Reference Materials

If you are interested in additional references in specific areas, please contact Polson Enterprises.

• Sensor Technologies
  • Parra's Marine Biological Sensing Research
  • Other Biological Sensing Efforts
  • Ambient Noise Imaging
  • Faucet Sensors
  • Hydrophones
  • Aquatic Wildlife Detection Sensors
  • Fish Farm Security Systems
  • Other Military Sensors
  • Miscellaneous Sensors
  • Signal Conditioning in Noisy Environments
• Propellers
  • Conventional Propeller Guards
  • Interesting Propeller Devices
  • Propeller Injuries
  • Propeller Injury Lawsuits
  • Aircraft Propellers
• Rescue Operations
  • Devices to Locate People for Water Rescue
  • Other Rescue Situation Body Detectors
  • Swimming Pool Monitors
• Prop Guard Articles
• Coast Guard & Industry Meetings
• Some Suggested System Design Parameters
• Patent Classifications and Search Words

Sensors

Parra's Marine Biological Sensing Research

Jorge Parra did extensive work in the area of detecting biological signals in water. Perhaps his work on detecting presence by detecting biological signals (cardiological, skeletal and respiratory noises) could be utilized to detect people near propellers. U.S. Patent 5,146,208 does an excellent job of presenting his research in this area. His patents (not all of which are still active) include:

• 5,031,637 Non-invasive diagnostic method and apparatus
• 5,099,455 Passive acoustic aquatic animal finder apparatus and method
• 5,146,208 Method and apparatus for detecting intrusion into a body of water
• 5,168,471 Integrated passive acoustic and active ultrasonic marine aquatic finder system
• 5,168,473 Integrated passive acoustic and active marine aquatic apparatus and method
• 5,168,474 Acoustic marine aquatic life detector with resonance chamber
• 5,255,685 Acoustic diagnostic apparatus with scan control
• 5,313,556 Acoustic method and apparatus for identifying human sonic sources

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Other Biological Sensing Efforts

• Noncontact and noninvasive microwave biological measurements. Misawa, Kutsumi, Tada, Kim, Nakai, Miyabo, Hamada, Arai, Suzuki. Journal of Cardiology. 1990. Vol.20 No.1. Pgs.209-216. Abstract available from PubMed. Doppler sensors detected heart signals from individuals wearing clothes. Band-pass filters were used to remove patients motions and respiratory motion.

• The Army has developed an "Acoustic Monitoring Pad" for field medics use in detecting heartbeat and lung sounds. The device is small fluid filled pouch with a hydrophone in it. When placed on a body, it does an excellent job of coupling the body's sounds in a field environment.
  • Prototype Acoustical Monitoring Pad. NASA Technical Reports. Document ID: 19970017007 (97N119374). Report Number: AD-A319519. 20 pages.

  • Acoustic sensor pad for physiological monitoring

• An ESD (Enclosed Space Detection) System developed at Oak Ridge Federal Laboratory assists security and law officials in determining if an individual is hidden in an enclosed space such as a car, truck or shipping container. The individual's heartbeat shock wave or ballistocardiogram results in small, but detectable movements of the surface of the vehicle which are detected by the device.
  • Enclosed Space Detection System National Prototype Center Success Story.

  • Enclosed Space Detection System 1997 R&D- 100 award winner.

  • The tell-tale heart CNN story of the device.

  • Ballistocardiogram Human Presence Detection Technology Demonstration National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center

  • Microsearch Security and Surveillance System to Detect Human Presence in Vehicles by Sensing Heartbeats A commercially available system from Ensco.

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Ambient Noise Imaging

• 5,333,129 Acoustic imaging in the ocean using ambient noise
  Patent includes several references to this technology and is assigned to Univ of CA at Oakland. The technology involves using the background noise already present in a body of water to image objects.

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Faucet Sensors

• 5,694,653 Water control sensor and method
  Capacitance sensor for a faucet. Patent includes excellent background materials on this application.

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Hydrophones

• 5,155,707 OMNI-Directional Hydrophone
  Special hydrophone and mounting method for attaching it to a vibrating structure (such as a marine drive) and canceling drive noises while allowing detecting other noise sources. This is a US Navy Patent.

• Dolphin Phone
  Economical commercially available hydrophone for listening to dolphins.

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Aquatic Wildlife Detection Sensors

• 5,450,063 Bird avert system
  Microwave systems detects birds about to land on polluted water and scares them away.

• 5,307,052 Bio-amplifier for sensing the bio-electric field of fish
  Bio-amplifier detects and amplifies ventilation (breathing ) of fish.

• AWARE sonar is being tested to whale detection to avoid ship impacts at the Ocean Technology Center in Narragansett RI.

• Fish Stock Assessment Using a Horizontally Steered Parametric Sonar. Vaccaro, Christian and Novick. Oceans Conference Record (IEEE). Proceedings of the 1995 MTS/IEEE Oceans Conference Part 2 of 3. Oct. 9-13, 1995. Pgs. 265-271.
  Discusses use of horizontal looking sonar.

• Automatic system for monitoring fish passage at dams. Castignolles, Cattoen and Larinier. Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society of Digital Image Processing XVII Jul 26-29 1994. v 2298 1994 San Diego, CA. Pgs. 419-429.
  Video system both counts fish and recognizes them by species.

• 5,603,287 Animal sensing and repelling system
  Senses dogs and cats in your yard. Turns on light and sprays them with water.

• Passive Acoustic Sensor System for Marine Mammal Detection
  A 1998 Navy SBIR award. Passive acoustic sensor is developed from sonobuoy technology.

• Orincon
  Marine Mammal detection sensors.

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Fish Farm Security Systems

The patents below can be found in the Worldwide Patents section of the European Patent Office

• WO9001758 (World Organization Patent) Security System
  System detects boats, divers, seals and poachers attempting to loot fish farms.

• GB2268266 (Great Britain Patent) Fish Farm Cage Security System
  Detects seals and intruders at fish farms.

• AU4349893 (Australian Patent) Fish Farm Cage Security System
  Australian version of the Great Britan Patent above.

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Other Military Sensors

• 4,349,897 Bistatic Doppler underwater intrusion detection system
  Bistatic sonar detects waders, swimmers and others entering the protected zone. Patent is assigned to US Navy.

• PADD Portable Acoustic Doppler Detector
  Detects surface and underwater swimmers.

• Aquamesh Fiber optic armed underwater security barrier.
  Detects underwater intruders.

• EAST Environmentally Adaptive Sonar Technology
  The Office of Navy Research is working with the University of Washington to study the effects and problems of deep water sensors in shallow noisy waters.

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Miscellaneous Sensors

• 4,780,085 Lap Timing Device
  System for timing swimming laps includes ultrasonic proximity sensor to detect completion of each lap.

• 5,369,269 Human Body Detection System
  Infrared detector assigned to Mitsubishi

• 5,712,623 Small-sized alarm device
  Device hangs on a door knob and sends an alarm when someone approaches the door knob.

• 5,724,024 Device for Detecting presence of persons on seats
  Detects breathing and/or heart beat

• 5,760,688 Body Sensing Device
  Oscillator discriminates between humans an inanimate objects

• Technology for pyroelectric sensors detects human motion. Yamamoto. JEE. Journal of Electronic Engineering (Japan). Vol.32. No.344. Aug. 1995. Pages 19-21.
  Active and passive sensors detect human motion by sensing small amounts of infrared radiation generated when people move.

• Sensor array for human-body detection based on pyroelectric polyvinylidene fluoride. Freitag and Meixner. IEEE Transactions on Electrical Insulation Sixth International Symposium on Electrets. Sep 1-3 1988. Vol.24 No.3. June 1989. Oxford England. Pgs. 469-472.
  PVDF sensors can determine presence, distance and direction of movement. This work is being done by Siemens AG.

• Synergistic Radar: Novel applications and performance. Gagnon and Frechette. IEEE Annual International Carnahan Conference on Security Technology. Proceedings of the 28th Annual 1994 International Carnahan Conference on Security Technology Oct 12-14 1994 Albuquerque NM. Pgs. 26-30.
  Detects movement of humans by monitoring disturbances to commercial FM radio signals. A marine drive might actually be used as an antenna sensor.

• IR sensor using functional semiconducting fiber and application to human detection. Muto, Misyayama, Yanagida, Kajiwara, Mori, Imai, Harada and Ichikawa. Electronics & Communications in Japan. Part II. Vol. 74 No.9. Sept. 1991. Pgs.104-116.
  Development of a fast response infrared human sensor.

• Human presence detection by capacitive proximity sensor. Buck and Aherin. Applied Engineering in Agriculture. Vol.7 No.1. Jan 1991. Pgs.55-60.
  Capacitive sensors used to detect humans even when covered with water or mud in Agricultural applications. Prototype has range of 20 cm. This work was done at the Univ. of Illinois in Urbana.

• Shorrock Electronics Systems 810 T-Line System.
  Capacitance sensor works as two wires which are excited by low radio frequency. When the signals are disturbed, the disturbance is compared to the signature of a human disturbance to reduce false alarms.

• The charge transfer sensor. Phillipp. Sensors. Nov. 1996.
  This sensor uses broad spectrum signals to make ordinary objects (marine drives??) proximity sensitive. The sensor described if from Quantum Research.

• SmarTek Systems Passive Acousic Sensors
  This solar powered sensor detects vehicles by sound.

• The Basic Principles of Microwave Proximity Sensing. Sensors. May 1991.
  Describes the ruggedness of Microwave sensors and displays an example of a unit used to sense pedestrians in a rail road yard.

• Perimeter Security Sensor Technologies Handbook frrom the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technologies Center (NLECTC) does a great job of describing in depth the sensors frequently used in security applications.

• Desert Star Systems
  Systems to sense position and location of divers.

New Sensors Encountered After this Paper was Published

• Radar and sterovision used by Pittsburgh Port Authority and Pennsylvania Dept. of Transportation to alert metro bus drivers a person is near the bus. CCD images are examined for human "signatures". See Photonics Spectra. June 1999. Page 100. Could a very similar application indicate the presence of people in the water near a propeller?

See the OMNI-Directional Hydrophone patent in the hydrophones section.
• 5,209,237 Method and apparatus for detecting a signal from a noisy environment and fetal heartbeat obtaining method.
  This patent also covers the system described below.

  Passive Aero-Acoustic Sensor Self Interference Cancellation. Phase 1. Rosenthal and Stevens. ADA284991. Abstract of report is in STINET database of Defense Technology Information Center (DTIC) web site.
  Some Army vehicles carry air-acoustic sensor systems to detect and identify other vehicles and aircraft. This system cancels the noise of the vehicle the system is mounted on to improve the performance of the system. Work was done by Signal Separation Technologies of Annandale VA.

• 5,418,359 Method and apparatus for detecting objects with range-dependent blocking
  Patent includes a large number of referenced patents of similar technologies (limiting range of the sensors).

• Reson A/S Sonar Systems's Seabat 6012 is used to detect swimmers and marine mammals.

• 3,889,624 Retractable Propeller Guard for Outboard Motor or Stern Drive Unit. 1975. Donald G. Balius.

• 4,078,516 Propeller Guard. 1978. Donald G. Balius.

• 4,106,425 Marine Propulsion Unit with Protected Screw. 1978. Ludwig Gruber, Freilasing. (Germany)

• 4,411,631 Propeller Guard. Eero Makinen, Espoo and Stefan Gordin. (Finland)

• 4,304,558 Marine Propulsion Device Including Propeller Shroud. OMC

• 4,565,533 Boat Propeller Guard. 1986. Manford H. Springer.(Canada)

• 4,826,461 Propeller Protector. 1990. Brunswick.

• 4,957,459 Propeller Shroud with Load Bearing Structure. 1990. Brunswick.

• 5,009,620 Propeller Guard. 1991. Louis Feranda, Sr.

• 5,238,432 Marine drive unit impact avoidance system
  A "wand" precedes the drive. If it hits something, the drive swings up without the object actually hitting the drive.

• JP5310188 (Japan) Safety Device for Small Ship
  A "net type" prop guard swings out of the way at high speeds, but comes back over the prop at low speeds, specifically to protect divers.

• The US Coast Guard Boating Safety Federal Register Page has a link to several Coast Guard attempts to gather public comments on propeller injuries. Especially those involving rented boats and house boats.

• 1995 & 1996 U.S. Coast Guard Boat Accident Statistics

• Motorboat propeller injuries. Mendez-Fernandez. Annals of Plastic Surgery. Aug. 1998. Vol.41 No.2. Pgs. 113-118.
  Experience with nine propeller injuries are presented.

• Propeller injuries. Mann. Southern Medical Journal. Vol.69 No,5. May 1976. Pgs.567-569.
  Information on nine cases and bacteria problems are discussed.

• Propeller injuries incurred in boating accidents. Mann. American Journal of Sports Medicine. Vol.8 No.4. Jul-Aug 1980. Pgs.280-284.
  Information on 32 cases are presented. Bacteria, salt water and contamination are discussed.

• Study of Boat and Boat Propeller-Related Injuries in the United States, 1991-1992. National Center for Injury Prevention and Control and U.S. Coast Guard. Available from NTIS.

• A study of boat and boat propeller-related injuries in the United States, 1991-1992. Branche-Dorsey CM, Smith SM, Johnson D.Washington, DC: US Department of Transportation, US Coast Guard, 1993 (report no. CG-D-12-93).

• Motorboat Propeller Injuries [monograph]. Vernick, J.S. and Associates. The Johns Hopkins University and the Institute for Injury Reduction, Sept 1992.

• Motorboat propeller injuries in Wisconsin: enumeration and prevention. Hargarten, Karlson, Vernick and Aprahamian. Journal of Trauma. Vol.37 No.2. Aug 1994. Pgs.187-190.

• Outboard motor propeller injuries. Kutarski. Injury. Vol.20. No.2. Mar 1989. Pgs.87-91.
  Seven cases are examined from a medical standpoint.

• Boat-propeller related injuries - Texas 1997. JAMA Vol.279 No. 23. Jun 1998. Page 1858.
  Background data is online.
  Additional info on the same study is available in the Vol.47 No.17. May 8, 1998 issue of Morbitity and Mortality Weekly Report.

• Motorboat propeller injuries. Price and Moorefield. Journal of the Florida Medical Assoc.Vol.76 No.4. June 1987. Pgs.399-401.

• Causes and mechanisms of surgical care in propeller injuries. Sabol. Acta Chir Iugosl. 1977; 24 Suppl 2:331-9. Serbo-Croation (Roman)

• Speedboat propeller injuries. Sleight. British Medical Journal. 1974 May 25;2(916). Pgs.427-428.

• SPIN Stop Propeller Injuries Now
  A group promoting propeller safety

• FITZPATRICK v. MADONNA and Outboard Marine Corp, Appeal of OUTBOARD MARINE CORPORATION. 623 Atlantic Reporter 2nd Series, pgs. 322-327.
• PREE v. The BRUNSWICK CORPORATION. 983 Federal Reporter 2nd Series (8th Cir. 1993), pages 863-868.
• WOLTERING v. OUTBOARD MARINE CORPORATION. 615 North Eastern Reporter, 2nd Series, pages 86-89.
• FARNER v. BRUNSWICK CORPORATION. 607 North Eastern Reporter, 2nd Series, pages 562-568.
• CALABRO v. OUTBOARD MARINE CORPORATION. 599 Southern Reporter, 2nd Series, pages 717-718.
• HIGHTOWER v. COX. 418 South Eastern Reporter, 2nd Series, pages 613-616.
• MOORE v. BRUNSWICK BOWLING & BILLIARDS CORPORATION, MERCURY DIVISION. 853 South Western Reporter 2nd Series, pages 842-850.
• BEECH through BEECH v. OUTBOARD MARINE CORPORATION. 584 Southern Reporter, 2nd Series, pages 447-450.
• ELLIOTT v. BRUNSWICK CORPORATION. 903 Federal Reporter, 2nd Series, pages 1505-1510.
• SHIELDS v. OUTBOARD MARINE CORPORATION. 776 Federal Supplement pages 1579-1583.
• MOWERY v. MERCURY MARINE, DIVISION OF BRUNSWICK CORPORATION. 773 Federal Supplement, pages 1012-1018.

In Ryan v. Brunswick the Michigan Supreme Court affirmed: 209 Mich App 519; 531 NW2d 793 (1995).
Another version of the case report is online in Lawyer's Weekly.

The recent Lewis v. Brunswick suit involved an Oklahoma teenage girl who fell into the water and was fatally injured by a propeller. The decision in favor of Brunswick was upheld in the 11 Circuit and the family pushed the case to the Supreme Court. The case was settled for an estimated $700K (probably small in terms of the legal expenses) but sets a new precedent for Brunswick which has not backed down from a prop suit. Perhaps they felt the court was about to reverse their longstanding defense? This case should particularly interest boat builders in new methods of protecting people in the water.

• Lewis v. Brunswick 11th Circuit Court Opinion

• Supreme Court dismisses boat safety dispute

• Propeller Guards (Fall 98)

8504	Plaintiff	Coral Gables, Florida	Rendall v. Karabas	Foot severed by boat's propellers
8511	Defense	Metairie, Louisiana	Undetermined	Occupants were ejected and struck by boat
8716	Plaintiff	Baton Rouge, Louisiana	Evans v. Bennett	Occupant fell overboard and was run over
8802	Plaintiff	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	Levin v. Bates	Inattentive boat driver ran over a fallen skier
8834	Plaintiff	Key West, Florida	Calabro v. Burgess	Raceboat collided during race; prop injury
8908	Plaintiff	Bradenton, Florida	Cole v. Eubanks & Manatee County	Boat ran over a skindiver; leg was amputated
8923	Plaintiff	Miami, Florida	Redmon v. Carr	Boarding waterskier sliced his leg on prop
8945	Plaintiff	New York, New York	Schenck v. Walt Disney World	Ferryboat ran over a patron in rental boat
8954	Plaintiff	Bloomfield, Michigan	Koble v. Tabor	Swimmer was run over by a boat *Fatal
9037	Plaintiff	Clearwater, Florida	Meyer v. City of Clearwater	Boat ran over a swimmer close to buoys
9120	Defense	Miami, Florida	Stamper v. Goldring/Hewes	Boat without kill-switch ran over the driver
9259	Defense	Costa Mesa, California	Riley v. Zodiac of North America	Boat ran over ejected driver, prop injuries
9330	Plaintiff	Glasgow, Kentucky	Raines v. Renken Boat Manufacturing	Boat without kill-switch struck ejected driver
9350	Defense	Ventura, California	Kavezadeh v. Zodiac of France	Prop injury, woman fell overboard off pontoon
9401	Plaintiff	Kissimmee, Florida	Caban v. Walt Disney World	Prop injury, boy's arm mangled by propguard
9469	Plaintiff	Dallas, Texas	Ramsey v. Catfish Bay Marina	Boat rental propeller laceration on fallen tuber
9538	Plaintiff	Seattle, Washington	Karl Becker v. US Marine	Boat's sharp turn threw passenger, cut by propeller
9574	Plaintiff	Salisburg, Maryland	Higgins v. Ocean City Amusement Park	Small skeeter boat flipped, passing propeller cut rider

• 5,074,488 Aircraft engine deactivation apparatus
  Sensors detect people near propellers or jet intakes and brakes are used to stop the units.

• An Analysis of Civil Aviation Propeller-to-Person Accidents: 1965-79.Collins, Mastrullo, Kirkham, and Grape. Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine. May 1982. Pages 458-462.

• Review of Civil Aviation Propeller-to-Person Accidents: 1980-1989. Collins. Published January 1993. 10 pages. Available from NTIS.

Rescue Operations

• 4,305,143 Automatic man overboard sensor and rescue system
  Transmitter worn by person, activates upon hitting the water.

• 5,408,238 Location of overboard person or object or of water-chemical interface
  Floatable object containing signal broadcasting means is thrown near the person or object.

• 5,597,335 Marine personnel rescue system and apparatus
  Autonomous or semi-autonomous marine vehicle searches for persons in distress by using video, thermal and audio sensors

• PL164169 (Poland Patent) Method of and apparatus for performing rescue searching, in particular for detection of person buried as result of landslide

• Mobile microwave sensor for detection of trapped human beings. Aggelopoulos, Karabetsos, Constantinou and Uzunoglu. Measurement: Journal of the International Measurement Confederation. Vol.18 No.3. July 1996. Pgs. 177-183.
  Trying to design X band microwave to detect human movement (heartbeat and breathing) of people trapped behind rubble or obstacles.

• 4,331,957 Transponder for use in locating avalanche victims
  Victims must wear a reflector.

• 4.850,031 Avalanche victim locating apparatus
  Individuals wear a light sensitive triggering device that begins transmitting when buried in snow.

• 4,604,610 Swimming Pool Alarm
  Uses both a hydrophone (sound detection) and deep wave detection to sense people in a pool.

• 4,853,691 Method and apparatus for the acoustic signaling of cases of drowning in swimming pools
  Underwater wave sensor to detect people in a pool.

  Underwater wave sensor to detect people in a pool.

• 4,932,009 Apparatus and method for detecting swimmers
  Transducers on opposite sides of body of water monitor interruptions in ultrasonic waves. Can be used as a swimming pool sensor or as an intrusion detector.

• 5,162,777 Submerged alarm device for monitoring swimming pools
  Wave detector senses people in pools.

• 5,563,580 Aquatic splash detection system
  Sensors count the number of adults and children entering and leaving an area, motion detectors detect presence near pool, pool cleaning equipment is switched off periodically and splash detectors determine presence of children in the pool.

• 5,828,304 Pool Monitoring System
  Unit detects sound in the water to detect presence of people in a pool.

Propeller Guard Articles

• Prop Guards prevent injuries. Dr. Robert A. Warren. Expertise, Inc. Boat & Motor Dealer. Nov. 1999. Pg. 44.
• Prop guard regulations may be coming. Bob Duke. Boating Industry International. June 2000. Pgs. 36-39.

Coast Guard & Industry Meetings

• Report of the Propeller Guard Subcommittee. The National Boating Safety Advisory Council. Presented Nov. 7, 1989.

Some Suggested System Design Parameters

• Totally self contained - nothing required to be worn by people in the water
• Detect presence of humans partially or totally submerged within 6 feet of a stationary or rotating marine propeller
• Does not give false signals due to waves, prop exhaust, fish, drive noise, boat noises, noise from people on the boat, fixed objects (piers, docks, dock bumpers) that may be present at takeoff.
• Provides a signal within .25 second of an individual entering the protected zone.
• Requires minimal electrical power (12 volt or internally supplied or solar powered)
• Durable and packaged for a water and or salt water environment
• Sensors not effected by algae, barnacles and other marine growth
• Normal life exceeding 5 years when used in a normal recreational boat
• Means of mounting the device to avoid boat drag when underway.
• No boat or drive modifications required
• Means of testing it (like smoke detector push button)
• Provides indication it is "on"
• Means of transmitting signal from device to the alarm
• Detects people in wet suits
• Detects people with air tanks
• Not effected by murky water
• Detection is not effected by rain
• Not effected by surf
• Not effected by reflections from shallow bottom or the waters surface
• Minimal false alarms
• Does not attract fish to the propeller area
• Lightweight and small
• Cost - low enough for people to feel it is of great value for the service it provides

Patent Classes and Search Words

Some search words we found especially useful in the various databases and search engines while researching this topic were:

• intrusion, intruder
• detect, detector, detection
• sensor
• human proximity sensor
• hydrophone
• presence
• security
• surveillance
• covert
• safety
• water
• marine
• underwater
• shallow water
• swimming pool
• littoral (coastal waters term used by military)
• propeller
• propeller strikes
• propeller guard
• marine mammal
• fish
• human
• person
• body
• swimmer
• diver, scuba, frogman, Navy Seal
• fish sensor, locator, detector
• human, person
• body
• man over board, MOB
• buried
• avalanche
• ESDS (Enclosed Space Detection System)
• injury, injuries
• ballistocardiogram
• sonar
• bistatic sonar
• bistatic doppler
• ANI (Ambient Noise Imaging)
• ADONIS (Acoustic Daylight Ocean Noise Imaging)
• passive acoustic
• background noise

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