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| |  | | |  |  | - Jacques Cousteau & IrDA
Located 100 miles south of San Francisco, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) is a recognized world center for advanced research and education in ocean science and technology.
The majority of instruments in use in ocean science provide an RS-232 port. MBARI is making unique use of ACTiSYS' IrDA serial adapter, the ACT-IR220L, as an underwater connection to those ports.
MBARI operate submersibles, or remotely operated vehicles (ROV), to spearhead research efforts. The Monterey Bay is heavily criss-crossed by seismic faults that demand study, there are also many natural springs, or seeps, arising from the seabed alive with bacteria and minute organisms, the beginning of the oceans food chain.
MBARI is searching for greater efficiency in the gathering of the Gigabytes of data that reside within these experiments. Today an ROV is required to physically pick up each experiment and then return to the vessel on the surface. The hope is that with the introduction of an IrDA link, this mass of information can be collected wirelessly.
MBARI are now conducting IrDA tests in the laboratory. They are utilizing the ACT-IR220L to beam information from a replicated experiment to a simulated ROV. The future benefits are myriad and include the ability to insure that long-term experiments operate effectively. This is impossible to know at the moment until the experiment is returned to shore and thedata is downloaded.
MBARI experiments can run from one week to one year; the ability to quickly
detect a problem provides critical cost savings.
To date the tests that have been conducted are encouraging; an infrared data link of 50 centimeters has been achieved underwater. One issue that remains is the tremendous pressure that is present at such depths;~3900-psi is encountered at a depth of 9,000 feet.
Sea tests are to be undertaken this summer.
This is an early example of IrDA technology being deployed in an unusual and fascinating manner, one-and-one-half miles underwater.
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