Tracking Ilusion

[grandpacharlie]

Help! This is difficult to explain but here goes.

I tracked a target with the hydrophones. It was off to one side, infront and moving away in a parallel path and this created the false idea in my mind that it was going to cross my path when actually it was moving away. Its location on the hydrophone kept getting closer to straight ahead when actually it was escaping. (This illusion is the key to the problem so its important you understand what I am saying)

The hydrophones showed it moving closer and closer to "0" so I plotted a course slightly ahead of it thinking I was heading him and he nearly escaped before i realized what was happening.

So learning from my mistake I made a run straight at him through the poor visibility and found him...when I crashed right into him!

Any suggestions as to how to track a target using the hydrophones and not be caught in either one of these traps?

[dagamecat]

very interesting point, and well explained.

I think here, in real life, the experience of the hydrophone operator really comes into play.

He would be able to determine what type of ship he is tracking by listening to the engines, and therefore be able to estimate the target's speed by listening to the screw speed (however rough his estimate is). He will also be able to estimate a range to the target by listening to the volume of the screws (again, very rough, but an estimate for this exercise is only needed). Finally, he can pretty accurately measure the rate at which the contact is "rotating" along his hydrophone display.

Mathematically, this is all one needs to be able to determine the ship's true course. Given alot of experience on the hydrophone, the operator could probably tell the commander within a respectable time-frame, whether the ship is running roughly parallel, or running a course that would cross the u-boat's course.


However, I don't know if this is possible in the game. Range estimates would be difficult given that we don't actually spend that much time listening to ships on the hydrophone, speed estimates would be virtually impossible. The only thing we can measure is the rate at which the contact "rotates" around us.

We would require months, if not years, to be able to do this well on a real hydrophone, and I do believe that the hydrophones in the game aren't nearly sensitive enough to change, ie. they just don't come close to having a pair of headphones directly connected to an underwater microphone. This would be incredibly hard to model.