Create a heat map using uneven spatial distributed sensor data

Hallo,

I have 10 data set with values every 5 minute. I have also the coordinates of the sensor locations X & Y.

% Coordinates

X = [27 63 63 54 130 179.5 179.5 196 103 196];

Y = [13.4 28.8 113.2 144 3.8 28.8 115.5 129.6 71 67];

% The grid of ploting the contours

xlinl=linspace(0,230,47);

ylinl=linspace(0,160,33);

[X,Y]=meshgrid(xlinl,ylinl);

Can someone help me how can I create a contour map by using these data per time step?

At the end I would like to create a movie by showing the spatial temperature distribution and how is changing during the time.

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

[Jaswanth]

Hi,

To create a contour map and a movie that visualizes the spatial temperature distribution over time using MATLAB, start by organizing your temperature data corresponding to the sensor coordinates. Use “griddata” to interpolate this data over a grid due to the uneven sensor distribution. For each time step, generate contour plots with “contourf” to visualize the temperature distribution, using a color gradient to indicate different levels.

Capture these visualizations as a movie using “VideoWriter” function, compiling frames into a cohesive video to show how the distribution evolves.

Please refer to the following example code demonstrating the process described above:

% Sensor coordinates
sensorX = [27, 63, 63, 54, 130, 179.5, 179.5, 196, 103, 196];
sensorY = [13.4, 28.8, 113.2, 144, 3.8, 28.8, 115.5, 129.6, 71, 67];

% Example temperature data for 10 time steps
% Replace this with your actual data
temperatureData = rand(10, numel(sensorX)); % Random data for illustration

% Grid for contour plotting
xlin = linspace(0, 230, 47);
ylin = linspace(0, 160, 33);
[X, Y] = meshgrid(xlin, ylin);

% Set up the video writer
v = VideoWriter('temperature_distribution.avi');
open(v);

% Loop through each time step
for t = 1:size(temperatureData, 1)
    % Interpolate the temperature data onto the grid
    Z = griddata(sensorX, sensorY, temperatureData(t, :), X, Y, 'cubic');
    
    % Plot the contour map
    contourf(X, Y, Z, 20, 'LineColor', 'none');
    colorbar;
    axis equal;
    axis([0 230 0 160]);
    
    % Capture the plot as a frame
    frame = getframe(gcf);
    writeVideo(v, frame);
    
    pause(0.1); % Pause for a short duration for visualization
end

% Close the video writer
close(v);

I hope the solution provided above is helpful.