Evening star., 1950-03-29
Underseu*T eIevision
Developed by Navy
Two Other Revolutionary
N Advances Reported
By Thomos r. Henry


Three revolutionary developments In
television have just been accomplished ut
the Navy Photographic Center here.
One is the rephotographing Of a color
television picture directly from the
screen. Second Is underwater television.
Third is television from plane in rapid
fight.
These have been achieved by 1t.
Comdr w. r. Frazer of the laboratory
staff with special lenses. only three Of
which exist in this country.
Commercially. and perhaps from .
military viewpoint, the first is most sig
nificant, it was explained. 1t makes pos
sible for the first time the reproduction
of color television for rebroadcasting 1t
also-the chief military interest-makes
possible the storage of such pictures as
permanent records for study at leisure.
From the start of the experimentation.
Comdr Frazer explains. this was
battling problem because Of light limita-
tions.
Seeing Under Water.
Underwater black-and-white television
first was accomplished at the Navy lab
oratory nearly two years ago, but hither-
to no announcement has been made.
Some Of the possible uses are quite dra-
matic-during an underwater rescue op-
Grafton, for example. Every movement
of the divers could be seen on . screen
in the captains cabin and the whole op-
Grafton could thus be directed.
1T also might be useful in hunting for
sunken treasure" Comdr. Frazer COM
ments.
The air television also promises to
have many uses. In exploration. for ex-
ample, planes are sent out to photograph
large unknown areas. When they got
back to the base the pilots might find
that the ground force had seen more OF
this country, on the television screen.
than they actually had seen themselves.
This also would apply to aerial survey
of campaign area.
The commanding general Of division.
for example, would not have to wait for
the planes to return with report. He
would "see" the terrain in his tent as
fast as they flew over it.
Two new brain areas have been Diff
ferentiated.
One apparently is the reception center
for sounds of very low frequency.
Another, less than 300th Of a square
inch in area, has some as yet undeter-
mined role in hearing.
These findings have resulted from q
study undertaken at the University OF
Oregon under the Office of Naval Re-
search and are reported by DR.. Archie
r. Tuntari.
The original objective was to deter
mine precisely the limits of that part
of the cerebral cortex, the top Of the
brain, which is the brain organ OF
hearing. 1t receives sound impulses
through the ears and translates them
into audible, meaningful sounds.
This area lies in the so-called temporal
lobe back of each ear. It has been one
of the least explored parts of the brain
and its limits have been quite indefinite
The technique Of the University Of
Oregon project was to apply strychnine
to various parts of this general area and
then stimulate it with various kinds Of
sounds. The strychnine greatly exag-
gerated the responses Of the brain cells.
Exaggeration Found.
It first was found, according to q very
brief report to ONR. that the acoustic
area was divided quite distinctly into
three parts. BY far the largest was found
to be primary projection area" for
the reception of sound and its transla-
ton and coordination into meaning.
The second. hitherto unknown. ap-
peared to be devoted entirely to low fire.
quency sound. for discrimination Of
which the human ear generally Il con-
sidered quite deficient.
The third and smallest undoubtedly
belonged to the general brain-hearing
complex but was isolated from the rest.