Your own personal Richter scale
(Credit:
EnekoShop)
If you live in Kansas, the Japanese obsession with earthquake-detection devices might seem a bit insane. But we can guarantee they'll be of interest to anyone from California or other parts of the world where fault lines run free.
Usually, the gadgets we've seen claim to give some kind of early warning--and are therefore of dubious value. The unpronounceable "GraGraph," however, seems more realistic: It supposedly indicates the Richter-scale strength of a temblor as it's occurring in real time, according to SCI FI Tech. That's something people might actually buy, as evidenced by the server-jamming traffic experienced by the U.S. Geological Survey every time the earth perceptibly moves.
The only thing we don't like about this $85 device is the "soothing electronic voice" that conveys the results. That would be too creepy, in a Hal-like way, under the circumstances.
Check out SeisMac, I teach science and use it in my classroom!