An Overview of Magnetic Field Visualization Methods and Applications for Macroscale Objects

Abstract

There are different techniques and devices for visualizing magnetic fields in macro-, micro-, and nanoscale. A non-exhaustive literary overview of macroscale magnetic field visualization methods is presented. Theoretical and experimental techniques are briefly described and contrasted over computational cost, implementation, and usability criterion. Finite element methods (FEM) have a higher computational cost that finite volume methods (FVM) and that meshfree approximation method. Scanning systems have a low computational cost as the input dataset size is small, and there is no need to solve differential equations to reconstruct the fields. Augmented reality (AR) systems have the largest computational cost of all methods. FEM and FVM simulations are simple to implement in 2D and can become quite complex in 3D. All experimental setups are not trivial to build. Scanning systems requires the construction of a linear X, Y mechanical table and a controller design to synchronize sensor readings with probe movement. They are slow, mapping a single surface can take 1 h (Tumanski in Handbook of magnetic measurements (Series inSensors), 1st edn. CRC Press, 2016). Magnetic cameras need hardware design, embedded and application software development. They are simple to use and provide real-time imagery of the field. Finally, AR systems depend on head-mounted devices, 3D FEM models, image processing algorithms to identify fiducials and synchronism of real and virtual objects (Matsutomo et al. in IEEE Trans Magn 53(6):1–4, Article No 8102004, 2017). Despite the high computational cost and the difficulty to build, it provides an immersive interactive experience for the user.