Wallydraigle said:

I think a pretty good, simple, thing to set up would be to put some putty down on a table, so you get an air tight seal, then put a non-metalic pendulum inside a bell jar, inside another bell jar, and point two cameras at it.  Or, they could have a sealed glass tube made up with the pendulum inside it.  They could probably sell the K2 meters and have enough money.  Does it prove anything?  No, but it's at least better than "Give us a sign of your presence."

You had some really good thoughts here.  First, and almost automatic, is the non-metalic element to the experiment.  Too easy to use magnets.  A pendulum within a sealed environment (glass jars or tubes)…also a good idea.  Prevents external forces such as wind (breeze, breath, etc).

The problem, it doesn't eliminate all the external forces, such as vibration.  Set the sealed jar on a table on a wooden floor.  Jump up and down.  The vibration may be enough to cause the pendulum to move.   And there is always just bumping the table out of camera range.  To prevent these, a "geophone" could be placed by the table.  However, one could attach fishing line (  ) to the bottom of the jar.  Simply position the cameras so they are close in on the pendulum.  Tug the line, the cameras won't catch the movement of the jar (since it's see though glass) but it picks up the movement of the pendulum.  I would doubt the geophone would pick that up from the floor.  And I don't think I'd be comfortable with the geophone on the table itself.  They could just claim that the ghost was using enough force to set it off. 

So….we need a non-metalic object to move…yet…be resistant to vibration.  (I kept looking at that sentence for what it seemed liked forever until I came up with the rest…  )

Hmmm…what if we use the vibration itself as the movement?  I'm not sure how we could do this with solids, but we can do it with liquids!

Use a wave tank (a big glass fish tank).  Fill it half way with water then seal the top with glass.  Zoom in on the surface of the water with a camera.  Tell the ghost to touch the water.  If something (a ghost, a finger, whatever) breaks the surface of the water, the ripples from that point shall travel outward.  If someone taps on the tank, jumps up and down next to the tank, or even tugs on the tank with fishing line, the ripples will form at the sides of the tank and travel inwards.  (Try it at home.  Use a large surface area, like a baking pan or a cookie sheet with a deep lip.  Fill it with water.  Try making the ripples of the water move outwards without breaking the surface of the water.) 

So, in essence, if you are talking to your ghost and outward forming ripples begin to show up, well, it becomes pretty interesting at that point.  I also like that it "betters" the theme of "How do they know what a flashlight is?"  Or "How do they know to talk to a recorder when they're supposedly from 1822?"  Everyone has touched water, no matter what time period.  So really, my concept would be easier for ghosts to understand than theirs. 

A couple of problems with this.  One, they're in the dark and can't see the water.  I guess to pick up the water with night vision equipment, you could use black ink in the water.  That "should" show up as white on their camera and possibly easier to see (not sure on that, but it should, right?).  Of course, even easier…turn on the damn lights! 

It also kind of lacks the "Wow factor."  Then again…a couple of guys in the dark talking to a flashlight isn't overly impressive either… 

One last problem…sort of.  I just remembered this.  Jurassic Park.  Remember the scene where the kid is in the jeep and notices the water in the cup on the dashboard moving?  It was rippling with each step of the T-Rex.  Behind the scenes footage showed how hard the guys had to work to get that effect.  They ended up drilling a hole through the dashboard and attaching a piano wire to the bottom of the cup.  They hollowed out the inside of the car in order to have enough length for the wire.  Then, they just "twanged" it.  So, it can be done.  However, for TAPS to do it, they would need to drill a hole through a table and then actually have someone beneath the table to "twang" the string.  That's an awful lot of set-up though.  Easy enough to prevent though, just have a second camera viewing the wave tank from a distance and showing no one underneath the table.  And synching up the cameras of course.  Then again, I know how they hate using those time-stamps… 

Anyway, this is all I could come up with.  I'll keep at it… 

Get Nosfer, Revenant, Stephen & Learjet guest spots on GH. 

Hmm, how about sprinkling baby powder on the floor and asking the entites to walk through it.  Its cheap, and with one of the above guys to witness it.  I will stand back now while the experts rip this suggestion to shreds, but it was fun taking a stab at it.   

Hannah said:

Get Nosfer, Revenant, Stephen & Learjet guest spots on GH. 

Hmm, how about sprinkling baby powder on the floor and asking the entites to walk through it.  Its cheap, and with one of the above guys to witness it.  I will stand back now while the experts rip this suggestion to shreds, but it was fun taking a stab at it.   

I don't want to rip anyone's suggestion to shreds.  Mainly, well, because it's just not cool to do so.  We're just trying to avoid possible trickey to produce positive results.

As for your suggestion, Hannah…which I'm about to rip to shreds…no, I'm kidding!  Actually, I kind of like it.  Easy to do.  Cheap to do.  And it does address the "hearing footsteps" issue.  Also, hard to fake prints if you lay down enough powder.  An added bonus if you find tiny paw prints, which can help in indentifying the sounds.  So, yeah, I'd add it to the list.  All you need is a fancy-schmancy name for your experiment.  Something like the ATO (Apparition Tactile Observations    ).

As for Nosfer, Stephen, Learjet and I getting guest spots on GH.  Yeah…those guest spots would have to be measured in seconds.  At least the confrontations with security would be fun, at least for me.

And really, I don't think the four of us would ever get out of the hotel (preferably the hotel bar) and actually get to the "haunted" location.  We would have to first come to some conclusions about what a ghost is and what its capable of doing.  That will take some serious thinkin' and some serious drinkin'… 

Nosfer:

Oh but the fun we would have!

Director: "Guest hunter investigation, Scene 1, Actio…..SECURITY TO THE SET!!"
Security: "Freeze…you, there, give Grant back his flashlight…you, quit fiddling with the thermal, you might accidentally set it up correctly…and you, just WHERE do you think you're going with the jar of spiders?"

Powder on the floor? An ample spread of it with multiple cameras (heck, throw IR, Thermal, and normal-light ones on it) and an independent observer is worthy of serious consideration!"

Director: "Quit pulling Grant's string!" 

Gosh, do you think I could make some bucks marketing "Spirit Powder?"  Am sure Revenant could come up with a cool marketing name for it and really scientific jargon on how to use it.

Have to get guest spots to show them how to use the powder, because it is special.  Then I can pay you all consultant fees.