance information defining a set of one or more distance values relative to the position of the user within the environment, construct one or more confocal images of the environment from the image information and the set of one or more distance values, wherein each of the one or more confocal images corresponds to a different distance value and includes a set of pixels, and transform the one or more confocal images to form one or more representative images having fewer pixels and a lower dynamic range.