ARLA/CLUSTER: App para smarphones que visualiza o espectro de radiofrequência em Realidade Aumentada

[João Costa > CT1FBF]

Smartphone app uses AR to visualize the RF spectrum

Have you ever wished you could see in the RF part of the radio
spectrum? While such a skill would probably make it hard to get a good
night’s rest, it would at least allow you to instantly see dead spots
in your WiFi coverage. Not a bad tradeoff.

Unwilling to go full [Geordi La Forge] to be able to visualize RF,
[Ken Kawamoto] built the next best thing – an augmented-reality RF
signal strength app for his smartphone. Built to aid in the
repositioning of his router in the post-holiday cleanup, the app uses
the Android ARCore framework to figure out where in the house the
phone is and overlays a color-coded sphere representing sensor data
onto the current camera image.

The spheres persist in 3D space, leaving a trail of virtual
breadcrumbs that map out the sensor data as you warwalk the house. The
app also lets you map Bluetooth and LTE coverage, but RF isn’t its
only input: if your phone is properly equipped, magnetic fields and
barometric pressure can also be AR mapped. We found the Bluetooth demo
in the video below particularly interesting; it’s amazing how much the
signal is attenuated by a double layer of aluminum foil. [Ken] even
came up with an Arduino with a gas sensor that talks to the phone and
maps the atmosphere around the kitchen stove.

The app is called AR Sensor and is available on the Play Store, but
you’ll need at least Android 8.0 to play. If your phone is behind the
times like ours, you might have to settle for mapping your RF world
the hard way.

https://hackaday.com/2019/01/09/smartphone-app-uses-ar-to-visualize-the-rf-spectrum/

• Our thanks to Stephen, G7VFY for spotting this item