[The Epoch Times, September 5, 2022](The Epoch Times reporter Chen Juncun reported) For millions of people around the world who are engaged in snorkeling or diving activities, gestures are the only way to communicate underwater, but it will be affected by The effect of distance and visibility. In view of this, American researchers have developed an application (App) that can be used on smartphones or smart watches, allowing users to send text messages underwater, thereby greatly improving the communication ability between divers.
According to the website of the University of Washington (University of Washington), the school’s research team has developed an app called AquaApp, which is the first app that uses sound waves to transmit text messages. Smartwatches are used in water.
Existing smartphones, which rely on radio signals like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for transmission, are limited in their ability to transmit in water, but not acoustic signals, the researchers said. The microphones and speakers of ordinary smartphones or smart watches can be used to generate sound waves.
In order to develop the AquaApp, researchers had to overcome several technical challenges, such as: reflections from the seabed, sea surface, and coast can affect the intensity of sound waves; movements of people and objects in the water can interfere with signal transmission; The microphone and speaker settings are also different.
In addition, the position of the smartphone or smart watch used to send and receive messages in the water often changes.
After all factors were considered, the researchers developed the algorithm for AquaApp, which estimates the distance and possible interference of a smartphone or smartwatch before sending a message.
The user interface of AquaApp is preset with 240 sets of messages corresponding to the gestures used by professional divers. And these 240 groups of messages can be classified into 8 categories to make it easier for users to choose.
In the actual test, the researchers found that the AquaApp can effectively transmit and receive messages at a distance of 30 meters. If it is a relatively short message, such as SOS (Solicitation Signal), the effective transmission distance can be increased to 100 meters.
Shyam Gollakota, a computer scientist at the University of Washington, pointed out that today’s underwater network is similar to the ARPANET in the 1970s, the originator of the Internet. Not many people could use it at the time.
Gorakota said the AquaApp has the potential to change the status quo of underwater networks.
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Responsible editor: Li Ming