Unknown Artefact (or artifact) Community Thread - The Canonn

[LordZoltan]

Hmmm... so I've tried transcribing the higher purrs that start after the morse (so not the low-pitched breathing sounds - I wasn't sure if that's what a few of the others here have been talking about) from Ratking's last video, and, well, I just don't like it. Whilst it's not too difficult to identify low vs high pitched purrs, it's very difficult to get the pacing right. If it were morse, I'd expect the speed to be the same as it is for the system/celestial object name - but it's definitely not the same.

So this is my transcription of the three tests - with '|' representing a new sequence (after a morse burst), 'h' for high and 'l' for low. The spacings are reasonably accurate, I think, but there's too much ambiguity in it for my liking (so don't assume I've got it right!). Sometimes you get the purrs quite close together, but most of the time, the gap between them is just long enough to doubt whether it's, say 'hh' instead of 'h h'.

If you see '||', then it's because there were no purrs between two morse bursts.
There are quite a few 'lll' (and one '||') with question marks following - because I can't be sure if there are three purrs, one, or some other number.

|lh hlh|hh|lll(?)|l h|hhl ll(?) hh| (3:17 onwards)
||h lll(?)|h|hhh lhh|h lll(?)| (8:39 onwards)
|hlh|l hh lhh|lll(?)|hlh|h| (14:25 onwards)

Assigning high-pitched purrs to '.' and low pitched '-', with '|' being mapped to the end of word sign '/' I get this - this transcription:

#1: /-. .-./../---/- ./..- -- ../ => NR I O TE UMI
#2: //. ---/./... -../. ---/ => EO E SD EO
#3 /.-./- .. -../---/.-././ => R TID O R

Correct me if I'm wrong - but that looks like gibberish!

Flipping the interpretation so 'l' is dit, and 'h' is dah, also gives nothing of consequence.

I am actually falling asleep at my computer tho, so it's possible I've just written a post requesting that a green blackbird, called Bernard, is sent to my home ASAP, rather than the masterpiece I've written in my head!

 

[Ratking15]

Someone suggested something similar, but i havent heard any response nor found it on wiki.
UA container when ejected looks rather like it emanates something. Fog + sparkling.
That looks to me like it is extremely cold.
It would make sense if it is something HIGH tech.
Absolute zero -273.15° Celsius is fairly interesting thing in this regard.
At near this temp (we never really reached it yet) laws of physics get rather wild.
cooled matter gets into fifth state of matter liquids are superfluid (they literary flow out of your container
resistors become superconductive
...Its rather interesting topic. Worth to read about.
But back to the topic.
Have you tried to Heat it up a lot near star or just by shooting and having it in cargo hold so it heats up with ship ?
And most importantly
other way around.... it might not be exactly cooled enough.
Have you tried to help it ?
Cool it more - heat sinks and similar?

Already said about and done, it was something I forgot to add to the wiki....

I don't think I've seen this suggested before, so I'll go ahead and do it. Correct me if I'm wrong, but a while back Wishblend did tests on the color pulses of the UA, playing hot/cold with it. We know (think, almost positively though) it's using morse. What about optical telegraphy? Such as the color pulses?

Wishblend went into that and I think it was disproven.

Has anyone tried to FSD somewhere while physically near the artefact? I was reading some of the galnet posts about ships vanishing due to possible failures in the FSD drive, could this be caused by the artefact? The wiki doesn't seem to have anything about this on it's tests, so excuse me if it's already been tried.

That is really hard to do also then the news article would have the escorts then saying about something beside them before they jumped and the place where they jumped from would have residue whcih there was none of.

Its a long shot and makes no sense, but for ruling out purposes i'd have to take one back to Lave, where it all started.

It didn't start at lave though as the first one was found in 109 Virginis (don't quote me on that spelling)

 

[bartmoss]

IF you're collating purrs there's also the "inbetween purrs" https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=162998&p=2501166&viewfull=1#post2501166

Which of course may or may not be relevant to the purrs themselves. =(

I did notice that sometimes there are lower volume purrs, do you mean that? I simply attributed them to recording/camera movement effects.

 

[Han_Zen]

While I appresiate the effort by every one investigating the binary angle of purs and blinks, i can't help thinking it's a dead end.

Because:
- It's not in-game. You have to record and analyse to get any data.

- It's to slow. With binary we need 7 or 8 bits to get a character or a desent number. It would require a lot of purs or blinks even to get a system name or a set of coordinates.

- We don't realy have a separator. The honk could be use, but that gives at best one number per honk.

- it looks random. We never get a repeating patern.

 

[LordZoltan]

While I appresiate the effort by every one investigating the binary angle of purs and blinks, i can't help thinking it's a dead end.

Because:
- It's not in-game. You have to record and analyse to get any data.

- It's to slow. With binary we need 7 or 8 bits to get a character or a desent number. It would require a lot of purs or blinks even to get a system name or a set of coordinates.

- We don't realy have a separator. The honk could be use, but that gives at best one number per honk.

- it looks random. We never get a repeating patern.

As I think you know - I'm firmly with you on the 'it's not binary' angle...

I see a distinct hint of the Cheshire cat's smile when binary is mentioned

 

[bitstorm]

I did notice that sometimes there are lower volume purrs, do you mean that? I simply attributed them to recording/camera movement effects.

There's examples in the link I posted, I break it down into parts.

But as with the purrs themselves I could see no rhyme or reason to them. =(

 

[daygobah]

Could we get some high res sound recordings like flac files.
I used bitstorm's posted between_purrs.wav

Sample Rate: 44KHz
Channels: 2
Bits Per Sample: 16
Size: 6.5MB
Average Bitrate: 1,411kbps

Ran that file through spectro an open source sound tool. I got this spectrograph.


Does someone have access to a better program and better file recording

It looks neat but this resolution doesnt help much think need better recordings and a better software tool.

 

[Han_Zen]

As I think you know - I'm firmly with you on the 'it's not binary' angle...

I see a distinct hint of the Cheshire cat's smile when binary is mentioned

I would have given you a +1 for agreeing to everythig I say tonight, but I'm all out.
Probably why they have that rule.

 

[Eoran]

<snip>
Awesome ;-(

Well, on the up side, at least that means we have a little more structure in the symbols. Assuming that the remaining symbols gathered so far are correct, it is really starting to look like the - and ' in a given group seem to only occur in runs of no more than 2. So if there are is already a sequence of -- then the next seems very likely to be a '

Not sure how long that property will hold, or if it is significant. Guess we just need more data

 

[BloatedPelican]

That is really hard to do also then the news article would have the escorts then saying about something beside them before they jumped and the place where they jumped from would have residue whcih there was none of

Just have someone frameshift to a new system while in normal space next to you and the artefact, I don't see it being a hard thing to do. But if you don't think it's worth it, that's fine. So far all we have is the artefact already telling us where we are, not where to go or how to get there. I was thinking maybe having it nearby would act as a key, and move the jump destination to somewhere else. I honestly think we are overthinking all of this and we need to try simpler things.

 

[Mazhurg]

- it looks random. We never get a repeating patern.

π ?

I am John Snow, I know nothing. However if it's a non repeating random pattern, but always the same then a sequence like π could be involved?

 

[bitstorm]

Just to add something that may or may not have been spotted before about the honk/wails....


It looks like there are two types of honk/wail.

Both types of wail seem to consist of three notes in a dash dot dash sort of format.

Type (1) goes low, high, low. Listen here => https://www.dropbox.com/s/0x9pco57my42b2v/HONK_LHL.wav?dl=0

Type (2) just seems to be the opposite, high, low, high. Listen => https://www.dropbox.com/s/gu7z0gkm4coa7re/HONK_HLH.wav?dl=0

As far as I can see these always alternate in across the cycles, so LHL then next is HLH then LHL and so on...

1. Wail [LHL]
2. [morse location block]
3. Purrs
4. Wail [HLH] - actually maybe HIGH LOW MID?
5. [morse location block]
6. Purrs
7. GOTO 1 =p

I'd suggest LHL feels like a start and HLH like an end marker, but you then have data between end and start which makes no sense!

Perhaps it's some sort of decode format for the enclosing purrs, a key?

As I said before I had some success with flipping "bits" on the morse, but then again in a binary format if you flip selective bits you can produce anything you want. =p

I dunno, just something else to add to the puzzle I guess!

 

[LordZoltan]

I would have given you a +1 for agreeing to everythig I say tonight, but I'm all out.
Probably why they have that rule.https://forums.frontier.co.uk/images/icons/vbposticons/icon12.gifhttps://forums.frontier.co.uk/images/icons/vbposticons/icon10.gif

Same here! And, yeah, probably for the best (works quite well, too - as a longtime user of StackOverflow, this rep system is a good alternative to that model, and works best for forums)

Ah man - how close are we to this bloody puzzle! If it were me, there's no way I could resist giving another clue.... Are you listening FD!?

Or are you going all Jack Nicholson on us? ("You can't handle the truth!")

 

[Han_Zen]

This professor Dex fellow. Maybe we need to him for some hints:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=165975

I knew there was something wrong with that Asling Prismatic/Shades of Prism stuf.

Aisling is an evli, half Fed. half mad little princess. I allmost have to like her.

 

[Nicholas Powell]

While I appresiate the effort by every one investigating the binary angle of purs and blinks, i can't help thinking it's a dead end.

Because:
- It's not in-game. You have to record and analyse to get any data.

- It's to slow. With binary we need 7 or 8 bits to get a character or a desent number. It would require a lot of purs or blinks even to get a system name or a set of coordinates.

- We don't realy have a separator. The honk could be use, but that gives at best one number per honk.

- it looks random. We never get a repeating patern.

Perhaps the purrs are just our ship's interpretation of how the UAs are accessing some network to which they transmit. If certain previous ruminations along with cold, hard verified facts in this thread have merits what we possibly have in an Unknown Artefact is:

A device of apparently non-human (or part-non-human) technological origins which will naturally degrade when outside of a vessel. A device which will even cause escalating damage to any vessel carrying it in a continual 'attempt' to exit said vessel back to an environment in which it will degrade unto unsalvageable self-destruction. Essentially, a suicidal temporary device, seemingly designed to be entirely disposable - and, thereby, difficult to find let alone perform tests on. (Read: a device designed to be covertly deposited by its creators in the knowledge that even if it is found in a ridiculously short time after scanning the presence of an approaching vessel it will present significant difficulties to those attempting to determine its true origins.)

A device which is capable of recognising and/or determining the Universal Cartographics designations for various systems and the celestial bodies and stations therein. So, quite possibly, a device which has either its own access to or was created and programmed by a party with unfettered access to the (otherwise locked-tight?) Universal Cartographics database. A device which sends and/or relays transmissions with those known designations to its creators. (Read: a device which further masks its non-human origins by using human codes in the knowledge that even if it is found it will present significant difficulties to those attempting to determine its true origins.)

A device which was and is being kept very, very secretively by those human authorities who are even aware of its existence. So secretively that even the pilots who had been transporting it in convoys were not fully briefed on the nature of their cargo. A device which those authorities may not wish to inform the public about because of its nature as an indication of a widespread silent infiltration of humanity's transmission network, territory and most well-defended cartographic databases and... worse yet... their current inability to comprehensively determine its components and origins.

A device which may very well have been dropped by a dedicated but unseen vessel along with others of its kind in an ongoing covert placement of such disposable devices in areas of human space which may very well not be limited to those systems in which one has been retrieved.
Maybe it is Thargoids, but I'm tending to think that even if they were proven to be alien but not confirm-able as specifically Thargoid in origin, well... That would be a better play by FDev, leaving further mystery in the wake of the UAs.


Tl;dr? Slyly disposable alien spy-tech which is a sore point for belief in humanity being safely out of the reach of potential superior alien assault.


Anyway! Even I can see mistakes in what I've typed above. For one, degradation is stalled when in a station - but this is possibly either a design oversight in-game or, to be fair to FDev, a way to make it possible to prolong access to these suicidally toxic little buggers. Maybe a bit of both.
For another, it makes no sense for the convoys not to be travelling at max speed to a secure research location with their cargo - rather than bimbling about playing "I Am A Strong Signal Source In Normal Space" and waiting to be hijacked. But, again, that's almost inarguably a deliberate fudge by FDev to actually allow access to a few of them. (If only a few...)
There are almost certainly other failings in what I've typed above. I don't doubt it. It's a wall of text. It was written on the back of an invitation to the Tinfoil Hat Brigade Annual Dinner-Dance. It's a slightly slanted take on the ever-superb results and observations arrived at by far, far more expert minds than my own.
But, honestly, I simply couldn't resist punting up what I'm more and more seeing the Unknown Artefacts as quite possibly being. Considering the 'official leak' from FDev about how solving this mystery will lead to more developments, my wafflings above would seem to fit the bill. At least, in what passes for my brainbox for now...
First the Unknown Artefacts as busy little disposable secretive spies, then the inevitable "Who made them?" Then, more mystery. Then unending terror, for the lulz.

All this said, this is a fun aspect of the wider game and if I'm being honest I won't mind a bit if I'm woefully, starkly and inescapably wrong. So long as it's not something shabby and narratively unimportant in the end. (It may not be a wild goose chase, but that isn't the same as a promise that it's a gold-plated path to unprecedented levels of wonderment.)

Oh, but on another note (as if I haven't typed enough) :

Has a UA ever been taken to the vicinity of a Capital Ship?
I couldn't see this in the Wiki so I got to thinking that the one parked in Sol might be a good place since we know that it must be commanded by somebody high up the command chain and, therefore, well-briefed on the secrets of the Federal Navy - being one confirmed previous owner of UA technology. Perhaps it will spur a transmission from the Capital Ship. Perhaps. I just thought it might be worth pursuing to knock it off the 'Possible Trigger' list if a Capital Ship hasn't already been buzzed by somebody with a UA. As for any transmissions by a UA in the area of a Capital Ship, I would be surprised if it could simply be repeating Morse from the ship, but it is big enough to have its own instance so surely big enough a body to get a response from the UA.

 

[Smoky]

It didn't start at lave though as the first one was found in 109 Virginis (don't quote me on that spelling)

i think he might be talking about the original elite, not where the first UA was found

 

[Berty Dastard]

First time Iv'e checked this thread and viewed the wiki. But the wiki makes no mention of something that jumps out at me. I am reminded of the Alien films but don't remember sufficient of them to form any theories. It's just the looks of the things and the corrosive mentions. Nothing scientific in that but maybe it's not supposed to be. Maybe spark a new direction to think. If it's already been mentioned I'm sorry to intrude and won't do so again

ps. It's obviously alien. And so why would any code, be it morse or binary, be anything we could expect to understand?

pps. If ship walkabout arrives before planetary landings, beware spider things on faces of anyone carrying this

 

[daygobah]

I looked at my spectrograph and seen a patter and it reminded me of something mathimatical

I see a pattern of 1 2 3 6


If you continue that 1 2 3 6 7 14 16 32 ......

n - n * 2

Also i did a search for 1 2 3 6 and comes up with a Chemical

1,2,3,6-Tetrahydropyridine

Used to form ene-endo-spirocyclic ammonium ylids for [2,3]-sigmatropic rearrangement to pyrroloazepinones and oxazepinones.


http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/catalog/product/aldrich/134759?lang=en&region=CA

 

[Siddius]

probably dumb but what if you shoot it with 1 of the PP weapons

 

[Jmanis]

Wiki Correction

Just reposting this from my wiki comment (in case it gets spotted here first).

Wiki for the UA says: http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Unknown_Artefact

"Ratking15 Thinks that the UA does a sort of sonar scan of the closest celestial object and then sends out sounds which are morse code for the nearest celestial object. It does not pickup stations or outposts!"


This is not correct. The morse is also for nearby stations and starports.


http://www.twitch.tv/ratking15/c/6899591 at the 6:10 mark spells out "LITTROW TERMINAL" which is the nearest body (a station) where the recording is made. Just trying to help combat some of the FUD (well, less F, more UD)

My wiki-fu is terrible, so I'll leave it for someone more capable