Skip to Main Content
PCMag editors select and review products independently. If you buy through affiliate links, we may earn commissions, which help support our testing.

iOS App Visualizes the Wireless Signals That Surround Us

What do all the wireless signals look like around your house? There (might) be an app for that.

August 27, 2015
The Architecture of Radio

There are tons of invisible signals that permeate your home, office, and just about anywhere you go, really. But while there are plenty of tools and apps you can use to get a sense of just how strong these signals are, you usually just end up looking at a bunch of changing numbers on a table.

Artist Richard Vijgen has created a new exhibit that attempts to visualize, in an augmented reality-like fashion, all of the different wireless signals around us. When you're at the exhibit, which is currently on display at the ZKM Media Museum in Karlsruhe, Germany from September through April 2016, you use a special iOS app to see a simulation of just how these different signals interact with your environment.

"The architecture of radio app is a real-time, location-based visualization of cell towers, Wi-Fi routers, communication, navigation, and observation satellites and their signals. A site-specific version of the app includes wired communication infrastructure embedded in the exhibition space. Its aim is to provide a comprehensive window into the infosphere," reads the app's website.

We say simulate, because the app isn't meant to be some kind of real-time scanning tool that maps the strength of every single wireless signal within a room. That's a bit ambitious. Instead, as Vijgen explained to Gizmodo, the app gets a precise reading of exactly where you are via an iPad's GPS sensor. It then maps your location against a database of information about the wireless signals around you: nearby cellular towers, overhead satellites, and any data about the particular location's Wi-Fi routers or Ethernet cabling that was previously entered.

The result? You get to walk through a space and see a pretty accurate visualization of all the various wireless signals that you come into contact with, but the app isn't going to give you a hyper-realistic, exact recreation of what's actually there. Vijgen plans to release a public version of the app later this year.

Get Our Best Stories!

Sign up for What's New Now to get our top stories delivered to your inbox every morning.

This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time.


Thanks for signing up!

Your subscription has been confirmed. Keep an eye on your inbox!

Sign up for other newsletters

TRENDING

About David Murphy

Freelancer

David Murphy got his first real taste of technology journalism when he arrived at PC Magazine as an intern in 2005. A three-month gig turned to six months, six months turned to occasional freelance assignments, and he later rejoined his tech-loving, mostly New York-based friends as one of PCMag.com's news contributors. For more tech tidbits from David Murphy, follow him on Facebook or Twitter (@thedavidmurphy).

Read David's full bio

Read the latest from David Murphy