Boeing engineers have managed to improve the Wi-Fi signal in their plane cabins with the help of 20,000 pounds (more than 9,000 kilos) of potatoes.
The sacks of spuds took the place of human volunteers in the signal tests as the way they physically interacted with the electronic signals proved very similar to their human counterparts (to say nothing of the fact that potatoes can be kept cooped up in a grounded plane for days on end without becoming irate).
The tests were designed to investigate wireless signal behaviour which can be problematic in the enclosed space of an airplane cabin as it deviates as passengers get up and move about. This then leads to weak and strong patches of signal, disrupting connectivity in some seats. "Inside the aircraft it's a very complex electromagnetic environment," said metrology engineer, Dennis Lewis. "Some seats might have very strong signal and some might have very weak signal.
As things move around -- as people move and the galley carts are pushed up and down the aisles -- then those signal levels can change."
But using a combination of specially developed measuring and analysis tools and lots of potatoes, the Boeing engineers have been able to better understand the distribution of these hot and cold spots and safely tweak the Wi-Fi setup accordingly. "Every day we work to ensure that Boeing passengers are travelling on the safest and most advanced airplanes in the world," said Dennis O'Donoghue, the vice president of Boeing's Test and Evaluation sector. "This is a perfect example of how our innovations in safety can make the entire flying experience better."
The substitution project was known by the researchers as Synthetic Personnel Using Dielectric Substitution --
SPUDS.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
