Following its proposal for flying warehouses, online retailer Amazon has filed a patent that would see its depots submerged underwater, with items summoned to the surface by acoustic vibrations.
Details of the patent, which was filed earlier this year in the US, have emerged this week. It outlines Amazon's vision for using lakes, reservoirs and purpose-built pools as "fulfilment centres" as demand for internet-bought goods increases.
Amazon's new patent outlines its vision for using lakes, reservoirs and purpose-built pools as warehouses
It shows a number of ways that the stock would be dealt with inside an Aquatic Storage Facility, revealing that items would be dropped into the pools by parachutes or trucks.
But in each case, packages would be contained within a watertight box, complete with an air canister. When the item is ordered by a customer, a noise transmitted under water would trigger the air canister to inflate a balloon to float the package to the surface. The items would then be received at the surface by the company's delivery teams, which in the future could include drones, before being shipped out to the customer.
Amazon believes this method would counteract the "inefficient use of space" by current warehouse set ups, as well as simplifying the process of picking stock.
The patent details a number underwater scenarios, including lakes ? where buoys would be used to emit a noise that triggers the package to float to the surface
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