The Ghost Radar - hunting ghosts with your IPhone!

[Safe-Keeper]

This thread is in response to a post in this thread. Thought it was interesting enough to warrant its own thread, so I made this post to share this fascinating little gadget with the rest of you.
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Okay, so we all love hunting ghosts. Whether it's the ghost of your dead grandfather or the runaway soul of the mad hammer murderer who has taken up residence in your used car, or just a poltergeist manipulating your paintings, adding stuff that you could swear wasn't there before... running around in a seemingly harmless house with an EMF meter, IR camera and dowsing rods is the newest and biggest fad in the Let's Get Terrified of Make-Believe Things world. But don't you wish you could hunt ghosts with something cheaper? Like, an IPhone?

Look no further than this link.

That's right, you can now download a ghost radar for your IPhone. I honestly can't tell if the people making this are serious or not, but they describe their product like this:

Ghost Radar attempts to detect paranormal activity by using various sensors on the device on which it is running. Like traditional paranormal detecting equipment Ghost Radar employs sensors that measure electromagnetic fields, vibrations, and sounds. However, traditional paranormal equipment can be easily fooled when simple mundane bursts of normal electromagnetic fields, vibrations and sounds occur. Ghost Radar sets itself apart by analyzing the readings from sensors giving indications only when interesting patterns in the readings have been made.
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Again, I don't know if this is intended to be a serious ghost hunting tool, an innocent toy (the look of the UI certainly makes me lean towards this theory), or another outright scam. But I found several reviews to be sort of... depressing for their lack of critical thinking. The one I linked to in the beginning of this post has been reproduced in part below, along with my comments.

To create its readings, Ghost Radar uses the iPhone/iTouch sensors to measure the “quantum fluctuations” surrounding you.

I wasn't aware the IPhone had this function. Secondly, what exactly are "quantum fluctuations"? Is this even a meaningful term? On what basis should we expect that ghosts, and apparently ghosts alone, to produce "quantum fluctuations", and what happened to good old cold spots and ectoplasm?

The application will interpret this readout as blips on your screen, but also in numeric, text, graphical, and audio ways as well.

I assume she means "audio waves", but who am I to nitpick. What I'm wondering at this point is whether the GR actually does "interpret quantum fluctuations", or just spews out random numbers. Fortunately, this is an empirical question, and anyone with hacker/programmer skills would be able to tell us the answer. If the resulting words, numbers, and "radar blips" etc. are indeed random, then that settles it right there. If it isn't, then firstly, I'm wondering how the app interprets these "quantum fluctuations" ...or whatever it really is the IPhone is picking up - I know it of course has an audio receiver, which according to certain apps can actually be used to measure wind strength, but decoding alleged "quantum fluctuations" into meaningful text and graphics the way a computer turns ones and zeroes into, say, a picture of a sunset, seems a tad bit less likely.

With that in mind, the best tool for deciphering the readings are within its Frequently Asked Questions. The main website also does a great job to support and outline the different components available in this application as well.

There's an idea. If you'll forgive me the digression, let's look at the actual web site:

Is Ghost Radar real?
We believe the application is as effective as an EMF detector or a KII.

That's like saying that a thermometer is as effective as an egg timer. The Ghost Radar and an EMF meter are two different things. I confess I have no idea of what a KII would be.

The theory of what is happening is that intelligent energy can be made aware of their ability to influence the sensors of the device.

What is "intelligent energy"? Energy is a measurement of work capacity. The phrase "intelligent energy" is as meaningless as the term "intelligent height", and the alternative crowd doesn't seem to be able to arrive at a single, clear definition as to what the term "energy", in the paranormal context, means.

You must decide for yourself if the readings are indicative of actual paranormal activity. Keep a log of strange readings, or video tape your hunting. Allow the corroborating evidence to influence your view of Ghost Radar's authenticity. Drop us a line, stories@spudpickles.com, and let us know what you find with Ghost Radar.

Here we have arrived at another hallmark of paranormal thinking: the confirmation bias. You're supposed to record and hold onto the results that strengthen your belief in the Ghost Radar, while, presumably, disregarding all the times you were not impressed. If the GR does indeed just randomly spew out numbers (and if it doesn't, then I'm genuinely interested in finding out how it comes to its conclusions), then naturally it will eventually arrive at phrases or pictures that users will derive meaning from. I'm an avid player of the indie game Dwarf Fortress, which is in its alpha stage and is fond of randomly generating meaningless names for everything from fortresses and mountains to people and tools, and there are several threads on the forums (here is one of them) dedicated to sharing names that players find to be funny, particularly strange, or fitting. But what everyone does realize is that the names are just that - random. Sadly, the minute the paranormal sticker is slapped onto a situation, this common sense seems to stops working.

Next question:

How does Ghost Radar work?
Modern mobile devices are amazing devices filled with sensors and transceivers. To name a few, there is a WiFi transceiver, a touch sensor, an acceleromete, a phone transceiver, a microphone, and a magnetometer. As you can see there are plenty of ways for paranormal activity to interact with the device, the trick is to interpret the readings from these sensors and receivers and present them in a way to help track the paranormal activity.

Wow. OK, so it has slightly more than just an audio receiver and touch-sensitive screen, then. I keep forgetting just how awesome the IPod/IPhone gadgets are. Sigh, to think that I got one for Yule and sold it to my brother before realizing its true potential. I just have to get a new one someday.

Anyways, we move on:

The majority of equipment used to hunt for paranormal activity was not originally designed to hunt ghosts and do not find the majority of their use in the paranormal. For example EMF detectors and KII meters were designed for electrical work and are used predominantly in that field, not the paranormal. Also, IR cameras were originally developed during the Korean War for the military to find enemies in the dark. These days IR cameras are mostly used by firefighters, astronomy, police, etc.

Absolutely true, and I commend them for their honesty (even though its part of an obvious sales pitch). Unlike the IPhone, the EMF meter, IR cameras, and other gadgets used in ghost hunting shows were made with totally different intents than catching ghosts.

Even though these devices were not originally designed for the field of paranormal they do seem to be the most effective tools in the hunt for the unknown. Ghost Radar enables your mobile device to be used for the paranormal even though the device was not originally designed for the paranormal, just like the EMF detector, KII meter, and IR camera. The readings that Ghost Radar presents are open to your interpretation and up for debate.

Oh, damn. You were on such a nice roll there.

Ghost Radar uses a variety of readings from the sensors on the iPhone and iPod touch to measure anomalous changes in the Quantum Flux (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_fluctuation). A large portion of the flux readings come from the background anomalies of the accelerometer. These sensor readings come in constantly and have only very minor changes. Ghost Radar tracks these readings and analyzes them; watching for strange behavior. Based on a multitude of different readings and historical trends Ghost Radar uses its proprietary algorithm to present various visual and audible representations of the readings.

Okay, so what, exactly, is "strange behaviour" in this "quantum flux" that the IPhone supposedly can keep track of? Also remember that "energy" in the scientific sense is vastly different from the "energy" in the paranormal sense, so it's fairly dishonest when the FAQ goes on to talk about "energies" as if they were the same as the legitimate energy in the Wikipedia article.


Either way, far as I can tell it looks at unexpected fluctuations in sound and whatnot and turns them into words and graphics. Back to Rachel.

With any investigation of the paranormal, the experience is on a personal basis.

Why? Radars don't give results on a personal basis. Thermometers don't give temperature readings on a personal basis. If you'll forgive me another digression from Rachel, a reviewer of the GR says:

Source.
Those predisposed to dismiss it state their reasons. Such as.. "I moved and the blips stayed in the same place" (Wanting to interpret the app, simply, as a ghost GPS). Or.."My friend and I ran the app side-by-side on two devices and the results were different." (I wouldn't expect the same results on two devices, with different usage histories and settings. And I'd expect results UNIQUE to each individual.). Or.."The words are random..don't make sense!" (So the words should be referring only to you or 'speaking' only to you?)

If I place two thermometers side by side, will they give different temperatures? Probably not.

Anyways, back to Rachel again:

The best readings I received were when I left Ghost Radar on for awhile.

This because the GR needs time to get used to the background noise in the room, which tells me it actually is designed to honestly try to make sense of its surroundings. Or, of course, that it's programmed to "go crazy" for then to settle down.

The biggest question here is obviously if I think it actually works. And yes, I certainly do. I was with every other skeptic out there but this application has done some unexplainable things.

No, most likely it hasn't. Sure, it'll come up with neat coincidences now and then, but this is to be expected, just as much as it is to be expected that someone will win the lottery every week despite the overwhelming odds. Then confirmation bias takes over and tells you the coincidences are proof of paranormal activity.

Another time, Ghost Radar was on and really active; words and readings going off the charts – but I was busy. I silenced the volume, and as I glanced back down it promptly read “ignore”. It went on to display the words “Native” and “Indian” as well as “food”, and “grain”. It was describing a bundle of Indian Corn visible through the windows of my front door.

That's a cool coincidence, but firstly, it's anecdotal, and secondly, it's the kind of thing to expect from an app like GR. Just for fun, I googled "Random word generator" and got this, which I used to generate Petrol, Spacing, Flow, Arrival and Access. Aren't these words connected somehow (petrol and flow, access and arrival)? Without even concentrating too much, I can come up with several ways this could apply to me, right now. Yet, this program certain doesn't claim to be paranormal, nor would most people have a "supernatural experience" using it.

Heh, tried it again. Thought, "okay, let's pretend we're going hiking in the nearby mountains". Got "fence". First thing I think of when I hear "fence" is the fences on the mountain.

Rachel closes with this statement:

Whether just for fun or during a paranormal quest, I think you’d really enjoy this. I’ve read the comments on iTunes, but would love to know how you’ve used this application. Remember to keep an open mind, and you may just get what you ask for.

An open mind? You mean like an open mind to consider alternate explanations when experiencing something supernatural? Oh, wait, you mean the opposite, the "open mind" in the supernatural context: leaping straight to the paranormal explanation without consulting experts.

Either way, that concludes my write-up about the Ghost Radar. As I wrote above, I thought it was an amusing little gadget and felt it deserved a forum post. My personal theory is that it started out as a harmless toy, and then was upgraded to full-fledged "ghost hunting tool" when the positive reviews started pouring in.

 

[JoeyDonuts]

Phase One = Take legitimate sensor monitor, assign it to trigger off harmless and expected variances, randomize as needed, generate random words as needed. Market it to people that have zero training in scientific method/electronic engineering.

Phase Two = ? ? ? ? ? ?

Phase Three = $ $ $ $ $ $

I already know three people that have this. WHY?!?!?!?

 

[Safe-Keeper]

! I almost bought one myself, just for ***** and giggles, because I thought it was so funny, but then I realized I didn't want to give the alternative industry more money than I had to.

Oh, and I own no IPhone.

 

[Shadou]

the sad thing is that there are even worse apps that you can waste your money on.

 

[rhtufts]

We joked at work about making an app like that. All you need is a pretty interface and some random alerts.

 

[Dmarie]

The same thing is happening with other IPhone apps such as EMF Detector and something for EVPs. There are a number of 'ghost hunters' who believe that just because the new IPhone 3Gs contain a magnetometer, this app WILL work as a 'real' 3 axis EMF meter. Of course these same 'ghost hunters' also refer to themselves as 'researchers' who take the 'scientific approach'.

I've tried to explain to these 'researchers' that no, your IPhone does not turn into an EMF meter with this nifty little app. My words prove useless. I guess the magical word, magnetometer, has given false credibility for use of this little money making app.

Any suggestions from the more electronically learned members here to help further my cause against this crappy little app?

 

[stephenenelson]

Ghost Radar

I own this app, purchased in hopes of writing a review for my web site. It is, of course, worthless for detecting ghosts, but has gotten a laugh or two in social situations, so it's worth the money if one ignores the ethical implications.

Originally, Ghost Radar only offered the radar-like ghost scanning feature, based on "proprietary quantum algorithms." (Which is a fancy way of saying "we use the random number generator and won't tell you about it.") After devices like the Ovilus became popular, they added the random-word "quantum vox converter" feature. (Which just said "canal" to me. Then "slowly." Then "Italy"! Make of that what you will.)

For the record, the KII is one of the EMF detectors made popular on ghost hunting shows. The Ghost Radar is indeed as effective for detecting ghosts as any form of EMF detector, since zero is equal to zero.

 

[jhunter1163]

I'm holding out for the iExorcist.

"House haunted? There's an app for that!"

 

[MRC_Hans]

.

Any suggestions from the more electronically learned members here to help further my cause against this crappy little app?

You cannot create a ghost detector without knowing exactly what ghosts are and how they interact with their physical environment. Thus, with a bunch of sensors, all you can do is make them detact basically random disturbances coming their way. Since we have no reference frame for such disturbances (they are inherently random), whatever we detect might be a random disturbance. Thus, the output will be indistinguishable from random.

Hans

 

[HansMustermann]

You cannot create a ghost detector without knowing exactly what ghosts are and how they interact with their physical environment.

Damn, there goes my plan to make a Tooth Fairy Radar app

 

[Sledge]

I've got the Tricorder app on my Android phone. Detects all sort of random stuff, doesn't pretend to detect ghosts and it's free. In your FACES, Apple fanbois!

 

[Biscuit]

I am downloading this for my droid right now! So excited to read quantum fluctuations!

ETA - my can of coke just showed up as a ghost

 

[Stray Cat]

ETA - my can of coke just showed up as a ghost

It's a metafizzycal apparition?