Ghost Radar

[Indrid 1]

Hi everyone,

I am not what one may call a "paranormal investigator", but throughout my life I have always carried a strong interest in the paranormal, while at the same time I carry with me a very skeptical attitude towards most Paranormal things I come across. Even attempting to discount my own personal experiences throughout the course of my life.

But I think it is because of these few events, and a certain dash of faith and curiousty that keeps me intrigued, and pushes me to periodically research and explore the world of the unknown in great detail. Yet still, I do not consider myself an investigator of any sorts... More of a recreational paranormal researcher, or enthusiast I suppose.

Anyway, with that out of the way, I'm here because I figured I'd get some opinions from "investigators" in regards to their experiences or knowledge with "Ghost Radar", an application for the iPhone.

The creators of this application are wise to state that they themselves are essentially unaware of whether or not this program is a gateway for communication for spirits. They simply state that phones have many sensitive input and output devices and that if a spirit wished to, it could manipulate these devices to communicate with you.

I've used the application for my own amusement, just to see if I could ever find any consistency, or maybe even have some cryptic message handed off to me... But majority of the time, the words that come out either make no sense beside one another, or there is simply silence. But, I will share a few peculiar instances which even though this application is likely a big joke, these occurrences had me slightly surprised.

The system doesn't interpret audible sound and then spit out a word in relation to that sound, that much I'm almost certain of. But my first odd experience was a few years back at my old workplace whereby I turned the application on near the airport, and a few words came through...

"Pilot"

Then a few random words later,

"Airplane".

I chalked this up to coincidence since the application was spitting out a lot of nonsensical chatter. That, or to play the side of the believer, maybe many voices were competing to be heard?

Anyway, I didn't use this little gimmicky program often. And when I did, as I said it was typically either a bunch of random words coming in fast that seemed completely random with no consistency, or the air was just quiet.

Until I started playing with the app again quite recently.

My apartment so far has not influenced much activity for this device, but one evening late at night almost a few weeks ago now, I heard a loud bang come from the floor above me.

I had the application on, for approximately 20 minutes with nothing but silence. Once I heard the loud bang, it wasn't but a few seconds before a word appeared on the screen,

"Bang".

Then continued silence for the next ten minutes before I went to sleep.

Finally, last night I tuned it on again, and it was particularly chatty but only for 15 minutes or so. Remember I mentioned the lack of consistency with words? Well it began "talking", and the few words were all strangely similar or connected, and I've never witnessed this before.

"Sentence"

Then a few words later,

"Spell".

Then consecutively,

"Advice"

"Provide"

"Better"

"Teach"

"Write"

I'm not saying this is a ghost, or anything paranormal for that matter... But these few occurrences have me wondering just what may be triggering these words that seem to be conscience of something?

What do you guys think?

[jackball74 29]

I don't know anything about this app, but is it possible that it can detect where you are via your GPS and issue words relevant to the location? We have to be wary of "refinded" technology like this. It's one thing if you have a basic audio recorder pick up sounds (and even then the matter is dependent on numerous factors), but another if you have a more complex electronic program. I'd like to learn more about it.

[Brian Topp 3,822]

Hello Indrid, Welcome to UM.

Ghost Apps have been discussed on here and after some research, I have concluded that Ghost Radar is fake program that is only meant to entertain. The events that happen when using it is more of a conquincidence than any thing. Here is a cut and paste I done on another thread explaining how it is done (with some spelling and grammar corrections).

The best technique that Ghost Radar App uses is very simular to the classic game called "Metal Gear Solid" on the Psx/Dream cast.

[media=]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayZG-RJCUYs[/media]

If you don't want to watch the video, let me explain the plot.

In the game you face one of the Mini-Bosses named Pyscho Mantis, who claims to have occult powers to read your mind. Before you fight him he reads your past, (what it really means the game reads your save files on your memory card) like how well you played so far in the game, how many saves you done, How many times you have died and killed, how long you played etc. He then tells you OTHER games that you have saved on your memory card.

So as you may of figured, it is using the memory card to check information which is what exactly what the ghost radar is doing. it's reading your cell/tablet for information it can use, like your facebook comments, texts, calls, personal cotact list and using it in a vague way (such as using peoples names or even words you have used and then use those single words when you use the ghost app.

Let's look at the list below on what does the program wish to access on my tablet.

Permissions:

Network Communication:

This Allows an application to create network sockets (accessing online information)

Phone Calls:

Allows the application to access the phone features on the device. An application with this permission can determine the phone number and serial number of this phone, whether a call is active the number that call is connected to and the like.

Your Location:

Coarse (networl-based) location

Access coarse location sources such as the cellular network database to determine an approximate tablet location, where avaliable. Malicious applications can use this to determine approximately where you are.

Fine (GPS) location

Access Fine location sources such as the global positioning system on the tablet, where avaliable, alicious applications can use this to determine approximately where you are and may consume additional battery power.

View Network State

Allows an application to view the state of all networks.

Your accounts.

Allows an application to get the list of accounts known by the tablet.

As you can see it's accessing all your private data and also allowing it to go online files from your accounts and also from websites and it own source.

To further add proof that it is fake, People have used two cell phones and got different results (especially on the radar), although, we have one member on UM who claims that he got the same information on both cells but he didn't document it with video evidence to credit his claims. There are also videos on youtube of people testing Ghost App with devices to see if the detection is working and came to the same conclusion that it is fake.

Here is one example of a debunk.

Edited October 12, 2012 by Brian Topp

[spud the mackem 4,593]

Hi everyone,

I am not what one may call a "paranormal investigator", but throughout my life I have always carried a strong interest in the paranormal, while at the same time I carry with me a very skeptical attitude towards most Paranormal things I come across. Even attempting to discount my own personal experiences throughout the course of my life.

But I think it is because of these few events, and a certain dash of faith and curiousty that keeps me intrigued, and pushes me to periodically research and explore the world of the unknown in great detail. Yet still, I do not consider myself an investigator of any sorts... More of a recreational paranormal researcher, or enthusiast I suppose.

Anyway, with that out of the way, I'm here because I figured I'd get some opinions from "investigators" in regards to their experiences or knowledge with "Ghost Radar", an application for the iPhone.

The creators of this application are wise to state that they themselves are essentially unaware of whether or not this program is a gateway for communication for spirits. They simply state that phones have many sensitive input and output devices and that if a spirit wished to, it could manipulate these devices to communicate with you.

I've used the application for my own amusement, just to see if I could ever find any consistency, or maybe even have some cryptic message handed off to me... But majority of the time, the words that come out either make no sense beside one another, or there is simply silence. But, I will share a few peculiar instances which even though this application is likely a big joke, these occurrences had me slightly surprised.

The system doesn't interpret audible sound and then spit out a word in relation to that sound, that much I'm almost certain of. But my first odd experience was a few years back at my old workplace whereby I turned the application on near the airport, and a few words came through...

"Pilot"

Then a few random words later,

"Airplane".

I chalked this up to coincidence since the application was spitting out a lot of nonsensical chatter. That, or to play the side of the believer, maybe many voices were competing to be heard?

Anyway, I didn't use this little gimmicky program often. And when I did, as I said it was typically either a bunch of random words coming in fast that seemed completely random with no consistency, or the air was just quiet.

Until I started playing with the app again quite recently.

My apartment so far has not influenced much activity for this device, but one evening late at night almost a few weeks ago now, I heard a loud bang come from the floor above me.

I had the application on, for approximately 20 minutes with nothing but silence. Once I heard the loud bang, it wasn't but a few seconds before a word appeared on the screen,

"Bang".

Then continued silence for the next ten minutes before I went to sleep.

Finally, last night I tuned it on again, and it was particularly chatty but only for 15 minutes or so. Remember I mentioned the lack of consistency with words? Well it began "talking", and the few words were all strangely similar or connected, and I've never witnessed this before.

"Sentence"

Then a few words later,

"Spell".

Then consecutively,

"Advice"

"Provide"

"Better"

"Teach"

"Write"

I'm not saying this is a ghost, or anything paranormal for that matter... But these few occurrences have me wondering just what may be triggering these words that seem to be conscience of something?

What do you guys think?

Maybe a computer is trying to talk to your phone ? I wouldn't say its Paranormal, because if "ghosts" are real and could get into p.c's/iPods etc then they could screw up the World,so why haven't they done so already,or is your machine an exception.

[Sean Austin 7]

hey bud sean austin here..i know there alot of skeptics about ghost radar and we all have a right to our beliefs..but to me with a doubt ghost radar works..ive had so many things to prove that through random experiences over the last 2 years..ive had 2 ghost radars on and the ovilus x lined up and got the same word on all 3 devices..no i didnt get it on camera of course sucks lol..but ive also had them lined up and would get on the ovilus..."gun"....ghost radar 1 "shoot" ghost radar 2 "ammunition"..these are just a couple of examples..i even an evp of someone saying the word "slept" the sametime ghost radar said it like it was a layered sound..i know some people have said im saying these things cause i wrote the theme song for the app lol but i got into the app and came up with it cause pf me using it and having experiences..bill chapell creator of the ovilus.even said that ghost radar is as good as anything out there but im telling you somehow this app works..ghost radar does the exact same concept as the ovilus does but it uses things like the gps ..wifi.,.etc to make the calcuations and potential fluxations which it assins it as a word when picking one up....here is a video i made with an evp of the word ghost radar said as well...let me know your thoughts

[scowl 3,083]

This falls under the "rule of magic". Which is more likely: a magician somehow made a woman appear out of thin air, or you were fooled by a clever magic trick?

I believe Ghost Radar does work in that it successfully fools people into thinking it's doing something that it's not really doing.

[Redefining Success 1,605]

I believe Ghost Radar does work in that it successfully fools people into thinking it's doing something that it's not really doing.

Amen to that!

[AshenPhoenix 44]

My X got super excited about the Ghost Radar when it first came out... but then he thought Paranormal Activity was real recording of events 'caught' on camera. Oh I believe in the paranormal... just a little skeptical about 'smart applications'. Seems they're smart enough to outsmart us sometimes.

[Spky777 5]

I've always wondered how one goes about to prove a scientific and real investigation. I think the parapsychology field has good ideas and ways to actually do a test that is the best available in the scientific community. Evidence gathered this way would be very interesting. I researched some parapsychology sites and most of them don't say anything or they have journals where you have to pay $$. I wonder though if there is any Authentic or published parapsychology investigation evidence or proof on the net. It would be very interesting.

Unless their is anyone out there that can believe your eyes without evidence, we need some rule/way to gather legitimate scientific evidence.

[AshenPhoenix 44]

I've always wondered how one goes about to prove a scientific and real investigation. I think the parapsychology field has good ideas and ways to actually do a test that is the best available in the scientific community. Evidence gathered this way would be very interesting. I researched some parapsychology sites and most of them don't say anything or they have journals where you have to pay $$. I wonder though if there is any Authentic or published parapsychology investigation evidence or proof on the net. It would be very interesting.

Unless their is anyone out there that can believe your eyes without evidence, we need some rule/way to gather legitimate scientific evidence.

Unfortunately most 'evidence' can be reproduced for hoaxes. So no matter how much evidence is gathered there will always be skeptics who refuse to believe.

[Brian Topp 3,822]

Unfortunately most 'evidence' can be reproduced for hoaxes. So no matter how much evidence is gathered there will always be skeptics who refuse to believe.

In this case Ghost Radar is a hoax and has been proven so.

[Brian Topp 3,822]

hey bud sean austin here..i know there alot of skeptics about ghost radar and we all have a right to our beliefs..but to me with a doubt ghost radar works..ive had so many things to prove that through random experiences over the last 2 years..ive had 2 ghost radars on and the ovilus x lined up and got the same word on all 3 devices..no i didnt get it on camera of course sucks lol..but ive also had them lined up and would get on the ovilus..."gun"....ghost radar 1 "shoot" ghost radar 2 "ammunition"..these are just a couple of examples..i even an evp of someone saying the word "slept" the sametime ghost radar said it like it was a layered sound..i know some people have said im saying these things cause i wrote the theme song for the app lol but i got into the app and came up with it cause pf me using it and having experiences..bill chapell creator of the ovilus.even said that ghost radar is as good as anything out there but im telling you somehow this app works..ghost radar does the exact same concept as the ovilus does but it uses things like the gps ..wifi.,.etc to make the calcuations and potential fluxations which it assins it as a word when picking one up....here is a video i made with an evp of the word ghost radar said as well...let me know your thoughts

You know Sean, You are very gun-ho with Ghost Radar and I wondered from the first day that you had posted here on your claims that Ghost Radar works. After many weeks of thinking of how to further prove that the program is fake, I had finally come to a conclusion that I lack the talents of a programmer to strip the app apart the program to understand it but I can go a simular concept by running it on my PC.

That's right, I am going to run emulator that will play ghost radar on my PC where I will unhook my ethernet (do not have an wireless card) and run the program.

My goal is to prove that

1) To show every one that the ghost Radar is fake since there is no way for it to create ANY signal to detect ghosts.

2)To prove that Words are random since again, there is no way my PC can broadcast or catch a wireless signal.

3) If both of the two functions do not work then it will prove that ghost radar is legit and I will proudly announce that I believe it is real and change my views on the paranormal world.

To further prove it, I will be recording with my camtasia and fraps and present it on youtube.

I am eager to end this Ghost Radar fad.

Edited October 28, 2012 by Brian Topp

[Brian Topp 3,822]

I just installed it and did a test run, let's just say my theories on ghost radar is what i have expected. i will do the recording when i get a chance and will make a new thread to produce my evidence.

[Rlyeh 10,238]

I have to wonder why these software developers are selling this software to consumers as a toy app, when they could be revolutionizing science with evidence of after life communication.

As someone who has studied in computer programming, I've seen similar gimmicks.

On the Amiga there was one at could supposely intercept mindcontrol signals.

Edited October 29, 2012 by Rlyeh

[RAGE4TRUTH 4]

The ghost radar app is for entertainment.

[scowl 3,083]

And as you can see, it's very well designed to fool people into thinking it's doing something.

[Biff Wellington 1,834]

I've had this app before & it's utter garbage. I've also had one that was voice recorder that toned down background noise so you could record EVPs. & go figure, I got one the first time that clear as day, above all the background noise (that's not toned down at all) saying, "Die". Now of course when I used my normal sound recorder apps aren't picking anything. Imagine that...

Edited November 30, 2012 by Biff Wellington

[Erikguswriter 0]

Shoot I am a newbie at the whole investigating thing and I got Ghost Radar for my iPad. It has given me the creeps and goosebumps a few times, but now it just makes me sad knowing for sure it's as fake a Ouija board. On to discover some more real equipment to use...

[CakeOrDeath 117]

What would you expect? How can someone write an app, that will digitally detect beings that have not even been proven to exist? It's insanity that anyone would consider a ghost-radar application a real and viable form of tracking the paranormal. Even for fanatical believers that's a new low.

Edited January 15, 2013 by CakeOrDeath

[scowl 3,083]

Ghost Radar uses two common flaws in human perception: ignoring negative results and focusing on positive results, and our ability to find connections between unconnected things.

I've gotten a couple of words from Ghost Radar that would have blown my mind away if they hadn't been between about a hundred words that made no sense. The posts I've read from people who have been amazed by Ghost Radar show they've done a lot of work to find meaning in series of meaningless words.

[Sean Austin 7]

LOL well let not forget the "otherside" of the spectrum where humans who use only the negative aspects of such a possibility of such a thing actually working looking for a reason it doesnt work..i know you gave a whole weekend of using ghost radar but you have to remember #1 ghost radar is limited to its vocabulary so a spirit theoretically can only learn and then say thru that device what is listed in its database..and #2 a spirit would actually want to speak to you..to me most spirits dont want to be a circus side show and entertain everyone around especially if you are just in your home..what are your chances of getting spirits that want to talk to you let alone are you in your home?? go to a bunch of "known" haunted places and use this device and i will assure you its your best chance of seeing that his app does friggen work..i know it works..i suggest using another app with ghost radar in the background but its only available on droid which is called "ghost speaker" it has almost double the amount of words and you can compare the words with both apps on at the sametime on droids..on iphones there is now "ghost radar connect" which i personally gave the creator the idea of having the user be able to add words infinitely to its database..this way it has the ability to speak the words that are most relevant to each persons surroundings cause AGAIN its limited to its vocabulary..and if you want to test out ghost radar or any other app that is potentially legit that does the samething..is to do a EVP session while using it like i have done and to me even more proof that it works here is my video for this one...

[*Frank* 126]

Surely ghosts could just use those text-to-speech functions on word processors. If ghost radar works by spirits manipulating wifi signals etc then that should work too. That way they wouldn't be limited to words like "die", "kill", "shoot", etc. By the way, do ghosts use the b/g standards of wifi or are they 802.11n?

[JesseCuster 5,320]

How does "Ghost Radar" actually work?

It's a computer program. As such it has an algorithm that produces output from some sort of input (or random generator of some sort).

Is it reading from the devices sensors (camera, microphone, accelerometer, etc.) and translating that into words or what?

What is the logic in the app that produces any given word to be output? How did the app writers develop and test the code?

Did they simply introduce a random number generator that translates to various words in the hope that ghosts could manipulate the electronics to produce the wanted output (in which case you don't need an app, a smartphone with an open text editor should be able to produce input from ghosts spontaneously)? If not there must be some sort of input that the app takes to produce output? What is that input and how does the app translate it to a given output and how did the app writers figure this out?

[scowl 3,083]

What is the logic in the app that produces any given word to be output? How did the app writers develop and test the code?

That's the big secret! All we do know about the code is that is has a set number of words it can display. No one has bothered to step through the code to see what it's doing if anything.

Another question is why the author is constantly releasing updates. Are ghosts complaining that it's not accurately communicating with them?

[reverser 5]

So, the main reason no one has reversed this is because the EULA explicitly says you're not allowed to, which should be a red flag right off the bat. I'm a pretty awesome person, so I reversed it anyway. Considering the downloads are currently 1,000,000 - 5,000,000, it's probably about time. I'm not modifying, redistributing, or profiting off of it, so whatever.

I usually post here under a different name, for what it's worth.

I aquired the apk from the google market here and used some common tools unpack the dalvik bytecode. I normally do stuff like this for work, and it's pretty rare that my hobbies overlap, so I was excited. Apks can actually be unpacked just like a zip file, so I encourage anyone to go take a looksy themselves. Check out dex2jar if you want some Java to look at.

Anyways, the permissions of the app are another red flag. There's nothing special, just ordinary advertising perms, and the fact that this app runs on tablets that lack typical smartphone sensors is odd. Guess it's not analyzing too many magnetic fields or passive audio, eh? On top of this, it needs access to your "device status and identity." Keep that in mind if you think the ghosts know who you are.

In the apk, the res/values/strings.xml file contains the wordlist that the program uses to randomly select its words. There are 2130 words that you can read here: http://pastebin.com/SL0L3b7i.

The app includes the following software packages:

-amazon (ads)

-google (ads and text2speech)

-pocketchange (shopping and rewards)

-revmob (ads)

-spudpickles (the app itself) (lol @ the name)

So, let's take a gander at spudpickles. The main activity is RadarActivity, which initilizes ads, pipes out random "coordinates" around the screen, makes the radar animation, and gets a GRCApp class. GRCApp handles most of the functionality.

In GRCApp, populateWords() picks your words the "ghost" says using:

Random random = new Random();
int l = random.nextInt(2130);
activeWordsIndices[l];

Yep, just random numbers. The amount of ghosts that are tracked is decided from your sensitivity settings:

maxGhosts = (int)appDelegate.sensitivitySettings.getUseValueFor(4);
ghostList = new ArrayList();
int i = 0;
while(i < maxGhosts) {
   Ghost ghost = new Ghost(appDelegate);
   ghostList.add(ghost);
   i++;
}

Yup, that's seriously it. Wish I was making it up. Afterwards, we repeatedly step through the ghosts and see if we should show 'em or hide 'em:

while(true) {
   if(!iterator.hasNext()) {...}
   ((Ghost)iterator.next()).checkForActivity();
}

checkForActivity() checks current time minus last time moved, and shows the ghost if it's greater than the sensitivity settings:

public void checkForActivity(){
   long l = (long)(1000F * SensitivitySettings.getSingletonObject().getUseValueFor(3));
   if(System.currentTimeMillis() - dateLastMoved > l)
       hidden = true;
}

How does the ghost move around?

numberStream = new Random();
public void run(){
   move(numberStream.nextFloat(), numberStream.nextFloat(), numberStream.nextFloat());
}

At scheduled intervals, random numbers are picked, then passed to a move method, which just takes the numbers and puts a blip somewhere in the radar circle. For those curious, check out the Movement class's move(float f1, float f2, float f3) method.

That's the meat of it. A bunch of math is also done to make polar coordinates, and calculate blip and word frequencies.

TL;DR version:

At scheduled intervals, random numbers are generated to pick a ghost's coordinates, whether or not they appear, and the words that are displayed. The amount of ghost objects created is literally your sensitivity settings. No sensor input is read to determin any of this.

Mirrored here.