Gaming: Making The Invisible Visible, This Engineering Artist's Creation...

It's a little bit spooky to watch in action, but I'd love one in my office.

Are you fed up with your limited view of the world? I don't mean what you think about current events or views on socioeconomic issues: I'm talking about your eyeballs. While the electromagnetic spectrum is infinitely wide, we can only see a microscopic slice of frequencies. But thanks to one engineering artist, you can at least visualise what the world of radio waves could look like.

I use 'look' in its broadest possible terms, though, because what Rootkid has created isn't a special set of goggles or the like. It's essentially a radio wave transceiver, named Spectrum Slit, that converts the flurry of signals around us into light, emitted by a construction that gives all kinds of Control vibes, for some reason.

"Spectrum Slit is a sculptural installation that renders visible the otherwise imperceptible electromagnetic activity that permeates contemporary interior spaces," begins Rootkid. "While a room may appear visually calm and silent, it is continuously traversed by dense fields of radio-frequency transmissions generated by wireless communication technologies."

Rootkid describes the full process behind the design, construction, and operation of Spectrum Slit in a seven-minute YouTube video, and if you enjoy engineering, tinkering, or just seeing neat stuff being made, then I heartily recommend watching it.

But if you just want to know what it does in a handful of words, Rootkid offers the following: "The installation measures radio signals primarily within the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands frequencies used by Wi‑Fi, Bluetooth, and other domestic wireless devices. Using a software-defined radio, the piece continuously scans these ranges, sampling signal strength across the spectrum.

"This data is processed live and mapped onto a linear array of 64 luminous filaments arranged along a U-shaped steel structure, visually echoing scientific frequency plots. Each filament corresponds to a specific segment of the measured spectrum, its brightness directly driven by local electromagnetic intensity."

If you've not watched the video yet, you can still probably picture what it looks like in action, given just how ubiquitous radio wave transmissions are in today's world. With phones, watches, computers, televisions, and IoT devices all constantly blaring away into the ether, the Spectrum Slit is lit up like a Christmas tree the moment it's switched on.

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Source: PC Gamer