How to get Nearby Wifi distance and direction in Android Studios

Question

How can I get the direction and the strength of all the nearby Wifi ? Till now I have been able to get Wifi Strength in Level but only of connected wifi using following code

   WifiManager wifiManager = (WifiManager)getSystemService(Context.WIFI_SERVICE);
            int numberOfLevels = 5;
            WifiInfo wifiInfo = wifiManager.getConnectionInfo();
            int level = WifiManager.calculateSignalLevel(wifiInfo.getRssi(), numberOfLevels);

I am trying to do something like this Play Store App Link

This app gives nearby wifi plot on campas

Can anyone guide my how this is possible?

I know this has nothing to do with your question but I see this asking people alot: Android Studio ist just an IDE, what you want to know is how you do it in "Android" not "Android Studio". — cherry-wave, Jul 14 '16 at 08:30
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13932724/getting-wifi-signal-strength-in-android Maybe this helps! — cherry-wave, Jul 14 '16 at 08:31

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 14 '16 at 08:46

Short answer "not possible".

Long answer is that the phone gives just the strength of the incoming signal, which can come from any direction. You can not even estimate the distance to the WiFi access point until you know its signal strength with your phone for some known distance. You can however estimate the direction of where the WiFi access point is from movement of your phone and the differences of the WiFi signal strength changes.

The app you linked to tells you to start scanning and then slowly rotate. That is needed for recording the device orientation and the signal strength changes. Then based on the orientation of the device and the signal strength for that orientation it can estimated where the WiFi access point is. I am not connected with that app in any way, nor I have used it. All this information is based on the app's screenshots and general knowledge of how WiFi works.

Then there are other funny things like WiFi access points which can send a stronger signal in a specific direction when it detects a device with low signal.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 04 '17 at 12:11

0

To find distance you can try:

public double calculateDistance(double signalLevelInDb, double freqInMHz) {
    double exp = (27.55 - (20 * Math.log10(freqInMHz)) + Math.abs(signalLevelInDb)) / 20.0;
    return Math.pow(10.0, exp);
}

answered May 04 '17 at 12:11

Rahul Rastogi

4,486
5
32
51

but how we can get signalLevelInDb and freqInMHz from wifi direct ? – naima Apr 24 '20 at 14:48

How to get Nearby Wifi distance and direction in Android Studios

2 Answers2