3D visualization to aid engineering education: A case study to visualize the impact of wireless signals on human brain

3D visualization has become one of the most sort after tool to display hidden information to the students utilizing their sense of vision. This tool has been successful in aiding education, more specifically in teaching engineering subjects. Intricate concepts and phenomenons can easily be visualized in motion to the emerging engineers. This gives great insight of otherwise hard to understand principles and constructs. Wireless communication subjects are a good example of the use of visualization tool in teaching engineering. Recent prolific growth in wireless devices such as smart phones, tablet computers and other easy to carry devices made the use of radio frequency omnipresent. The widespread use of these devices has also raised health concerns among the masses due to the possible malign effects of electromagnetic radiations on the human body, especially on the brain due to its proximity with the handheld radio devices. These radiations are absorbed in the head while making phone calls, and thereby increasing the direct and indirect health risks. These risks include, the rise of temperature in human body tissues resulting in adverse physiological problems [1]. As a matter of fact, even a small change in temperature in brain can be detrimental; a few degrees rise in temperature in the hypothalamus may cause thermoregulatory behavior [2]. The most important aspect of these effects is the fact that they largely go un-noticed. There are also no means to verify or observe the RF absorption, termed as Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) on the human head and brain. This paper presents the significance of 3D visualization for engineering students and help elucidate the intricate and challenging scientific engineering concepts. A useful case study has been developed at Texas A&M University at Qatar’s Immersive Visualization Facility (IVF) to visualize the impact of RF signals on human head and brain. We have presented our initial efforts to visualize and observe the effects of SAR on a human head model. The series of 3D visualizations are built by using the mathematical model of SAR to understand the distribution of RF over the layers of considered human head model.