Through Hull Data Link Sends Data Through Steel Armor

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One thing I know from experience from the last time I tried to use a hotel’s wireless internet connection from my hotel room, wireless data transmission gets muzzled up by most anything more substantial than air. It was a bitter thing, having to plug into that jack and be tethered to it. But that may be a thing of the past thanks to BAE Systems, who has figured a way to get data through military steel.

Naturally, it’s neither easy nor cheap to do this. Basically, they tried this out with submarines to start with, and they began by drilling holes in the hull to add a variety of sensors and other tech. The holes cost between 20,000 and 750,000 pounds sterling to drill, add the gear, and then, once the drilling is complete, test the welds. And considering they put in three hundred of these holes, you can see what I mean when I say they’re not cheap.

Once there, they convert a wireless internet signal into sound waves, which gets a whole lot better transmission rate than a regular wireless internet signal, which can be routed through the hull. In fact, to test it, they transmitted a signal from a DVD player encased in a block of steel. What DVD, you wonder?

Why, Das Boot, of course.

The resulting image was DVD-clear, so the British Navy got very interested. The project is in the works, and maybe someday, the whole “wireless-internet-for-all” thing will be a possibility.