A north-east firm has released a new diving communication system so advanced that divers can Skype call their family from beneath the ocean.
Nautronix, an international company specialising in through water communication and positioning technology, has spent more than £1million developing the NASDive system in Aberdeen.
It has been designed to help translate the high-pitched speech coming from workers who have been inhaling helium.
Speaking at the OTC show in Houston yesterday, company chief executive Mark Patterson said that in a deep sea environment, the consequences of poor communication can be life-threatening.
Technical divers working in the offshore oil and gas industry need to communicate clearly with the diving bell, vessel and each other as they carry out maintenance and inspections at huge water depths.
One of the problems faced by commercial divers is that their speech becomes less intelligible the deeper they go. This is due to the increased helium content of their gas mixture to compensate for the effects of high pressure. The gas changes the voice sound produced within the mouth, giving the diver a high-pitched, difficult-to-interpret voice.
“Breathing the gas makes people speak like Donald Duck, so it’s not intelligible,” Mr Patterson said.
“What we do is take that speech, digitise it and make it easy to understand – all in real time”.
NASDive is said to have the latest and most advanced helium speech unscrambler available.
Mr Patterson said the firm was also proud of the “soft features”, which include technology which allows divers to Skype home from the bell during their lengthy periods in isolation.
The firm also used the Houston show to announce a separate £1million contract in Brazil with Ceona.
Nautronix will supply survey services to support Ceona’s new build DP3 subsea construction vessel, the Polar Onyx.
The contract includes the initial survey support and mobilisation of the vessel in Europe before the vessel commences a minimum of one year’s work in Brazil. Nautronix will supply personnel and equipment to provide survey services on the vessel.