Image(s) of the Day: Art created from Wi-Fi signals

We use Wi-Fi every day, but we can’t actually see the Wi-Fi happening around us. 

A Newcastle University student manipulated Wi-Fi signals to create an engaging artwork project called Digital Ethereal .

 
Digital Ethereal uses techniques from the works of the Touch Research project, which investigates Near Field Communications and introduces the use of long-exposure photography and RSSI sensors to visualize and spatialize Wi-Fi networks.

The project comes from the idea that wireless networks can be translated into something tangible.

Researcher Luis Hernan was curious about how wireless technologies like radio are transmitted through the air. After he finished studying architecture, computer science, and design, he decided to research these invisible signals and create these images.

Hernan set up a system that turned the wireless signals around him into colorful, ghost-like images using long-exposure photography which allows people to visualize the strength of the signals around them.

To make this happen, he created a device that measures the signal strength of Wi-Fi and translates it to a heat map of colors. In the photos, red represents the strongest signals and blue represents the weakest.

The device is similar to any of your electronic devices that pick up Wi-Fi signals in that it detects nearby Wi-Fi and lets you know how many bars of strength it has. To create the appealing artwork, he then used long-exposure photography.
 
Hernan was even able to maneuver his device across a space to create different shapes.

All images created by Luis Hernan.