Data Services Newsletter

Volume 12 : No 1 : Spring/Summer 2010

SeisMac 3.0

SeisMac is a Mac OS X application that turns your MacBook or MacBook Pro into a seismograph. It accesses your laptop’s Sudden Motion Sensor in order to display real-time, three-axis acceleration graphs. Version 3.0 lets you select and export your collected seismic data.

Screenshot of SeisMac
Figure 1: Screenshot of SeisMac

The resizable, real-time scrolling display shows an enormous amount of acceleration information. Place your laptop on a table and see the seismic waves from tapping your toe on the floor. Lay your laptop on your chest and see your heartbeat. And of course, if there is a real earthquake, SeisMac will be displaying full seismic information while you drop, cover and hold-on.

When running on the MacBook or MacBook Pro, SeisMac has a range of plus or minus two gravities of acceleration, displaying 256 values per gravity, sampled up to five hundred times per second for each axis. SeisMac is also compatible with older Sudden Motion Sensor-equipped iBooks and PowerBooks.

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

SeisMac is based on SMSLib, my open-source Sudden Motion Sensor access library.

SeisMac is freeware for Mac OS X 10.4 or later. Version 3.0 adds data export!

Developed by Daniel Griscom, Suitable Systems. SeisMac 3.0 was created with support from the National Science Foundation through the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology.

by Daniel Griscom (Suitable Systems)

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