SeisMac Turns Your Mac Laptop Into a Seismograph

Today’s east coast earthquake makes it timely to discover that your Mac portable can be a seismograph. Suitable Systems’ SeisMac is free software that harnesses your MacBook, MacBook Air, or MacBook Pro’s built-in sensors to monitor vibrations, and displays them in real-time.

All Apple portables have, for the past five years, included the Sudden Motion Sensor or SMS. It’s a three-axis accelerometer that, when a fall or jolt is detected, can tell the Mac to disengage the hard disk’s drive heads before impact from, say, a fall. SeisMac can read the data from the SMS to show you some cool stuff. Turns out, the SMS is remarkably sensitive. The developer claims it’ll see your heartbeat if you lay your laptop on your chest!

Suitable Systems’ SeisMac 3.0

For even better accuracy, you can use Suitable Systems’ SeisMaCalibrate to calibrate your laptop’s Sudden Motion Sensors.