Visualizing Wi-Fi: What all those signals would look like if you could see them

By Rene Ritchie
last updated

802.11ac and 802.11n Wi-Fi stream out of our Apple AirPort routers at 2.4 and 5GHz and stream into our iPhones and iPads and iPods and Macs, but what would all those signals, the ones saturating us all the time these days, look like if we could see them? Well, Nickolay Lamm, with the help of Dr. M. Browning Vogel, took a shot at showing us on MyDeals:

Wifi is an energy field that is transmitted as waves. The waves have a certain height, distance between them and travel at a certain speed. The distance between wifi waves is shorter than that of radio waves and longer than that of microwaves, giving wifi a unique transmission band that can't be interrupted by other signals. This image shows an idealized wifi data transmitted over a band that is divided into different sub-channels, which are shown in red, yellow, green and other colors.

I use Wi-Fi all the time and never really think about it. Like the Force, only informational rather than all super-powery, it just exists everywhere, between my AirPort Extreme and my Mac, between my iPhone and iPad. Since my water isn't boiling in the cup right now, and humans and animals alike still seem to be reproducing, and with no additional eyes compared to previous generations, all that Wi-Fi we're soaking in doesn't seem to have a downside. Yet seeing it visualized, live and in color, does seem to give it much greater substance.

Check out Lamm's article for the rest of pictures, and the story behind them.

Source: MyDeals via GigaOm

Rene Ritchie
Rene Ritchie
Contributor

Rene Ritchie is one of the most respected Apple analysts in the business, reaching a combined audience of over 40 million readers a month. His YouTube channel, Vector, has over 90 thousand subscribers and 14 million views and his podcasts, including Debug, have been downloaded over 20 million times. He also regularly co-hosts MacBreak Weekly for the TWiT network and co-hosted CES Live! and Talk Mobile. Based in Montreal, Rene is a former director of product marketing, web developer, and graphic designer. He's authored several books and appeared on numerous television and radio segments to discuss Apple and the technology industry. When not working, he likes to cook, grapple, and spend time with his friends and family.