Submitted via IRC for SoyCow4408
The magicians at MIT have come up with another solution to one of the world's science problems.
On Tuesday, MIT Media Lab shared new technology for communication from underwater to the air, a feat not previously possible.
That's because submerged submarines cannot wirelessly communicate with an airplane. The communication mediums don't match up: Submarines use sonar, while airplanes use radio signals, cellular or GPS. Sonar signals reflect off the water surface without breaking through, and radio signals don't travel well through water.
But MIT has the answer.
Using an underwater transmitter, researchers sent a sonar signal to the surface of a swimming pool, causing tiny vibrations. These were picked up by a sensitive radar, that decoded the 1s and 0s that were transmitted as vibrations.
The system is a "milestone," according to co-author of the research paper Fadel Adib, an assistant professor in the Media Lab.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @03:28PM (5 children)
A swimming pool isn't the ocean.
This is going to work REALLY well in rough seas.
(Score: 3, Funny) by bob_super on Thursday August 30 2018, @04:10PM
I guess I will have to sacrifice myself to go conduct the extended field testing comparing the real-world extremes of the bahamas (shallow water) and Hawaii (deep water).
Don't thank me. Just doing my duty.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @04:32PM (2 children)
If the sub sends at a very well defined frequency and the receiver has a very sharp filter for just that frequency I guess it might not be that much of a problem. Think about that we still can receive signals from the Voyager spacecrafts that are at the border of the solar system and have rather low sending power - we still can receive them before the background of all the radiation coming in from all over the universe. Of course, data rates are quite limited but it works.
What I don't see is how transmissions the other way round, i.e. from the airplane to the sub, are supposed to work. Or is that meant only for one-way communication?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @05:28PM (1 child)
A multi-kW output laser intermittently evaporating sea water should produce sound. Modulating the laser allows communication. Simple!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @08:02PM
;-) Well, dropping bombs from the plane at a meaningful time pattern might also do the job, but it's a bit less high-tech than a high-powered laser. Of course, the sub has to stay down deep enough to be out of harms way;-)
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @04:51PM
It's okay, 'Space Force' is just a box of fireworks.