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Science Quickly

Computers Learn to Use Sound to Find Ships

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.2639 Ratings

🗓️ 5 December 2017

⏱️ 3 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Researchers trained machine-learning algorithms to pinpoint the location of a cargo ship simply by eavesdropping on the sound of its passing. Christopher Intagliata reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Understanding the human body is a team effort. That's where the Yachtel group comes in.

0:05.8

Researchers at Yachtolt have been delving into the secrets of probiotics for 90 years.

0:11.0

Yacold also partners with nature portfolio to advance gut microbiome science through the global grants for gut health, an investigator-led research program.

0:19.6

To learn more about Yachtolt, visit yawcult.co.

0:22.7

.jp. That's Y-A-K-U-L-T.C-O.jp. When it comes to a guide for your gut, count on Yacolt.

0:33.7

This is Scientific American's 60-second science. I'm Christopher in Taliatta.

0:39.0

In The Hunt for Red October, the Soviet submarine captain, played by Sean Connery,

0:43.8

commands his crew to verify the location of a target.

0:46.8

Give me a ping facility.

0:48.9

One ping only, please.

0:53.6

That ping is known as active sonar.

0:56.6

Bob Hedrick of the Office of Naval Research, the ONR, says it's the audio equivalent of switching

1:01.9

on a flashlight.

1:03.0

You're getting information back, but you're also broadcasting your location to other ships.

1:07.8

You know, number one priority in the submarine is to remain undetected.

1:11.4

So subs can keep their secrecy by eavesdropping on other ships instead, listening for

1:15.9

propellers and electronics and so on.

1:18.6

Such methods known as passive sonar generally require a skilled operator, but researchers are

1:24.0

teaching machines to do it too.

1:26.3

They first recorded the underwater rumblings of cargo ships off the California coast,

1:32.5

using an array of 28 underwater microphones.

1:35.9

They fed that sound along with the ship's actual GPS coordinates to their machine learning

...

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