Jämförelse av visualiseringsmetoder för interaktiv in situ-visualisering av radiovågsutbredning inomhus i mixed reality

With recent advancements in commercial mixed reality products, it is more feasible than ever to both consume and develop tailor-made visualizations to solve area-specific problems utilizing the technology. One of these problems is how one would effectively visualize an invisible phenomenon, such as radio wave propagation in situ in mixed reality. As network deployments become more and more complex with the advent of indoor 5G installations, a visualization targeted for this area could be of potential value for experts and non-experts alike. This study implements a prototype with two methods for visualizing a simplified version of this phenomenon and evaluates them using user testing. A total of 19 users ended up trying the prototype, and whilst no significant performance increase could be seen when comparing the visualizations, there was a clear improvement comparing the first and last case, which featured the same room layout, but without any visualizations, indicating some kind of learning effect that improved the users’ intuition and decision-making before and after taking part in the experience. The two visualizations also seemed to complement each other quite well, validating the hypotheses that were put in place before testing. All in all, the two visualizations were shown to be adequate to solve the visualization task, but more research could be done in exploring alternative methods, such as volumetric rendering and using more realistic radio wave propagation modeling to make it more useful for network planning experts.