Flashing Light to Text Converter (FLTC) trials

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Little h
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Flashing Light to Text Converter (FLTC) trials

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Had to check the date of this article to see if it was an April 1st contribution, but no it's genuine - with the penultimate paragraph reading as follows:-

First developed in 2015 by ONR's rapid-response TechSolutions program and Creative MicroSystems Corp, FLTC will be delivered to the Naval Surface and Mine Warfighting Development Center (SMWDC) later this year for testing and evaluation. The hope is that a standard retrofit kit will be issued throughout the US fleet next year.


US Navy tests signal lamp-based ship-to-ship texting
David Szondy July 18th, 2017

The US Navy has brought signal lamp ship-to-ship communications into the texting age. In a recent test, the guided-missile destroyer USS Stout flashed a message in fast light bursts across 250 ft (76 m) of water to the guided-missile cruiser USS Monterey tied up at a pier at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia. It did this using a signal lamp retrofitted with the Flashing Light to Text Converter (FLTC) system, which allows sailors who aren't experts in Morse code to quickly send and receive messages.
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In an age of sophisticated digital radio systems that can stream gigabytes of data in a matter of seconds, the signal or Aldis lamp has the advantages of simplicty. It can't be jammed, it can't be tapped into, it works if the main power supply or satellite communications are knocked out, and it can be used for ship-to-ship communications even under the strictest of radio silence conditions.

The problem is that sending messages by signal lamp is slow. Worse, it depends on being proficient in Morse code and that's a problem in a modern world where Morse is almost never used in either naval or civilian circles. This means that lamp operators need to be specially trained and it's very hard to achieve the right speed and accuracy in sending and receiving.
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The system is still in prototype form and consists of either step motors to operate the lamp shutters or LEDs that replace the usual incandescent bulbs, while at the other end a GoPro camera captures Morse code flashes from the other ship. In between sits a proprietary converter in the form of a handheld device or a laptop that runs specialized software algorithms. These convert messages tapped out on the screen into Morse code that is flashed from the lamp, or converts received Morse code falshes back into text messages that are displayed onscreen.

This makes it possible for anyone to send and receive signals without knowing anything about Morse code, while allowing a more traditional signalman to communicate with them without difficulty.
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Source; newatlas.com Military; where the full article can be read (plus a short video at the end); and a further 5 images can be viewed using this link.
a Flashing Light to Text Converter (FLTC) signal-lamp-3.jpg
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Little h

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