They are everywhere, we just can’t see them. Ghosts? Spirits? No, something way more interesting, cell phone signals. With cell phone penetration at an all time high in the United States and the world, the signals that are constantly being sent to and fro blanket the globe in an invisible cloak.
But what if we could see the cell phone signals in real life? That’s the question Nickolay Lamm pondered, and the artist, in conjunction with some solid scientific evidence created some amazingly beautiful visualizations of what mobile signals would look like, with colors representing the frequency or “power level” of the signals.
While Nickolay certainly has a penchant for creating amazing art, don’t let that make you think that this project was not well referenced. Nickolay conferred with Dr. Marlin H. Mickle from the Swanson School of Engineering, Dr. Danilo Erricolo from the University of Illinois at Chicago, Dr. Pavel Nikitin from the University of Washington, Dr. Jung-Chih Chiao from The University of Texas at Arlington, Fran Harackiewicz from the Southern Illinois University Carbondaleand, and Dr. Dimitris E. Anagnostou from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology to make sure that his visualizations were accurate.
Below are the amazing visualizations, with captions provided by written by Danilo Erricolo, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago and by Fran Harackiewicz, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, who teaches antenna theory and design.
Check out the amazing visual creations below!
America’s capital, Washington D.C.
“Sector radiation patterns from two hypothetical base-station sites on the Capitol. The strongest signals are at the center of the radiation patterns.”
The Herbert C. Hoover building in Washington, D.C. and it’s super powerful base station.
“Pictorial representation of the coverage provided by a base station located at the Herbert C. Hoover Building in Washington D.C. Hexagonal cells and their related coverage are also shown in the background. The area within each sector antenna has different users. Each user has a dedicated communication with the base station and each combination of these within a sector is represented by a different color. The communication with the base station is made possible by appropriately combining the frequenciess within each band.”
Here’s New York, the city that never sleeps.
“With it’s plethora of rooftop antennas, New York is blanketed in cell phone signals. The hexagonal patterns represent theoretical antenna placement.”
Chicago, the windy city, home of President Barack Obama.
“A regular, hexagonal grid of cellular base-station sites is conceptualized for Chicago, with stations at the corners of the hexagons. The area within each sector antenna radiation pattern has different users being assigned different frequencies and their signals combine to form a single perceived color in that instant. Different channel combinations from sector to sector are indicated by different colors. The channel combinations shown are not static, but rather change rapidly in time as different users are assigned different channels. But, if you were to take a photo of these rapid changes, you’d likely see a wide array of colors as seen in the illustration. Near the downtown area more users are likely to be found and the hexagonal cells are smaller to serve approximately the same numbers of users found in larger cells elsewhere. Antenna signals extending beyond the original cells provide coverage over part of Lake Michigan.”
Via: MyVoucherCodes , NickolayLamm.com]