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SETI Audio and Chat


August 17, 2015

SETI Audio and SETI Chat are research and educational project to help search for extraterrestrial intelligent life. These projects are a joint effort of the PHL @ UPR Arecibo and SETI @ UC Berkeley.

SETI Audio

The goal of this project is to find the best algorithm to convert a SETI signal to audio for human recognition. The challenge of this project is to create highly recognizable audio signals for the human ear from SETI data yet pleasant for prolonged listening. This project requires knowledge of analog-digital conversions, human ear physiology, audio relaxation psychology, and music. A conversion computer code is the expected output of this project.

Specific Objectives

    • Create an algorithm to convert SETI signals to audio that are easily recognizable and pleasant to the human ear.
    • Create a Python program filter with this algorithm.

    SETI Chat

    The goal of this project is to construct short SETI messages that convey very specific universal signals as simple and efficient as possible. The messages should include at least a recognizable ‘hailing signal’, ‘distress signal’, and a ‘warning signal’ for any potential intelligent extraterrestrial civilization. This project requires knowledge of SETI messages (active SETI or METI), linguistics, and pattern recognition. A library of potential messages is the expected output of this project.

    Specific Objectives

    • Construct universal message for potential extraterrestrial civilizations for a hailing, distress, and warning signals (consider other messages).
    • Create a library of simple messages for extraterrestrial civilizations.

    SETI Resources

    SETI Centers

    New Students: These projects require basic programming in Wolfram Alpha and Python (iPython Terminal). Students will use Google Documents and Zotero to create and edit their reports.