Cyclops Sonar Upgrade

Rbox

Man, talk about making the wrong decision.... It's about a little thing, but it's so distinctive that it's a major wrong decision. I mean of course the sound the upgraded sonar of the Cyclops makes. Who on earth chose that weak-ass 'bl1eh' sound instead of the one that everyone knows a sonar should make. That nice PINGgggggg from those 50's / 60's war movies.
This:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=dL-jrqN2iRw
or even this:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=eKkUCNMrv1M

I fully know that it's the sound the receiving party hears, but hey, that's cinema for you.

BTown780

I agree! Would love to have a more PIIING sound. Reference the ping from Hunt for Red October.

scifiwriterguy

Yeah...ever since about 1970, that's all Hollywood. The whole "single ping" thing is just too inaccurate to provide any information other than "hey, there's something down there...er...somewhere."

Active sonar uses a "sweep" - a rising pitch - that allows for a much more accurate identification of range and bearing to reflections. Using a sweep allows the sonar system and operators to listen to how the sweep stretches and its frequencies change, giving them a much, much better "view" of the area.

Honestly, most of it sounds like a nail scratching glass: a sharp, intermittent, pitch-variable sound. The frequency range depends very strongly on what you're trying to do; mapping the seafloor generally uses mid- to high-pitch, while the most effective pitches for finding very quiet subs are low. (The US Navy actually deployed a low-frequency sweep system for detecting superquiet subs in the late 90's, but the tones were found to be harmful to marine life, so the Navy agreed to limit its use.) Ping structure varies depending on what you're doing, and some pings will (at least initially) sound like just a chirp, but if you listen to the reflections you can tell that it's actually a sweep.

When you send a sweep, you get a very distorted sweep back from a reflective object. By mapping those distortions, you can determine a lot of things: distance, relative size, and if it's mobile, a general idea of its speed and heading. (It's also a damn ghostly sound.) But when you send a ping, all you get back is, well, a ping. Then you need to send a whole bunch more, steering the sonar head around and listening to each one to try to find what on Earth is bouncing your ping back to you and from where. The old ASDIC system worked that way, as did the most primitive SONAR rigs - WWII sonar was exclusively the steerable transducer type. All of that was thrown out the moment more precise and data-dense sonar became available.

"Pings" are only heard from low-resolution civilian sonar today, and even they're getting rare as the value of sweep tones becomes more apparent and transducers get cheaper. So for what we want the sonar in the Cyclops to do, a sweep is the way to go.

Maalteromm

The cyclops is clearly using an advanced sonar, the ping sound is just for effect. My guess is that the Alterran society is extremely retrophile, adopting several trends and mannerisms from the early human information age.
As the most abundant historical inspiration, pop culture is mainly referenced.

I would like to add to Scifiwriterguy spoiler that higher frequencies displays better resolution (you can perceive more details), whilst lower frequencies have higher penetration (goes deeper in the water). Bear in mind that while using sonar to search for something, that something will be also hearing your emissions and will be able to estimate where they are coming from, there's even sound tracking torpedoes.
Curiosity note, oceanic seismic profiling (mapping the geological structure below the seafloor) utilizes really low frequencies, extremely hazardous to sealife. All in the holy name of the Oil & Gas industry.

WhiteWeasel

Maalteromm wrote: »

The cyclops is clearly using an advanced sonar, the ping sound is just for effect. My guess is that the Alterran society is extremely retrophile, adopting several trends and mannerisms from the early human information age.
As the most abundant historical inspiration, pop culture is mainly referenced.

It could be like the EVE online thing where superficial sounds are played back to the user for mental stimulation to help fight off the effects of crippling silence.