UAs, Barnacles and other mysteries Thread 8 - The Canonn

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Veliaze is now likely Zelada. It is south of Gateway and contains a planet called New Africa. I don't know the significance, but it is strange that the article mentions Veliaze, but doesn't explain why the name was changed.

Good catch.


Edit: Seems Zelada was also a system in the FFE/FE2 Galaxy.
 
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New galnet post about Thargoids


https://community.elitedangerous.com/galnet/12-AUG-3302



Something that really annoys me in that conspiracy theory is the whole Mycoid Virus thing.


First the name: Mycoid Virus.. is it a fungus or a virus already?
Second thing that annoys me is a virus that attacks something that doesn't have a celular structure.
Might as well have called it the Mycoid Agent and make it a fungus that attaches to polymers and degrades them.

Sigh....
 
Out at Jaques, but was strongly considering to come back to Merope just to try to balance out the CG's so neither the Feds or Imps get her.

Problem is there's still 2 outcomes, the alliance cleans up the mess or the system is left alone, only one of which I'm OK with...

Well, right now the Feds are trouncing the Empire by about twice as much, 80m versus 180m.

Unless you want to see a Federal monopoly on Meta-alloys, I suggest you guys get down there and fight for the Empire now.
 
Yeah, that midi transcription, nice as it is, is way off from what I hear.

The original audio I presume came from CMDR Vent Aileron, found here and is the test "Unknown Probe as discovery scanner (Dreadp1r4te's theory) test Preae Theia RT-Z D13-7 (Lonely star)"

I straight out don't hear the upper notes at all that are in the MIDI file. Only the lower "tuba" sounds (and can't find them in the spectrogram of the file either.)

That being said, Time for some investimigating!
NB:
I'm not sure if this particular line of investigation has already been done, but science must be repeatable, no?


So, I took all of the files from Vent Aileron, and with the idea that Dreadp1r4te had here I examined the audio waveforms.

Hypothesis: There is a link between the "purrs" or "tuba" sounds and the symbols in the corner of the "key".

Method:
I took the probe recordings, cleaned up the files, removed any signal over 1khz to isolate the purrs, sped them up 4x to make them easier to hear, and transcribed the purrs as I heard them. I then compared those transcriptions to the "key" in an attempt to make a link. I was looking for correlations, to see if the transcribed purr patterns matched the key symbol sets.

I also took the 1-hour recording from Netslayer (here) and analyzed it.


Observations:
  • the first 3/4 "purrs" from the probe are different from the rest of them. They are different pitches and durations. It sort of seems like a "handshake" or "ID". This may be inconsequential, or caused by a different effect (doppler from the ship approaching perhaps?)
  • the rest of the purrs follow a relatively regular pattern. Both high and low purrs consist of approx 13 vibrations, the high purrs over a shorter period than the low purrs. (game design explanation: it's the same sound, pitch-shifted)
  • the purrs continue through the "wails" and even the reaction to getting honked.


So here are the results.
Note: I have identified the "low" purrs as the "|" symbol and the "high" purrs as the "." symbol.

From the test of Vent Aileron, Unknown Probe idle sound NGC 2546 Sector CR|U D3|29 (random system) 3 minutes triple take (no honk, no honk, honk)

  • Purr Pattern: "Intro" |||| "Data" .||.|.|.||..|..||..|..|..||..|.|.|.||.|..|.|
  • As 3-symbol groups: ||| |.| |.| .|. ||. .|. .|| ..| ..| ..| |.. |.| .|. ||. |.. |.|
  • For fun: in Morse Code this results in: okkrgrwuuudkrgdk

From the test of Vent Aileron, Unknown Probe wailing test NGC 2546 Sector CR|U D3|29 A 1 (landfall planet), UP wailed

  • Purr Pattern: "Intro:" .|.| "Data" |..|..||.||.|..|..|..|..||.||.|...|.||.|.|.|.|
  • As 3-symbol groups: .|. ||. .|. .|| .|| .|. .|. .|. .|. .|| .|| .|. ..| .|| .|. |.| .|
  • Morse Code: rgrwwrrrrwwruwrka


Conclusions:
  • The probe signal does not directly relate to the system it's in.
    • I chose these two for this example because they're from the same system. As they are *very* different, I would say it is relatively safe to say that the probe signal does *not* directly relate to the system it's in.
  • There are many symbol groups from the probe that are not on they key.
    • In particular, |.| and ||. don't show up. Once I had the transcription, I also tried "sliding" the transcription (assuming I missed data at the start), to see if I could get a "better" match where there were no "unknown" symbol sets in the transcription, and I was never able to get a "complete" set, where all of the 3-symbol groups in the transcription matched one of the groups on the key.
    • As per the Dev post, the spectrogram image is a "key"... given that the probe gives us these 'morse-code-like' patterns and the "key" gives us 4 sets of 3 morse-code-like symbols, I would be absolutely astounded if there was not a link here.
  • The patterns of purrs do not repeat.
    • Vent Aileron did a scoop-drop-listen 3x on the first example above, and the signal did not repeat between "drops".
    • Even with the 1-hour recording from NetSlayer, there was zero repetition of the signal. That is, the signal never "looped" itself and started again. There are 338 "purrs" in the 1-hour recording, for over 112 "3-symbol groups", and they never loop. If each "3 symbol group" describes a planet, this is far, far too many to describe the system it was in.
    • Ergo, either the pattern of purrs is either extremely long (>1 hour before repetition) or has a random component.

Further questions:
I would like to request testing the probe audio near several planets in the same system, of the same type. Perhaps the first couple symbol groups refer to the "nearest" planet, and listening to the first ~10 purrs should be enough to determine if it's keying of the nearest planet.

That being said, I'm becoming more convinced that the purrs are actually random. I'm also convinced that the 3-symbol groups are to be interpreted as a link between a signal and the key.

Now, given that we know that the spectrogram image is a "key", where else might we see or hear the 3-symbol groups?

Well done CMDR!
That is being my line of investigation since long before CMDR Dreadp1r4te suggested his personal and awesome interpretation of it.
I intend to continue on it after coming back from the Dolomites, assuming no one solves the mystery in the meantime...

What makes me so confident is that, REMEMBER, the UP audio was explicitly called TRANSMISSION, in the official FD patch notes, and that is important that we get the full ~6 min length.
So the UP purrs/tubas are its transmission. We need to decode it somehow, using a key. Wait! A key! Yes, the drawing.
IMHO it is still one of the easiest and most elegant solutions among the millions out there.
 
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Well done CMDR!
That is being my line of investigation since long before CMDR Dreadp1r4te suggested his personal and awesome interpretation of it.
I intend to continue on it after coming back from the Dolomites, assuming no one solves the mystery in the meantime...

What makes me so confident is that, REMEMBER, the UP audio was explicitly called TRANSMISSION, in the official FD patch notes, and that is important that we get the full ~6 min length.
So the UP purrs/tubas are its transmission. We need to decode it somehow, using a key. Wait! A key! Yes, the drawing.
IMHO it is still one of the easiest and most elegant solutions among the millions out there.

Quoting myself to add this:
It is already well known that the purrs/tubas in an UA are very different between a scooped and a free floater.
So why it is so important to find free floateing UP?
Because I suspect that the UP, that has already been captive, could be scrambling its transmission for security reasons.
A free floater, on the contrary, could be PURE. Transmitting the original message, not jammed yet. I'm talking about the purrs, not the drawing here.
 
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Veliaze [-1,3]
Allegiance: Alliance, joined 3262
Type: Industrial
Government: Alliance Democracy
Population: 970,000
Policing: Minimal — starports only
Physical: Type K orange star

Veliaze is a fairly small main sequence typeK orange star, fusing hydrogen to helium inits core. Its spectral type is compatible withterrestrial-like life forms, and the planet NewAfrica was easily terraformed during the latterpart of the 29th Century. The orbital distance of New Africa gives it atemperate climate, averaging 22 Celcius.The Veliaze system has a turbulent history which has only settled in recenttimes. The system was originally colonized by a small number of people fromthree different mining corporations from the 2500’s onwards. The corporationsdecided during the 2800’s to terraform Veliaze 1 (which later became known as150 New Africa) so that larger numbers of miners could be accommodated muchmore easily.
10883099.png
 
Something that really annoys me in that conspiracy theory is the whole Mycoid Virus thing.

You know that the Mycoid virus (poorly named or not) is practically canon right? (originally from Frontier: First Encounters)

http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Elite_Timeline
3193, 3252 & 3253

Anyway, the main thing I wanted to say was ..

"Some of the less outlandish theories include the suggestion that electronic countermeasure technology was reverse-engineered from captured Thargoid vessels."

Has anyone tried blasting a UP with an ECM pulse?

Edit: apologies, already suggested by tikas and no doubt others ... do try and keep up Alec!
 
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Arguendo

Volunteer Moderator
Sorry, but I just learned that a UP Convoy was found today in Sisini! Picture proof has been provided, but unfortunately it was only posted on Discord. I will get the initial finder to write something here, or do it myself when I get a more detailed report.
Just thought you all should know.
 
New galnet post about Thargoids


https://community.elitedangerous.com/galnet/12-AUG-3302



Something that really annoys me in that conspiracy theory is the whole Mycoid Virus thing.


First the name: Mycoid Virus.. is it a fungus or a virus already?
Second thing that annoys me is a virus that attacks something that doesn't have a celular structure.
Might as well have called it the Mycoid Agent and make it a fungus that attaches to polymers and degrades them.

Sigh....

I think the article is deliberately missleading, to show that the journalist doesen't have a clue.

Most likely the Mycoid is a hybrid between a fungus and a endovirus. The endovirus functioning as a safety valve.

You can read about it in this short story: http://www.dream-ware.co.uk/first-e...life-on-the-frontier/inevitable-consequences/
 
The Canonn Super UP Sphere Image Interactive Rotator Thingy

The Canonn Super UP Sphere Image Interactive Rotator Thingy!

Hi everyone, I've been wondering whether the UP image was not meant to be static, but actually an instruction to make a rotating, er, 'thing' of some kind...

don't ask :)

So anyway, I pulled apart the various bits of the line drawing that's on the first page, and which has been featured in the news, and created a web page where you can layer the various bits together and rotate them independently around the centre point of the 'sphere'. Here's a preview:

upimagefuns-thumb.png


You can play with it here!

Disclaimer - Your desktop screen should be at least 1450px wide otherwise it's just a complete abomination; and mobile devices will very likely struggle. 9" Tablets and above might be okay, but I can't promise anything!

Update: I've improved it for mobile/tablets now and it should work pretty well on narrower screens too. Couple of other things have been added/fixed as well (see post update here)

You can rotate:
- The sphere with the line in it
- All four outer symbols independently
- The top-left arc
- The top-right arcs (together)
- The two outer lines (together)

I don't know if being able to do this will yield anything interesting - but I'm sure a few people will have fun playing around with it! :D

For the geeks:

The page uses knockoutjs to dynamically bind a bunch of absolutely positioned divs, each with the individual images (transparent pngs) set as their background. Knockoutjs bindings are also used to set CSS3 rotate transforms on each layer, based on the rotation values in the sliders.

In addition to knockout, the page also uses bootstrap 3 + bootstrap slider plugin + its knockout binding handler.

The transform-origin for all the layers is set to the pixel coordinate of the centre of the 'sphere' so that all elements rotate around the same point. As you'll see, it's very-slightly off, but not enough as to interfere that much.
 
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The Canonn Super UP Sphere Image Interactive Rotator Thingy!

Hi everyone, I've been wondering whether the UP image was not meant to be static, but actually an instruction to make a rotating, er, 'thing' of some kind...

don't ask :)

So anyway, I pulled apart the various bits of the line drawing that's on the first page, and which has been featured in the news, and created a web page where you can layer the various bits together and rotate them independently around the centre point of the 'sphere'. Here's a preview:

http://lab.canonn.science/content/upimagefuns-thumb.png

You can play with it here!

Disclaimer - Your desktop screen should be at least 1450px wide otherwise it's just a complete abomination; and mobile devices will very likely struggle. 9" Tablets and above might be okay, but I can't promise anything!

You can rotate:
- The sphere with the line in it
- All four outer symbols independently
- The top-left arc
- The top-right arcs (together)
- The two outer lines (together)

I don't know if being able to do this will yield anything interesting - but I'm sure a few people will have fun playing around with it! :D

For the geeks:

The page uses knockoutjs to dynamically bind a bunch of absolutely positioned divs, each with the individual images (transparent pngs) set as their background. Knockoutjs bindings are also used to set CSS3 rotate transforms on each layer, based on the rotation values in the sliders.

In addition to knockout, the page also uses bootstrap 3 + bootstrap slider plugin + its knockout binding handler.

The transform-origin for all the layers is set to the pixel coordinate of the centre of the 'sphere' so that all elements rotate around the same point. As you'll see, it's very-slightly off, but not enough as to interfere that much.

LZ This is pretty amazing!
Let's rotate!
Unfortunately from mobile it is not possible.
Deserves the front page!
 
The Canonn Super UP Sphere Image Interactive Rotator Thingy!

Hi everyone, I've been wondering whether the UP image was not meant to be static, but actually an instruction to make a rotating, er, 'thing' of some kind...

don't ask :)

So anyway, I pulled apart the various bits of the line drawing that's on the first page, and which has been featured in the news, and created a web page where you can layer the various bits together and rotate them independently around the centre point of the 'sphere'. Here's a preview:

http://lab.canonn.science/content/upimagefuns-thumb.png

You can play with it here!

Disclaimer - Your desktop screen should be at least 1450px wide otherwise it's just a complete abomination; and mobile devices will very likely struggle. 9" Tablets and above might be okay, but I can't promise anything!

You can rotate:
- The sphere with the line in it
- All four outer symbols independently
- The top-left arc
- The top-right arcs (together)
- The two outer lines (together)

I don't know if being able to do this will yield anything interesting - but I'm sure a few people will have fun playing around with it! :D

For the geeks:

The page uses knockoutjs to dynamically bind a bunch of absolutely positioned divs, each with the individual images (transparent pngs) set as their background. Knockoutjs bindings are also used to set CSS3 rotate transforms on each layer, based on the rotation values in the sliders.

In addition to knockout, the page also uses bootstrap 3 + bootstrap slider plugin + its knockout binding handler.

The transform-origin for all the layers is set to the pixel coordinate of the centre of the 'sphere' so that all elements rotate around the same point. As you'll see, it's very-slightly off, but not enough as to interfere that much.

Already trying to turn it into some manner of critter for the lols :p

PS. Can't rep you :(
 
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The Canonn Super UP Sphere Image Interactive Rotator Thingy!

Hi everyone, I've been wondering whether the UP image was not meant to be static, but actually an instruction to make a rotating, er, 'thing' of some kind...

don't ask :)

So anyway, I pulled apart the various bits of the line drawing that's on the first page, and which has been featured in the news, and created a web page where you can layer the various bits together and rotate them independently around the centre point of the 'sphere'. Here's a preview:

http://lab.canonn.science/content/upimagefuns-thumb.png

You can play with it here!

Disclaimer - Your desktop screen should be at least 1450px wide otherwise it's just a complete abomination; and mobile devices will very likely struggle. 9" Tablets and above might be okay, but I can't promise anything!

You can rotate:
- The sphere with the line in it
- All four outer symbols independently
- The top-left arc
- The top-right arcs (together)
- The two outer lines (together)

I don't know if being able to do this will yield anything interesting - but I'm sure a few people will have fun playing around with it! :D

For the geeks:

The page uses knockoutjs to dynamically bind a bunch of absolutely positioned divs, each with the individual images (transparent pngs) set as their background. Knockoutjs bindings are also used to set CSS3 rotate transforms on each layer, based on the rotation values in the sliders.

In addition to knockout, the page also uses bootstrap 3 + bootstrap slider plugin + its knockout binding handler.

The transform-origin for all the layers is set to the pixel coordinate of the centre of the 'sphere' so that all elements rotate around the same point. As you'll see, it's very-slightly off, but not enough as to interfere that much.

This is great work, good job! Because the circle grid is similar to the orientation guide on our ships, maybe orientation is important. Going to play with this so hard. SO HARD
 
The problem is your hearing. The high pitch sounds are there; they have been clearly documented in these links from the front page that everyone should review before posting ignorant and dismissive misinformation:
UP audio - Chirps Analysis:
CMDR IsAB's research
CMDR Kloopy's research

No offense man. Your pattern analysis on the purrs is in the right direction. But you folks really need to factor in the chirps, which are much more obviously and more often grouped in sets of 3, or this may never get solved. I made that MIDI file so that those of you who are having a hard time hearing the chirps, due either to being partially deaf, having terrible speakers, or having lots of noise in your place, could hear them and hopefully crack this cipher.

ISab's analysis of them is probably the most thorough and best anyone has done. It kinda blew me away. We need to look more into that, in terms of the QPSK constellations like someone brilliantly conceived above.

There could also be some kind of XOR going on between the two bitstreams.

Kinda did read the front page, in detail. :p I've gone back and looked for them, and I can see those "chirps" in some of the recordings. I was speeding up the audio by a factor of 4 to hear the "purrs" better, and the "chirps" disappear at that speed. And beside, IsAB has looked at them (Kloopy's page seems to have died somehow).

What happened with this idea? Have any other systems been scanned with a probe to compare the audio? I assumed this was leading to the idea that the audio change depending on the system?

Yep, different systems with the same probe. Problem is that the same probe gives different results in the same system.

Probe tested in a system with only 1 star, nothing else. Same sound, no discernible pattern.

Indeed, it appears non-repeating.

So, I've gone back and listened to the originals, and I can't even begin to correlate what's in that midi to what's in the original recordings.

Sorry, I just geniunely can't hear what's claimed to be "clearly morse". If you're referring to the chirps, they've always been simple background noise, reasonably (and sadly) by people who on occasion shun the rules around here.

This is further reinforced by the fact that you explicitly say "Problem is the letters are gobbledygook". The morse of the nearest celestial objects were readily deciphered, and even the grid representation of the ships was readily deciphered.

Honestly, truly deep analysis of this stuff has never led to anything. This challenge is meant to be, and has always been, difficult, but accessible. Even the image in the probe signal is just a case of "record the sound, throw it at a website"... knowledge of QPSK constellations relies on very specialised skillsets, and so I highly doubt it's the correct path.

Go down it if you want, not gonna stop you, just verbalising I think it's the wrong path, because highly specialised/complex analysis has yet to yield any meaningful results in this mystery.

The "purrs" really do sound like morse when you speed them up 4x. There's clearly "short" and "long" purrs. However, they don't really correlate to anything meaningful in morse, they might also be binary.


Quoting myself to add this:
It is already well known that the purrs/tubas in an UA are very different between a scooped and a free floater.
So why it is so important to find free floateing UP?
Because I suspect that the UP, that has already been captive, could be scrambling its transmission for security reasons.
A free floater, on the contrary, could be PURE. Transmitting the original message, not jammed yet. I'm talking about the purrs, not the drawing here.

Yeah, this might be the case. I'm curious with the recent "hint" if using ECM on them will change the pattern.
 
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