1. A method for encoding image data for transmission over a communication channel, comprising the steps of: receiving image data; encoding the image data using an adaptive log-polar mapping protocol that generates a log-polar representation of the image data comprising a fovea region and periphery region, wherein the encoding comprises selecting encoding parameters for the log-polar mapping based on either the size of the fovea region, the channel bandwidth, or both, to modify the resolution of the image data within the periphery region; and transmitting the image data within the fovea region at full resolution and the image data within the periphery region at the modified resolution.