FlowingData Forums » Data Visualization

Visualizing Room Temperature

Started 3 years ago by yeahyeahyeah / 10 posts

  1. yeahyeahyeah
    Member
    Posted 3 years ago #

    I have sets of time series data from temperature sensors spread around computer data centers. I'd like to produce a visual representation of the temperature across the room overlaid on a diagram of the floor layout. I'd ideally like to string together a series of these images into a video showing temperature changes over time.

    My research so far has identified Processing as a strong contender for the visualization, but my lack of experience in the visualization arena leaves me hesitant to tackle the algorithm for interpolating the temperature data between points. For example, if I have a single point reading of 70 degrees F, and another point 6 feet away that reads 75 I need to display a reasonable temperature gradient between the points.

    Based on numerous geographic "heat maps" (www.heatmapapi.com) I have seen I'm crossing my fingers that someone has already tackled this problem. Anyone know if this code exists?

    There is at least one company (www.synapsense.com) that provides this visualization in their product. They actually do it in (near) real-time from wireless temperature sensors but I'm working from a set of static data and would prefer to use open source tools.

    Thanks!

    [attachment=574,93]

  2. nathany
    FlowingData Editor
    Posted 3 years ago #

    I've never made a heat map in Processing, but I have in R...

    http://sekhon.berkeley.edu/stats/html/heatmap.html

  3. yeahyeahyeah
    Member
    Posted 3 years ago #

    Nathan - thanks for the link to the R manual.

    I think part of my problem is one of terminology. I want to create a "heat map" that actually shows thermodynamic (temperature) data in physical space, and all my searches are returning "heatmap" visual representation ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heatmap). I also find it difficult to search for anything related to "R" as everything in the world gets included with "R" as part of the search string!

    The image included in my original post above is an overhead view of a computer data center. The black rows are server racks and the other areas are open floor space. The colors represent the temperature of the air above the open floor space. In the middle image labeled "After Containment" you can see that cold air is being pumped in the narrow space between rows of computers (blue) and warmer air is coming out the other side (green) after it passes through the hot computers.

    Any suggestions for a better term for this type of visualization that might help me research it online? Or perhaps a tool recommendation if my explanation clarifies my goal at all? Thanks!

  4. yeahyeahyeah
    Member
    Posted 3 years ago #

    I found something with R that might steer me in the correct direction.

    This might work if I consider each temperature point as a "density" and give the room a coordinate system with temperatures points scattered across room.

    http://addictedtor.free.fr/graphiques/RGraphGallery.php?graph=139

    Anyone know how to do something similar with Processing?

  5. test123
    Member
    Posted 3 years ago #

    YeahYeahYeah,
    Did you make progress on your search thermal heat maps visualization at run-time?

    I have a similar need, and cannot find info on the web.

    Thanks,

  6. yeahyeahyeah
    Member
    Posted 3 years ago #

    I made it as far as purchasing a Processing book but I have yet to turn a page of it.

    Please post any progress you have made here. Thanks.

  7. wblut
    Member
    Posted 3 years ago #

    Hiya yeahyeahyeah,

    what you need is a basic interpolation scheme. How to do it depends on how your temperature readings are spread out in space. If they're nicely aligned on a grid (unlikely), basic bilinear interpolation would work. If they're not, there are various other techniques that can be tried (distance-weighted averaging, trilinear averaging on a Delaunay triangulation,...).

    If you send over the data, i can whip up a prototype in Processing for you to work on. (Contact fvanhoutte[at]wblut[dot]com)

    rgs,

    Frederik

  8. syphax
    Member
    Posted 3 years ago #

    A field that deals with this type of issue is geostatistics. There are methods like kriging, etc. that allow interpolation onto a grid. And once you have a grid, you can use stuff like the image and contour functions in R to visualize it.

    This page won't give you The Answer, but I bet it would lead you there: http://cran.r-project.org/web/views/Spatial.html

    When searching for stuff about R, I usually use the term CRAN, which stands for the Comprehensive R Archive Network. I agree, "R" is a pretty useless search term...

  9. syphax
    Member
    Posted 3 years ago #

    I looked into this question a bit more b/c it touched upon some things I've been wanting to learn. Here's what I found. This is all for R:

    Your best bet (in R, anyway): the akima library. See the examples on page 7 of the reference manual: http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/akima/index.html

    Another option (for real geostatistics, probably overkill for your needs) is the GeoR package- http://www.leg.ufpr.br/geoR/geoRdoc/tutorials.html

    Here's some code that generates images and then converts them into animated .gifs. This code is specific to geoR, but the key parts (the jpeg and system convert functions) should apply generally.

    For adding your server layout, if it's simple you can probably get away with polygon(). There's got to be a way to import and show image files in an R device window, but I don't know how.

  10. nathany
    FlowingData Editor
    Posted 3 years ago #

    Thanks, syphax. I'm pretty sure I'll find some use for this too somewhere along the line.

  11. java-nokia
    Member
    Posted 3 years ago #

    Very nice! Мобильные игры


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