Losing your hearing can be a scarily isolating experience . But instead of essay to supersede the audible landscape painting he began suffer at eld 20 , skill writer Frank Swain decided to find a way to listen in on something humans ca n’t get word : the Harkat ul-Mujahedeen of Wi - Fi all around us .
In this essay for New Scientist , Swain talks about how he worked with phone designerDaniel Jonesto build a puppet that makes Wi - Fi audible . The labor , namedPhantom Terrains , works by translate the language of a wireless internet into sounds . Each Wi - Fi element — router names , information rate , encryption modes — are designate their own sonic feel , which are then well out to Swain ’s telephone where he can pick them up through his audience aids :
The strength of the signaling , direction , name and surety level on these are translated into an audio flow made up of a foreground and background stratum : distant signals click and pop like hit on a Geiger counter , while the strongest blate their electronic web ID in a loop tune .
So what does the internet sound like ? Here ’s a base on balls that Swain took with the various Wi - Fi web mapped along the means . Stronger mesh signals are establish as wider shapes , the different colors denote the router ’s program channel , and the shape references the security measures spirit level :
Now here ’s what the same walk sound like :
While the cosmic blips and static pops are surely beautiful ( and passably creepy at the same time ) , there are some larger implications for why this kind of workplace could be crucial . Swain equates it to a form of auditory “ prosthetic ” which can really enhance the range of normal audience , transform him into a sort of superhuman who can in reality “ learn ” the landscape painting in a way that most people will never experience . We do n’t normally think of VR as including sound , but this is augmented reality for the ear . [ New Scientist ]
Top image : aesthetic line drawing of what Wi - Fi signals would reckon like if we could see them , byNickolay Lamm
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