  We present an operational definition of the Wigner function. Our method
relies on the Fresnel transform of measured Rabi oscillations and applies to
motional states of trapped atoms as well as to field states in cavities. We
illustrate this technique using data from recent experiments in ion traps [D.
M. Meekhof et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 76, 1796 (1996)] and in cavity QED [B.
Varcoe et al., Nature 403, 743 (2000)]. The values of the Wigner functions of
the underlying states at the origin of phase space are W(0)=+1.75 for the
vibrational ground state and W(0)=-1.4 for the one-photon number state. We
generalize this method to wave packets in arbitrary potentials.
