A small team of researchers with the University of California has found a way to pick out a single short radio signal burst among a barrage of background noise. In their paper published in the journal Science, the team describes their technique, how it works, how accurate it is and the possible applications it might be used for. Michael Vasilyev, with the University of Texas offers a Perspectives piece on the work done by the team in the same journal issue, noting how some human organs have senses that rely on using a similar technique to make sense of the environment.
As Vasilyev notes, there are a lot of areas in science that could benefit from an ability to isolate a single short signal amongst a stream of noise—astronomy, is just one example. Currently it is impossible to separate out a unique signal if there is just one burst present—there needs to be multiple examples. That could change in the near future as the researchers on this new effort have developed a way to convert radio signals to optical signals that can be processed to filter, separate and identify individual components.
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