'The treasure' helps the plane avoid birds

American scientists have developed a system capable of identifying birds based on their cries. This system can help aircraft avoid birds when taking off or landing.

If the plane hits the bird while taking off, the consequences can be terrible. The possibility of such an event in low-altitude routes near the airport is relatively high. Radar and infrared devices can detect birds but cannot determine whether they are large or small birds.

" Collisions with birds are one of the most important causes in aviation accidents, especially for small aircraft ," said Vincent Stanford, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Maryland, USA. know.

Planes are very easy to hit birds at low flying routes.(Photo: AP)

According to the US Aviation Administration, collisions with birds have caused losses of up to $ 2 billion for US aircraft since 1990.

The size of the bird is directly proportional to the amount of damage they can cause to the aircraft. For example, a goose is a far more frightening threat than a gull or a hawk.

Stanford's team focuses on a human voice recognition software. They collaborate with Maryland-based Intelligent Automation, to make some changes to the software so that it can distinguish the sounds of birds.

A 192 microphone system is arranged in multiple concentric rings on the ground to " capture " the sound of air birds. This model, dubbed " sound telescope " by Stanford, can identify a flock of birds after they are detected by radar or infrared scanner.

The first task of the " sound telescope " is to amplify the sounds coming from the selected directions. The reception time of microphone sounds is of course different. The computer system calculates very small delays between those times, so that the software can determine which direction the sound comes from. People also apply the same technique to determine the location of sound, ie the brain determines the direction of the sound after analyzing the timing of each ear. For example, if the sound comes from the right, the right ear will pick up the sound first, then the left ear.

" We used bird-sound recording tapes to test the system, and then let it work in real environments with different types of noise. The results were very impressive. The sound telescope can distinguish the sounds of different birds, "Stanford said.

According to him, the system's software is capable of distinguishing the sound of a crane, a hawk and a gull within a few seconds. At the moment, " sound telescope " can only detect sounds in a radius of about 100 meters, Stanford said.

" In order to be able to use this system at airports, we have to raise its range to about 2.5 km. This can be done if we increase the number of microphones ," he said.

Viet Linh