Titanic Calling: Low Bandwidth Video Conference from the Titanic Wreck

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel low-bandwidth communication system for deep-sea missions, enabling speech-to-text messaging and lip-synchronous video reconstruction during Titanic wreck dives, demonstrating feasibility and acceptable latency.

Contribution

We developed and tested a deep-sea communication system that converts speech to text and reconstructs lip-synchronous videos over sonar-based links, a novel approach for underwater communication.

Findings

Achieved acceptable latency in deep-sea communication

Demonstrated high-quality lip-synchronous video reconstruction

Validated system during actual Titanic dive

Abstract

In this paper, we report on communication experiments conducted in the summer of 2022 during a deep dive to the wreck of the Titanic. Radio transmission is not possible in deep sea water, and communication links rely on sonar signals. Due to the low bandwidth of sonar signals and the need to communicate readable data, text messaging is used in deep-sea missions. In this paper, we report results and experiences from a messaging system that converts speech to text in a submarine, sends text messages to the surface, and reconstructs those messages as synthetic lip-synchronous videos of the speakers. The resulting system was tested during an actual dive to Titanic in the summer of 2022. We achieved an acceptable latency for a system of such complexity as well as good quality. The system demonstration video can be found at the following link: https://youtu.be/C4lyM86-5Ig