Editing Final Report 2011 (section)

===Previous Studies===
Over the years there have been many attempts to shed light the code’s meaning. Of much interest is the analysis performed by Government cryptanalysts in Canberra and two previous projects done by students at the University of Adelaide.

In 1978, the code was examined by Government cryptanalysts in the Department of Defence in 1978. They made three conclusions:
# There are insufficient symbols to provide a pattern
# The symbols could be a complex substitute code or the meaningless response of a disturbed mind
# It is not possible to provide a satisfactory answer<ref name=InsideStory>''Inside Story'', presented by Stuart Littlemore, ABC TV, 1978.</ref>.
These results appear discouraging, however, this study was done in 1978, prior to the technological advances this project aims to utilise. In light of this the University of Adelaide student projects done in the past two years are more relevant in providing a starting point for our own investigations.

In [[Final report 2009: Who killed the Somerton man?|2009]], the students concentrated on a cipher investigation and structural investigation. Results included concluding that the Somerton code isn’t random; it contains a message. They also made some conclusions regarding ciphers, such as a transposition cipher was not used (the letters are not simply shifted in position) and that the code is consistent with an English initialism – a sequence of English initial letters<ref name=FinalReport2009>''Final Report 2009'', Bihari, Denley and Turnbull, Andrew, 2009, https://www.eleceng.adelaide.edu.au/personal/dabbott/wiki/index.php/Final_report_2009:_Who_killed_the_Somerton_man%3F</ref>.

The students examining the code in [[Final Report 2010|2010]] concentrated on a statistical pattern investigation analysing the everyday occurrence of patterns evident in the code and creating web analysis software able to archive web pages and analyse the contents<ref name=FinalReport2010>''Final Report 2010'', Ramirez, Kevin and Lewis-Vassallo, Michael, 2010, https://www.eleceng.adelaide.edu.au/personal/dabbott/wiki/index.php/Final_Report_2010</ref>.