GhostRadar from SpudPickles

I'm usually skeptical of paranormal technology when applied to ghost-hunting and this latest entry into the field is no exception. GhostRadar is now available as an electric keychain pendant, a flashy flashdrive, and an application for IPhone and other popular personal electronics devices. Download the app for 99 cents and prepare to be afraid . . . .

Technical data and theory behind this new approach to phantom intrusion is tough to come by. Let's just assume (probably safely) that the flash drive and keychain devices which sell for fifteen dollars and under do very little more than flash lights and sound beeps at random. It's unlikely that sophisticated electronic devices will be housed in anything that cheap, except for the flash drive (which accounts for the cost of the item, leaving nothing for the ghost hunting radar).

Moving along to something which gives a more intelligent feedback than bells and whistles, we find that the only option is the GhostRadar app by SpudPickles. Using sensors within the host device the application creates a readout of conditions in the area which may indicate ghostly activity and shows the direction of the source. Distance may be inferred but the designer says there's no real distance scale and the source may even be above or below. (Keep moving, it's your only chance -- remember Alien).

Follow up:

SpudPickles also says the app searches the quantum flux, not EMF or gravity fields. Sensors within the device might include temperature (monitoring operating temperatures) or electrostatic fields (interaction with finger-tap input screens), light levels outside the box, time of day, or probably most importantly, scans of recent email communications. Audio pickup is possible, so if you're talking about spooky things you may be clueing the system in to generate spooky feedback. The most likely source of pertinent information is the user and the user's onboard files. Other possible ways to cant the readout towards the supernatural would be simple things like time of day and weather conditions at your location. Thunderstorms, midnight, Halloween and Friday the 13th -- if your system has GPS there's a possibility the app could know when you're visiting a cemetery.

Voice readout is an option, with another download necessary for that, and provides verbal expression of two thousand words -- probably not chosen at random. Spookiness could be one of the essential factors used in choosing those two thousand words.

Flashing
Flash Drive

But, all the potential for fraud (even fun fraud) doesn't mean the essential concept isn't useful in a supernatural sense. One of the intentions is to provide an ephemeral visitor with a means of communication. Influencing the sensors and circuitry could become a way of imparting useful information. Letters selected by random number generation could occasionally form meaningful patterns and become selected out by a visitor's electronic trigger -- or by the software itself.

I'm going to be a hard case on this one and go with my gut -- GhostRadar joins the Heap. After you play with it awhile, that is. Definitely worth 99 cents. What really has me curious is how people who are afraid to have a ouija board in the house can play with this.