Status: Undetermined
I've received quite a few emails about this. A British paper,
metro.co.uk, reports that resourceful teenagers have devised a way to make the ringing of their cellphones inaudible to adults. The trick is that they've recorded the sound of the Mosquito, which is a device that emits ultrasonic tones inaudible to most people over the age of twenty-five, but quite audible, and rather annoying, to people under the age of 25:
Techno-savvy pupils have adapted the Mosquito alarm, used to drive teenage gangs away from shopping centres. They can receive calls and texts during lessons without teachers having the faintest idea what is going on. The alarm, which has been praised by police, is highly effective because its ultra-high sound can be heard only by youths but not by most people over 20. Schoolchildren have recorded the sound, which they named Teen Buzz, and spread it from phone to phone via text messages and Bluetooth technology. Now they can receive calls and texts during lessons without teachers having the faintest idea what is going on.
Can this be real? Well, the Mosquito is real enough (I posted about it back in
November 2005), and it is true that young people can usually hear higher frequencies than older people because we lose the ability to hear high frequencies as we age. The question is whether cellphone speakers can generate these ultrasonic frequencies.
Boing Boing posts a comment from one of their readers who swears that cellphone speakers would not be able to do this. However, another reader links to an
article that contains an
mp3 recording of the Mosquito sound. (When I listen to it I can't hear any high-pitched noise, just a bunch of street noise.) So if computer speakers can generate these frequencies, perhaps some high-end cellphone speakers also can. Seems plausible. In other words, I'm not yet willing to label this story as a hoax or false rumor, even though it does seem to be a bit far-fetched.
Comments
This is a spectrogram of the tone in it.
I am 36 and hear it without trouble when I somewhat turn up the speaker volume. A very high-pitched, somewhat chirping tone.
This worries me that people like me who have full time jobs and never hang in gangs and work for a living will be chased away from places that we have a right to be in.
At any rate, since some phones have sound system intended to play back mp3's then there is no reason whatsoever why it cannot be used as a ringtone.
Of course since some teachers are around my age, those using it in this manner are likely to be caught, sooner or later.
Sounds just like my old cheapy TV set.
Even now after I've turned off the MP3 my ears are still ringing.
not that i don't believe you all, but probably my speakers just couldn't handle it. they are crap.
I'm 18 and i've got some seriously good hearing, regardless of the fact that i blast my music-etc.
I'd have to say though, if someone played that tone in a confined space and i couldn't switch it off, i'd go insane pretty darn quick. It's so darn hi-pitched!
I need to clean up the audio file a bit but i'm thinking about using this to deter yobs from my local stores whenever i go to pick up the paper or something. It'd be good to use if i had some headphones or earplugs to block the sound out with.
Methinks it's time for a little mayhem! :D
It hurts my ears - little stabby pains. He says he feels it more than hears it and it seems to sorta resonate through his sinuses. We agree it's quite annoying.
It's quite possible that the sound as heard in an mp3 differs substantially from the original. In any case, I find the product concept distasteful and wish adults would quit trying to drive teens away from public spaces whilst providing no alternatives for entertainment or socializing.
Is it the same sound that comes from general electronics? I go crazy hearing that.
http://syslog.eu/index.php/2006/05/29/ucitele_neslysi_vyzvaneni_mobilu
I am able to hear 15 kHz.
On the assumption they weren't hoaxed, it's possbile. The phone speakers just have to be up to the job.
i do have to turn up the sound to hear it. its more of a sensation than a sound. i used to get this a lot with tv sets and monitors.
i haven't tried this on a phone, whether it works there is another story. however, the sound is very undirectional and would easily be muffled by pockets.
Assuming that the sound can get through to kids when they're not paying attention to anything in class, I can see how this would be a problem (except for you guys who use it in class <g>).
Annoying as all get up when you turn your speakers to full volume. I'm 34 though and I would refuse to shop at any store that played this annoying sound outside of its store.
Though I've always had good hearing, selective, but good. I've got the type of hearing that can tell a TV is on at the other end of the house even if its muted. Drives me nutz too.
It would definately keep me from shopping there.
Dont' forget that MP3 files use lossey compression and that cell phones probably can't recreate 17000 Hz sounds accurately.
Enjoy!
JetCityOrange.com
http://download.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/atc/atc_teenbuzz.mp3
> from public spaces whilst providing no alternatives
> for entertainment or socializing.
Now who's stereotyping whom here? Not all adults are trying to drive teens away, and not all adults are opposed to providing alternatives. (Yes, yes, I know that you claim to be closer to middle-age than teenage. But that only reinforces my conviction that you ought to know better.)
Here's the problem: The adults who are using the Mosquito are generally doing it for specific and generally responsible reasons -- to reduce shoplifting (a primarily teen/young adult sport), to reduce perceived intimidation of paying customers (some frail elderly people will go to other stores than shoulder their way past "mean-looking" teens and young adults), to reduce vandalism (also a primarily teen/young adult sport).
Even if you don't like the particular method chosen, you can hardly fault a convenience store for trying to minimize thefts, can you?
The adults who ought to be providing the alternatives are the ones who are failing here. The store owner shouldn't have to ante up for new windows to replace the broken ones AND pay for a "teen center" to 'provide constructive alternatives' while the teens, parents and politicians all sit on their rear ends.
In my books, these are the people who should be solving the fundamental problem (which I might define as too much extra time and energy, combined with too little impulse control (an unfortunate biological reality) but that's just the "I grew up so busy on a farm that I can't believe these kids actually have enough time to get in trouble" in me).
For that matter, why don't the teens hang out at home? Surely in a group of a dozen teens you can come up with ONE person who's parents aren't homeless/abusive/hateful and would be happy to let the kids come over for a visit instead of standing on the street corner.
(Perhaps this idea fails for the same reason that taxpayer-supported teen centers usually fail: the taxpayer demands a certain level of adult supervision and education content, and shortly after it opens to great fanfare, the teens refuse to show up because it's no more fun than going to school.)
I see these as completely separate issues: the adults who suffer financial losses from antisocial teen behavior have NO special responsibility for solving the kids' fundamental problems. They just have to protect their own businesses in the manner of their choosing, whether that's Mozart, the Mosquito, or a private security staff.
The teens, parents, and politicians, however, should be dealing with this problem no matter what the business owner is doing. The fundamental problem belongs to them.
It does sort of sound like someone put a tape recorder out in the middle of a field to record cricket sounds.
Not very impressed,and doubt it'll be around for very long.
people enjoy playing music ringtones to much.
Erk, if that's true (I haven't listened to any of the recordings, since I don't have any speakers or headphones attached to my computer), then I've been listening to that for the past 1 and a half days at work. Wretched air conditioning.
I'm 44 in July '06
o ive also noticed that it really only takes your hands to block the sound, so much for teen repellent
Hey, maybe when cellphones can play much higher frequencies, we can make ring tones for dogs. 😊