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Cell Phone Ring that Adults Can't Hear?!?!

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  • Cell Phone Ring that Adults Can't Hear?!?!

    Originally posted by Unknown Artical
    In that old battle of the wills between young people and their keepers, the young have found a new weapon that could change the balance of power on the cellphone front: a ring tone that many adults cannot hear.

    In settings where cellphone use is forbidden — in class, for example — it is perfect for signaling the arrival of a text message without being detected by an elder of the species.

    "When I heard about it I didn't believe it at first," said Donna Lewis, a technology teacher at the Trinity School in Manhattan. "But one of the kids gave me a copy, and I sent it to a colleague. She played it for her first graders. All of them could hear it, and neither she nor I could."

    The technology, which relies on the fact that most adults gradually lose the ability to hear high-pitched sounds, was developed in Britain but has only recently spread to America — by Internet, of course.

    Recently, in classes at Trinity and elsewhere, some students have begun testing the boundaries of their new technology. One place was Michelle Musorofiti's freshman honors math class at Roslyn High School on Long Island.

    At Roslyn, as at most schools, cellphones must be turned off during class. But one morning last week, a high-pitched ring tone went off that set teeth on edge for anyone who could hear it. To the students' surprise, that group included their teacher.

    "Whose cellphone is that?" Miss Musorofiti demanded, demonstrating that at 28, her ears had not lost their sensitivity to strangely annoying, high-pitched, though virtually inaudible tones.

    "You can hear that?" one of them asked.

    "Adults are not supposed to be able to hear that," said another, according to the teacher's account.

    She had indeed heard that, Miss Musorofiti said, adding, "Now turn it off."

    The cellphone ring tone that she heard was the offshoot of an invention called the Mosquito, developed last year by a Welsh security company to annoy teenagers and gratify adults, not the other way around.

    It was marketed as an ultrasonic teenager repellent, an ear-splitting 17-kilohertz buzzer designed to help shopkeepers disperse young people loitering in front of their stores while leaving adults unaffected.

    The principle behind it is a biological reality that hearing experts refer to as presbycusis, or aging ear. While Miss Musorofiti is not likely to have it, most adults over 40 or 50 seem to have some symptoms, scientists say.

    While most human communication takes place in a frequency range between 200 and 8,000 hertz (a hertz being the scientific unit of frequency equal to one cycle per second), most adults' ability to hear frequencies higher than that begins to deteriorate in early middle age.

    "It's the most common sensory abnormality in the world," said Dr. Rick A. Friedman, an ear surgeon and research scientist at the House Ear Institute in Los Angeles.

    But in a bit of techno-jujitsu, someone — a person unknown at this time, but probably not someone with presbycusis — realized that the Mosquito, which uses this common adult abnormality to adults' advantage, could be turned against them.

    The Mosquito noise was reinvented as a ring tone.

    "Our high-frequency buzzer was copied. It is not exactly what we developed, but it's a pretty good imitation," said Simon Morris, marketing director for Compound Security, the company behind the Mosquito. "You've got to give the kids credit for ingenuity."

    British newspapers described the first use of the high-frequency ring tone last month in some schools in Wales, where Compound Security's Mosquito device was introduced as a "yob-buster," a reference to the hooligans it was meant to disperse.

    Since then, Mr. Morris said his company has received so much attention — none of it profit-making because the ring tone was in effect pirated — that he and his partner, Howard Stapleton, the inventor, decided to start selling a ring tone of their own. It is called Mosquitotone, and it is now advertised as "the authentic Mosquito ring tone."

    David Herzka, a Roslyn High School freshman, said he researched the British phenomenon a few weeks ago on the Web, and managed to upload a version of the high-pitched sound into his cellphone.

    He transferred the ring tone to the cellphones of two of his friends at a birthday party on June 3. Two days later, he said, about five students at school were using it, and by Tuesday the number was a couple of dozen.

    "I just made it for my friends. I don't use a cellphone during class at school," he said.

    How, David was asked, did he think this new device would alter the balance of power between adults and teenagers? Or did he suppose it was a passing fad?

    "Well, probably it is," said David, who added after a moment's thought, "And if not, I guess the school will just have to hire a lot of young teachers."
    Dunno if you have seen this before...i felt it was worth Mentioning now for the fun part the actual Link to the Tone.

    HERE
    Werewolf Fan




  • #2
    Re: Cell Phone Ring that Adults Can't Hear?!?!

    Lol, I actually played that on a continuous cycle at work one day (This is like the 5th time I've heard it about this). It isn't every adult but people who've taken a lot of sound abuse or certain major surgery just can't hear it anymore.

    Still loud and clear to me but so far only 25... My mom couldn't hear it. It's an annoying sound and gets stuck in your head, then you start hearing the monitor's hum, your pc's hum, light fixtures hum, and can't get it out. Can be really annoying.


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    • #3
      Re: Cell Phone Ring that Adults Can't Hear?!?!

      My dad can't hear it, he drives Fire Trucks and Ambulances, so he's taken a lot of sound abuse (HUGE decibels they put out.) But my mom can hear it, and she can't stand it. So we end up playing it to get her to go upstairs, lol.
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      • #4
        Re: Cell Phone Ring that Adults Can't Hear?!?!

        I can hear a buzz .. but i can feel it more than hear it, and its unpleasant, like my ears are gonna explode or something...

        Double Post Edited:
        I use headphones all the time, at work i rise the volume alot because theres alot of people and music is the only way i can keep my needed tranquility, i guess thats mostly why.
        Last edited by Balfree; 06-15-2006, 02:37 PM. Reason: Automerged Doublepost
        signatures are for pussies mew mew mew, here's mine

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        • #5
          Re: Cell Phone Ring that Adults Can't Hear?!?!

          I can just see the follow-up headlines two months from now:




          MOSQUITO TONE CAUSES CANCER


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          • #6
            Re: Cell Phone Ring that Adults Can't Hear?!?!

            cancer? how? explane? lol
            Werewolf Fan



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            • #7
              Re: Cell Phone Ring that Adults Can't Hear?!?!

              My family always leaves the TV on the input channel(a completely blank, black screen). When I enter the room, I'll complain to my parents about how they need to turn the TV off, at which point they'll tell me its off. I'll walk up to TV and promptly turn it off. Its fun to see the look of confusion on their faces ^^
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              • #8
                Re: Cell Phone Ring that Adults Can't Hear?!?!

                Well I can hear it. It's rather annoying and definately NOT a ring that I would want on my cell phone.
                Originally posted by Feba
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                • #9
                  Re: Cell Phone Ring that Adults Can't Hear?!?!

                  Good, I can hear it.

                  /em resumes to blast the music on his PSP.
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                  • #10
                    Re: Cell Phone Ring that Adults Can't Hear?!?!

                    I can hear it.....it's like watching jurassic park all over again. Hearing that high-pitched tone would drive me mad.
                    Last edited by Mog; 06-15-2006, 11:01 PM.
                    ~~~BLM SAM RNG NIN PLD~~~

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                    • #11
                      Re: Cell Phone Ring that Adults Can't Hear?!?!

                      Ok, i can hear it loud and clear now.

                      What gives?... maybe the sound card at work is much better or something...

                      I play that crap and the screen starts twitching, the other speakers start "zeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee"ing and my head sort of feels like a thin spike just pierced through... >_<

                      Lovely.

                      Gotta put it on when the office people arrive. :E
                      signatures are for pussies mew mew mew, here's mine

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                      • #12
                        Re: Cell Phone Ring that Adults Can't Hear?!?!

                        Note to everyone: If you do not hear the tone eventhough you are relatively young, do not attempt to turn up your computer speakers while it's playing.

                        Now to get some aspirin... ><


                        IS DOUKUTSU MONOGATARI NOT AWESOME?

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                        • #13
                          Re: Cell Phone Ring that Adults Can't Hear?!?!

                          Out of stupidity, I listened to it again. MY EARS!!!!!

                          /cry

                          There has to be a disclaimer on that: "You will go insane if you listen to this for more than a minute"
                          ~~~BLM SAM RNG NIN PLD~~~

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                          • #14
                            Re: Cell Phone Ring that Adults Can't Hear?!?!

                            yay, an MP3... now if only I could find someone to make it compatible with Sprint..

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                            • #15
                              Re: Cell Phone Ring that Adults Can't Hear?!?!

                              Darn can't download mp3's at work. They're blocked by the proxy.

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