Next-Level Connectivity
State-of-the-art Rugged Computer
Crystal Clear Display
Historically, to discover what a marine mammal hears, you would have to have it under human care and you’d have to train it to respond when played a sound it could hear. It would have to either touch a paddle or make a sound to tell you that it heard the sound or remain quiet or still if it did not hear a sound. It’s basically how we do hearing tests with humans, who press a button when they hear a sound. But, that only works for animals that are under human care. Based upon work that the president of the National Marine Mammal Foundation started decades ago, they are now able to conduct “auditory evoked Potential “hearing tests, which measure the voltages the brain produces when an animal hears a sound.
While studying marine mammals’ hearing abilities, the National Marine Mammal Foundation’s team needed a rugged, reliable, and mobile computing solution that could withstand prolonged exposure - to sand, wind, mist, and crashing waves. These elements can be detrimental to electronic and computing devices.
They also needed the benefit of an expansion chassis that we could put a PCI or PCIe data acquisition card into to facilitate a program and system that Dr. Jim Finneran of the US Navy Marine Mammal Program developed. The computer basically becomes a portable EEG machine that they can run around the globe with, use it to play sounds to marine mammals, and record the brain waves as they hear them.
Getac has been a critical part of National Marine Mammal Foundation work on marine mammal hearing. Sound is vital to marine mammals, and they are adapted to hearing sound underwater. So when National Marine Mammal Foundation trying to understand how ocean noise impacts marine mammals, that fundamental piece of information that they need to know is what the marine mammals can hear.
Through the use of Getac devices, the NMMF team is able to pick up and move from place to place, rather than having to perform their research in a laboratory environment.
Throughout their marine mammal research, the sealed design of the X500 perfectly protects the device against dust, sand, and moisture. The X500 has been independently tested and certified to MIL-STD-810G, IP65, MIL-STD-461G, and ANSI/ISA 12.12.01 standards.
You pick the environment and how bad it can be and we’ve pretty much been there. Sandy beaches with the windblowing on us, working in the rain, always by saltwater, daily by the ocean. Getac has proven its worth over the years.
National Marine Mammal Foundation
The National Marine Mammal Foundation (NMMF) is a nonprofit organization recognized globally as a leader in marine mammal science, medicine, and conservation. Our team of experts is answering critical questions about the health of the world’s marine mammals and our shared oceans.The NMMF has a mission to improve and protect life for marine mammals, humans, and our shared oceans through science, service, and education.
