Become a ghost hunter with your iPhone

Meet Mr Ghost, the antenna that turns your iDevice into a tool for exploring the supernatural.

There are more things in heaven and earth than we can perceive with our senses; this much we do know. Are any of those things supernatural? Well, ghosts have never been scientifically proven, but here at CNET Australia, we're deeply fascinated by the notion and find the idea of ghost hunting terribly fun, whether there's anything out there or not.

Now, if you're a hardcore buff, you can get some specialised equipment, such as EMF (electromagnetic field) meters and thermal cameras. It can be pretty pricey though. And there are free smartphone apps available, but they're not exactly trustworthy; this one for iOS, for example, is merely a simulator, and this one for Android has some pretty dodgy permissions.

So Mr Ghost caught our attention in a good way.

The Kickstarter project consists of an antenna that you plug into the headphone jack of your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, and pair with a free app to bring it one step closer to the Tricorder.

EM radiation stands for "electromagnetic radiation" [and] is a wave-like form of energy like microwaves, visible light and x-rays. EMF stands for "electromagnetic field" and is the near field part of EM radiation. Any time you have electrons moving through wire (like in the power supply of your appliances), it generates an electromagnetic field. Mr Ghost detects this field.

So if you're not really sold on the whole "ghost hunting" thing, you can use it to see how much EMF your devices are giving off — but we reckon that there's far more fun to be had than just waving it over your TV.

Mr Ghost will set you back just US$20 (plus US$7 shipping). You can find out more and support the project on Kickstarter.