Akoostix announced a number of significant achievements as it moved into its fourth year of business. The business is strong and growing for the third year in a row, with excellent prospects for the future. (more…)
Review/Inventory of Active Acoustic Methods and Technologies for Marine Mammal Monitoring
DRDC Atlantic in partnership with Akoostix has been awarded a contract to conduct a survey and review of active acoustic monitoring (AAM) technologies and methods. The contract, funded by the Joint Oil and Gas Industry Programme (JIP) on Sound and Marine Life, has been motivated by increasing regulatory requirements for oil and gas companies to monitor marine mammals at sea during exploration and production (E&P) activities, in particular those that generate significant amounts of acoustic energy. AAM is being investigated as a way of addressing the shortcomings of other monitoring methods, such as visual and passive acoustic monitoring, which are less effective in low visibility situations and when mammals are not vocalizing.
Development of Computer Detection Algorithms for Sidescan Sonar Data
Today Akoostix was awarded its first contract to support the mine countermeasures (MCM) community. This contract requires implementation of a flexible framework for reading in and conversion of sidescan sonar data, performing automated target detection, and fusing detection results to arrive at an integrated detection decision. The work provides access to a new domain for the company, while exploiting significant overlap in reliable, reusable, cross-platform software development, underwater acoustics, and automated target detection. The resulting software will be modular in design allowing for the easy future inclusion of additional data sources and algorithms using a plug-in framework.
Land Acoustics and Seismic Surveillance Literature Review – Contract Award
Akoostix has been selected to execute the Land Acoustics and Seismic Surveillance Literature Review for DRDC Atlantic. This contract will support DRDC’s Land Acoustics and Seismic studies for Surveillance Operations (LASSO) project, and will assist them in refining their research direction. Our team will be summarizing the existing knowledge and current state of the art concerning the utilization of acoustic and seismic sensors on or near land. The emphases will be on their use for operational surveillance and on existing techniques and trends for target classification using on-land or land-based acoustic and seismic sensors.
Spring Update – 2008
Akoostix announced today that it has exceeded its previous year’s sales less then seven months into its fiscal year. Current year sales include a number of milestones:
- Largest single contract to date (in value),
- First international customer, and,
- First non-defence customer; all of which have resulted in,
- A new, full-time employee.
The scope of this year’s work includes research trial support, system development, and advanced prototype development across:
- Torpedo defence,
- Active multistatics,
- Autonomous surveillance,
- Underwater communications, and,
- Marine mammal monitoring / environmental mitigation.
This project work will provide solutions to both the defence and oil and gas industries.
Maritime Acoustic Symposium
Akoostix will sponsor the Maritime Acoustic Symposium organized and hosted by the Acoustic Data Analysis Centre – Atlantic. This bi-annual event brings together military and civilian experts in the field of underwater acoustics from around the world. During the symposium Akoostix will co-present “Mitigating Multistatic Active Sonar Operator Overload using Clutter Displays” with DRDC Atlantic scientist Nicole Collison.
Acoustic Modem – Contract Award
Akoostix has been selected by DRDC Atlantic and Omnitech Inc to support experimental development of an underwater acoustic modem. Our expertise in DSP and conversion / integration of Matlab software into C/C++ will play a vital role in the success of this project. The underwater acoustic modem is intended to support ongoing development of autonomous underwater systems that will be used to modernize Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR).
RDS Design Review and Re-Engineering Study – Contract Award
Akoostix Inc. announced today that it has won a competitive bid for support to the Rapidly Deployable Systems (RDS) Post Technology Demonstration Project (TDP) Systems Design Review and Re-engineering Study. This important work will investigate and recommend the best approach to use as RDS is migrated towards operational use. Both the processing hardware and software designs will be examined. The Canadian and some allied militaries have expressed a significant level of interest in using RDS operationally.
Trials Support – Contract Award
It was announced today that Akoostix Inc. has been awarded additional funding to provide increased trial support for the Marine Mammal Mitigation / Towed Array and Sonobuoy Multistatic Trials. Akoostix Inc. will be supplying a second person to provide trial planning, data gathering, and acoustic analysis expertise to augment DRDC scientists during the trials. These events will take place in the Caribbean between January and February 2007.
Fighting Operator Overload – Contract Award
Today Akoostix Inc. announces its successful win of the competitive bid for Fighting Operator Overload. This project focuses on examining the reduction in acoustic operator’s overload. The overload resulted from increases in system performance, processing improvements, and the introduction of new analysis tools. Specifically, the goal is to show how localization aids and clutter tools can be integrated to improve overall system performance and reduce operator overload. These tools – the localization and clutter algorithms – have been developed at DRDC Atlantic and incorporated into the Software Tools for Analysis and Research (STAR) suite over the past three years. Initial evidence of the usefulness of these tools has been demonstrated during STAR preliminary analysis of real data. Now the STAR tools will be used for more in-depth data analysis centered on standard measures of performance, such as probability of detection, probability of false alarm, and time to detection. The result will be a more quantitative measure of the tools’ effectiveness towards mitigating operator overload. Akoostix has teamed with Human Systems Incorporated who will provide expertise and consulting on human factors engineering.