Visualization of WiFi Signals Using Programmable Transfer Functions

Abstract

In this paper, we show how volume rendering with a Programmable Transfer Function can be used for the effective and comprehensible visualization of WiFi signals. A traditional transfer function uses a low-dimensional lookup table to map the volumetric scalar field to color and opacity. In this paper, we present the concept of a Programmable Transfer Function. We then show how generalizing traditional lookup-based transfer functions to Programmable Transfer Functions enables us to leverage view-dependent and real-time attributes of a volumetric field to depict the data variations of WiFi surfaces with low and high-frequency components. Our Programmable Transfer Functions facilitate interactive knowledge discovery and produce meaningful visualizations.

Exploring Effective Immersive Approaches to Visualizing WiFi

“…Firstly, there are area-based visualizations. These visualizations use techniques like volume rendering [25], heatmaps [21,23,28,30,36] and three-dimensional field topologies [10] to describe the full shape of a router's coverage in either two or three dimensions. These visualizations excel at giving analysts a notion of coverage of a single router or network but struggle to visualize multiple routers because of color mixing or visual clutter [16].…”