How Chinese scientists use sperm whale sounds to send secret messages for the military
- New use of camouflage technique hides communication in the sound pulses that sperm whales emit
- Breakthrough could help China’s submarines avoid detection
Chinese scientists have found a way to hide secret messages in the sound pulses that sperm whales emit to keep enemy reconnaissance systems from deciphering them – a breakthrough that could help military submarines avoid scrutiny, researchers said.
With this technique, whale sounds are edited and a coding system is built around them. Messages are emitted in the form of these edited whale sound bites, indistinguishable from regular whale sound, which are deciphered by the receivers following the code.
Jiang Jiajia, a Tianjin University precision-measurement professor who led the research, said the method camouflages undersea signals, making them harder to detect.
The team took its cue from sperm whales and long-finned pilot whales that use sound waves and echoes to locate and identify objects near them – a process known as echolocation.
Since they inhabit all the world’s oceans and their sounds typically get filtered out when undersea reconnaissance systems sweep an area for submarine signals, the giant mammals were seen as candidates to help military submarines avoid scrutiny, according to the researchers.
