Modern communication still uses equipment designed 130 thousand years ago
by Bernard McGrath, Inspection Validation Centre

Hya my dad askd me 2 rite dis 2 c if u cd undastand ani of it  :D.  dis language is used wen young ppl r ritin on msn or r txtin. Sumtyms wen u rite lik dis a lot u cn end up ritin it in ur skl work wich cn gt annoyin :( . da onli reason we shortin words is cz its easier 2 rite lik dis an it dnt tak up much space on a txt wich means it costs less. I hope u all r able 2 read dis if so it means ur kids dnt mind txtin ya cz dey cn tlk in txt language insted of in full language. :P

Modern communication by 'txt' or instant messaging uses abbreviations and symbols as shown above. Even those of you who do not use SMS messages on your mobile phone, nor have an account with an instant messaging service, will be able to work out what my daughter is saying in the paragraph above. A recent advertising campaign to stop violence against railway staff went further. It didn't just leave out letters but actually jumbled them up. One example was as follows:
"I aeksd tehm to sotp kcinkig a footblal aunord.
The nxet tnihg I kenw I wsa on the guornd bineg kkecid in the fcae."
All the posters finished with the strap line: "Hard to understand?". But it's not hard to understand is it? Obviously, for those of us used to the Queen's English it takes a bit of effort to read 'txt' or to understand the railway posters but it is as if the omission or the jumbling of letters throws down a challenge to us which we can’t resist. It is like cracking a code, so we make the effort to understand what has been mis-written.

An example where the receivers were not challenged to make an effort is illustrated by the well known First World War story of the request from the front lines to "send reinforcements, we are going to advance". By the time it was delivered to the rear it had become "send three and four pence, we are going to a dance". Each receiver not hearing the message clearly, can't be bothered to get clarification and so puts their own interpretation on to the sounds they heard.
There lies the crux of the problem with communication. It requires effort. The sender needs to work at the message to avoid ambiguities and opportunities for mis-interpretation. The receiver needs to be challenged to understand what the sender is saying. It doesn't matter what the originator intends the message to say, if the listener or reader interprets the message in a different way to that intended or is not motivated to make the effort to understand, then the message will inevitably be distorted.

An example of misunderstanding which occurred often during the recent PANI work centres on the use of the word 'range'. In the procedure for the inspection of the PANI test-pieces, the operators were asked to record the probe position and range for reportable indications. My intention was that the distance at which the indication occurred on the A-scan be recorded. This would enable the source of the echo to be checked after the inspection. However, a large proportion of the operators recorded the range setting of the flaw detector – ie the screen set to 0–100 mm.
The fault was mine because I hadn't expected that anyone would interpret 'range' in a different way to what I intended. Maybe it is because the comics I read as a kid always had stories where the bearing and range to a target was measured. So range to my mind has always meant 'distance to'. It is such an every day word that I didn't bother to look in the 'Terms used in ultrasonic testing'(*). If I had I would have found that the measurement I required was 'sound path length'. And to give the PANI operators their due, the only time that range occurs in the glossary is in 'time base range', which is defined as the maximum ultrasonic path length that is displayed on a particular timebase.

I recently came across an old paper on the Structure of Communication dated 1970 which my dad had kept. It described the transfer of music from a gramophone disc (yes it was that old!). It covered the transfer of mechanical to electrical data, the conversion of digital to analogue, the use of frequency modulation, then finally the transfer of acoustic information via the ear to electro-chemical data in the brain. It finished with a mention of the interaction of mind and matter but avoided any discussion.
The technology has advanced considerably but despite the ease and speed of mobiles, PDAs, e-mails and instant messaging, the start and finish is always the interaction of mind and matter which has been around for 130 thousand years. To get this right requires effort.

(*) BS EN 1330-4:2000 Non-destructive testing – Terminology – Part 4: Terms used in ultrasonic testing.

Please note that the views expressed in this column are the author's own personal ramblings for the purpose of encouraging discussion within the NDT Newspaper. They do not represent the views of the IVC, Serco Assurance or the HSE who funded the PANI projects.

Letters can be mailed to The Editor, NDT News, Newton Building, St George's Avenue, Northampton NN2 6JB. Fax: 01604 89 3861; E-mail: ndtnews@bindt.org or
e-mail Bernard McGrath direct at Bernard.McGrath@sercoassurance.com