Computer: Display: 3D
MurkSee   (0)  [vote for, against]
sonar VR for zero visibility scuba dives

A Plane goes into the sea off kapiti Is , New Zealand . The flight recorders need to be recovered but weather has made the ocean bottom impossible so the international rescue call goes out . A team in Spain have a working prototype to test and Jettrans, a x-military 2 seater fighter jet, is used to transfer a technician and gear to new zealand . The technician has brought cables , software and underwater RF gear which in conjunction with worldwide available computers builds the New VR sonar .

The outline for the system in the dive tender goes as follows Three standard fish finders form a net sensor which via interface cables connect to a PC . This machine processes and packages the data off to a standard gaming machine . (propriatory secret information has been kindly donated for this worthy cause) The gaming machine processes the 3D maths and produces a 2D screen bitmap which is sent to the last machine for 2 channel underwater tranmission . Two pdas (one for each eye) siliconed to a dive mask receive the Rf via dedicated receivers . The pdas are programmed simply buffer data to display because all calculations have been done . The Diver wears two hollow spheres on his head as a sonar vector for the enviroment .

Thankfully the test goes well the diver has a visual representation of the wreckage and the recorders are retrieved catching problems with similar aircraft . The successful technician transmitted the experiment data of the trial to his eagly awaiting team , who were happy with the results .

More enhancements to MurkSee may include more sonor detail , depth, time data and see-thru pdas so VR data is additive to vision . If computers and equipement can be boarded and shrunk then the diver may carry around MurkSee and therefore be boat independent .
-- wjt, Oct 11 2003

"Navy agrees to limit sonar systems" http://www.signonsa...7-whales-sonar.html
[waugsqueke, Oct 04 2004]

Love the 'PDA's siliconed to a dive mask.' Very 'Red Green meets Jaques Cousteau.' Missing the duct tape, though.

Trying to decide if you were shooting for a story with this, or not. If you were, it's pretty awkward yet.
-- RayfordSteele, Oct 11 2003


half-Synopsis: High resolution 3D sonar imaging device made with off the shelf consumer grade parts. ?.

Dunno if it'd work. For all I know it might be total nonsense, but I like the synthesis and the cheap factor.

Those PDA's seem a bit close to the diver's eyes to be viewed easily.
-- half, Oct 11 2003


Your arms are too long.
-- half, Oct 11 2003


Keep your marmots and prairie chickens away from that eagly awaiting team!
-- bungston, Oct 11 2003


I hate when a perfectly rational stepping stone logic path is shot down by one glaringly obvious painted polystrene rock that there is no way in hell you want to jump on .

A diver would get tied holding up his arm ,to see the VR , continuously throughout a dive .

Maybe a box structure could distance the Pdas from the divers mask allowing a respectable veiwing distance .
-- wjt, Oct 12 2003


The hollow spheres will show up well on the sonar devices, giving an accurate position for the diver. erm...at least thats what I think they're for...

Dive depth would be limited by the crush depth of the spheres. Would the oxygen tank not show up quite well anyway?
-- suctionpad, Oct 13 2003


Yes , Two spheres ( metal ? )one slightly bigger on head to show system head direction therefore change VR drawing . Tank no good because diver may be looking in wrong direction .
-- wjt, Oct 13 2003


The ocean floor remains either pretty calm or as quite as a tomb depending on the depth. The weather above doesn't affect it except in v. shallow water. However, you could maybe sell this to those bog-snorkeling maniacs.
-- squeak, Oct 13 2003


So the recovery divers on a network news item saying that they could only see the distance to their dive watches were telling porkies .
-- wjt, Oct 13 2003


OK. How deep are you talking about? Are these human divers or deep sea subs? If you're only talking about relatively shallow water, I'll hush my mouth.
-- squeak, Oct 13 2003


Ah! Just detected "eyes" and "head" amongst scary technical words. Human then. Shallow water then. I'll shut up then.
-- squeak, Oct 13 2003


[skipper] Thankyou , Idea sunk , not realistic with current sonar , diver interaction . No way around that one is there .
-- wjt, Oct 14 2003


True , if , what is that word again, cetacean's have sonar that doesn't effect the enviroment , maybe the idea can refloat .
-- wjt, Oct 14 2003



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