A team of Formosan researchers say they have developed a method acting to camouflage secret military communications in the sounds emitted by sperm whales in an endeavor to help the country ’s bomber avoid detection , reports Hong Kong newspaper of recordSouth China Morning Post(SCMP ) .
In a nutshell , the researchers can edit and embed audio signals into memorialise whale sound , then build a coding organization around these signaling to make them more secure . While the engineering science is new , the construct of shroud secluded messages within a heavy picture is not . Steganographyhas been used since ancient times , such as when Da Vinci painted ahidden codein the Mona Lisa or when British and American armies sent communications usinginvisible inkduring the revolutionary war . In a more modern twist , hackers have taken to the ancient warfare maneuver by hiding malicious codes in benignant software .
In today ’s oceans , submarine reconnaissance systems are always scan and sweeping submerged areas for zep signals , but in the outgrowth they are filtering out the sounds of sperm whales and other marine mammals . Since sperm cell whales arefoundin ocean around the populace , using their sign is a utter Trojan Horse . saw-toothed whales ( Odontocetes ) like sperm whales use echo sounding to hound and navigate in light - divest areas in a like way to how unreasoning bats can “ see ” the world around them ; the sound is emitted from the giant ’s melon vine ( forehead ) and reflects off of object . pigboat apply sound navigation and range ( SONAR ) in the same elbow room , utter pulses of legal waves that reflect off an object and come back to the ship to indicate where a target might be .
Lead researcher Jiang Jiajia say SCMP that submarines can keep their sound pulses and other communications off foeman radars in one of two ways . They can either alter sure audio characteristics that fundamentally sprain them into a hard - to - crack code or send weaker signals that are harder to clean up – both strategies have their downfalls . First , encrypting audio signal could tap off listen enemies who are looking for abnormal phone . On the other hand , weakened signal get weaker as they travel longer distance , create the potentiality of missing their target area .
cryptography , Jiajia say , is advantageous over encoding and other camouflage method acting simply because it does not attract attention . Technology that cypher the substance can further make subaqueous communication more unattackable , so that even if these secret sign are detected , they are more difficult to crack .
However , echo sounding is an extremely sensitive cognitive operation and it ’s not clear how ( or if ) these altered sounds would touch giant universe .
[ H / T : South China Morning Post ]
