UK defense firm pumps data through solid submarine walls
Wireless power may still be on the drawing board, but wireless data is here today, and a UK defense contractor has figured out a way to pipe the latter through several inches of steel. Using a pair of piezoelectric transducers on either side of a watertight submarine compartment, BAE's "Through Hull Data Link" sends and receives an acoustic wave capable of 15MHz data rates, enough to transmit video by essentially hammering ever-so-slightly on the walls. BAE impressed submarine commanders by streaming Das Boot right through their three-inch hulls, and while metadrama is obviously the killer app here, the company claims it will also save millions by replacing the worrisome wiring that's physically routed via holes in a submarine's frame. See the company's full US patent application at our more coverage link.

























So by tapping on the walls, you can screw up the connection?
@Scrubs depends on how you tap.
the 'death tap' can result in massive failure of the system, while a box of free latex gloves means you can go about your daily business, touching where you want to touch.
@wbeardell Subtle apple reference is subtle...
@Redyz
Stupid Internet phrase was stupid.
Failbait is full of fail
Panic Room finally worth it
15MHz Data rates??????
@Murphys Law That's almost twice as fast as a Sega Genesis CPU!
@Murphys Law
Hmpf, I guess there will still be no submarine fleet LAN games.
Won't this make them ever-so-slightly easier to be picked up by hunting subs' SONAR?
@KennyCrudup Wikipedia say: "The propagation of sound in the ocean at frequencies lower than 10 Hz is usually not possible without penetrating deep into the seabed, whereas frequencies above 1 MHz are rarely used because they are absorbed very quickly"
Thus, if they are using a 15 MHz carrier, the water will probably absorb the vibrations within a short distance.
@trentblase Nyquist says to carry 15MHz data you need to use at least 2x that rate e.g. 30MHz. My guess is they need some protocol and forward error correction to solve the "death taps" issues (water moving over sub for example) so figure 16MHz/32MHz (which appeals to the power of two god as well.
Aren't subs supposed to, you know, limit their acoustic signature?
@Epyon Yeah maybe if you're spying on the losties on the beach. I don't think you have anything to fear if you're toting nukes.
@HighestRanked2 The idea of a bulkhead is that there will be a situation where there will be water on the other side.
You can send power over by using a transformer. Just have the magnetic flux go thru the bulkhead.
Question, how do the parts outside of the hull get electricity? Wirelessly too?
@ilkkao How about a nuclear decay source battery? This is a military sub not an Alvin. The stronger the hull the harder it is to kill and the deeper it can dive to avoid getting killed. They'll use any exotic technology to increase hull strength. Ditto the dive planes/rudder planes. As with nuclear control rods a synchronous AC motor that exerts force on the shaft of the planes through a sealed pressure hull would be pretty sweet as well.
@ilkkao They may have demonstrated it thru the hull but it wont be used like that. It is meant to be used inside the pressure hull between compartments.
My old company worked on a project like this for transmitting information from inside cargo containers (I did a little of the concept work on it). The idea was to monitor containers for tampering for Homeland security purposes.
It worked pretty well, but we didn't win the phase II funding (not sure why, I though it was going great).
@alexz
Data not power
well... until the next hacker convention demos hackers sitting in a motorboat with a microphone over the side stealing the signal anyway....
So marines can watch u-porn... what wouldn't you do for your soldiers ;p
Perhaps engadget can update the article to include power transmission
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/07/19/submarine_tech_hints_at_clandestine_surveillance/
I can imagine lots of useful applications for this tech,