practical poisson event generator

generatePoissonSig.m

function [spikes, tv] = generatePoissonSig(fs, prbprc_per_s, dur, refPeriod, n_ev)
% e.g. [spikes, tv] = generatePoissonSig(100, 5, 210, 5.5, [1 Inf])

tv = linspace(0, dur, dur*(fs));
spikes = logical(tv*0);
k=0;
evProb = prbprc_per_s/fs;
% evProb
lastSpikeSec = 0;
while 1
    for i = 1:length(tv)
        pval = rand(1);
        if (pval > (100-evProb)/100) && (tv(i)-lastSpikeSec > refPeriod)
            spikes(i) = true;
            lastSpikeSec = tv(i);
        end
    end
    if (k > 100)
        % to prevent the infinite loop by unreal parameters 
        disp('Unreal Params')
        spikes = spikes*0;
        return;
    elseif ((sum(spikes) <= n_ev(2)) && (sum(spikes) >= n_ev(1)))
        % to prevent the "no or quite a few MM event" imaging data.
        break;
    else
        k = k+1;
    end
    
end
end