Teacher-proof ringtone

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/06...s_cannot_hear/

A noise designed to drive kids out of shopping malls has been
re-engineered as a ringtone which parents and teachers cannot hear.

A Welsh security company markets Mosquito - a loudspeaker which emits
an irritating high-pitched sound designed to drive kids away. Because
the ability to hear high-pitched sounds declines with age, the noise
cannot be heard by older people.

A test in the Register Towers confirmed this - only our youngest cub
reporter could hear anything at all. Listen to the sound here.
( http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/audio/mosquito_sound.mp3 )

British kids were quick to sample the sound and turn it into a
ringtone to be used in class - they can hear it, but teachers can't.

And now the ringtone has crossed the Atlantic. The Welsh company
behind Mosquito credited the kids' ingenuity and is now offering an
MP3 ringtone from their website.

Kids in Manhattan have been sharing the tone and using it to receive
calls during class without teachers hearing.

More from New York Times here. ®


--
http://www.kingqueen.org.uk
remove .lartsspammers to e-mail

---

› See More: Teacher-proof ringtone

In message <[email protected]>, King Queen
<[email protected]> writes
>http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/audio/mosquito_sound.mp3

seems to be low-pitched traffic sound and someone laugh?

--
dave @ stejonda

Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy. Anne Frank

On Mon, 12 Jun 2006 17:11:23 +0100, dave @ stejonda wrote:

> In message <[email protected]>, King Queen
> <[email protected]> writes
>>http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/audio/mosquito_sound.mp3
>
> seems to be low-pitched traffic sound and someone laugh?

So clearly, you're too old to hear the ringtone :-) I'm amused to see that
this thing actually works. I wonder what would happen if half the kids in
the class have this ringtone though. It's pretty much impossible to
determine where this sounds comes from so whenever one of them receives a
call, chances are that half the class will check their mobile. Kind of
defeats the whole purpose of it, doesn't it?

In message <[email protected]>, "dave @ stejonda"
<[email protected]> writes
>In message <[email protected]>, King Queen
><[email protected]> writes
>>http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/audio/mosquito_sound.mp3
>
>seems to be low-pitched traffic sound and someone laugh?
>

Background rumble that builds to have laughter towards the end, 2
distinct clicks like wood being knocked together about 2/3 the way
through. Both myself and my 8-year-old heard the same (or at least
described it the same).

--
Gyp
Take out the chemical loo to reply

On Mon, 12 Jun 2006 18:38:42 +0100, Gyp <[email protected]>
wrote:

>In message <[email protected]>, "dave @ stejonda"
><[email protected]> writes
>>In message <[email protected]>, King Queen
>><[email protected]> writes
>>>http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/audio/mosquito_sound.mp3
>>
>>seems to be low-pitched traffic sound and someone laugh?
>>
>
>Background rumble that builds to have laughter towards the end, 2
>distinct clicks like wood being knocked together about 2/3 the way
>through. Both myself and my 8-year-old heard the same (or at least
>described it the same).

Played back through my PC, only heard the traffic etc. Played back on
a decent hifi, there's a high pitched 'bee bee' sound throughout it;
pretty faint in my case but then I'm getting on. Makes me wonder how
phone speakers reproduce this - guess their small size helps.

John

On Mon, 12 Jun 2006 18:38:42 +0100, Gyp wrote:

> In message <[email protected]>, "dave @ stejonda"
> <[email protected]> writes
>>In message <[email protected]>, King Queen
>><[email protected]> writes
>>>http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/audio/mosquito_sound.mp3
>>
>>seems to be low-pitched traffic sound and someone laugh?
>>
>
> Background rumble that builds to have laughter towards the end, 2
> distinct clicks like wood being knocked together about 2/3 the way
> through. Both myself and my 8-year-old heard the same (or at least
> described it the same).

There is actually a very high pitched beep-beep sound that starts half a
second or so after the beginning of the recording and and is repeated
continously until the end. This is a quite terrible sound actually, i
couldn't listen to that more than a few seconds. It's very similar to this
high pitched sound you sometimes hear in your head after having spent to
much time in a very noisy environment such as a concert or night club
except than rather to be a continuous beeeeeeeep sound it's a beep-beep
sound (i'm not being very clear but you get my point). I'm sure that your
daughter heard it but simply discarded it since this is not a "normal"
sound. If she really can't hear it then it might be worth considering
bringing her to a specialist as she might have some hearing problems
(although not all people are equal when it comes to hearing really high
pitched or realy low pitched sounds).

Mehdi wrote:
> On Mon, 12 Jun 2006 18:38:42 +0100, Gyp wrote:
>
>> In message <[email protected]>, "dave @ stejonda"
>> <[email protected]> writes
>>> In message <[email protected]>, King Queen
>>> <[email protected]> writes
>>>> http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/audio/mosquito_sound.mp3
>>> seems to be low-pitched traffic sound and someone laugh?
>>>
>> Background rumble that builds to have laughter towards the end, 2
>> distinct clicks like wood being knocked together about 2/3 the way
>> through. Both myself and my 8-year-old heard the same (or at least
>> described it the same).
>
> There is actually a very high pitched beep-beep sound that starts half a
> second or so after the beginning of the recording and and is repeated
> continously until the end. This is a quite terrible sound actually, i
> couldn't listen to that more than a few seconds. It's very similar to this
> high pitched sound you sometimes hear in your head after having spent to
> much time in a very noisy environment such as a concert or night club
> except than rather to be a continuous beeeeeeeep sound it's a beep-beep
> sound (i'm not being very clear but you get my point). I'm sure that your
> daughter heard it but simply discarded it since this is not a "normal"
> sound. If she really can't hear it then it might be worth considering
> bringing her to a specialist as she might have some hearing problems
> (although not all people are equal when it comes to hearing really high
> pitched or realy low pitched sounds).

Where can i get this as a ringtone??

"Gyp" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Background rumble that builds to have laughter towards the end, 2 distinct
> clicks like wood being knocked together about 2/3 the way through. Both
> myself and my 8-year-old heard the same (or at least described it the
> same).

I heard exactly as above but with a very high pitched beep beep noise going
on and off about twice a second throughout the recording - this is as heard
through my £5 computer speakers. It sounds to me like this was probably
recorded in a public place and the stuff you describe above is the
background noise, but you couldn't hear the high pitched noise itself.

JP
(27yr)

In message <[email protected]>,
Jeremy Porteous <[email protected]> writes

>I heard exactly as above but with a very high pitched beep beep noise going
>on and off about twice a second throughout the recording - this is as heard
>through my £5 computer speakers. It sounds to me like this was probably
>recorded in a public place and the stuff you describe above is the
>background noise, but you couldn't hear the high pitched noise itself.

OK, don't rub it in!

>JP
>(27yr)

Bloody kids.

What I would like is a pure recording of the tone without the background
noise in a desperate attempt to prove I'm not that old
--
Gyp; 41, just
Take out the chemical loo to reply

Jeremy Porteous wrote:
> "Gyp" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>> Background rumble that builds to have laughter towards the end, 2 distinct
>> clicks like wood being knocked together about 2/3 the way through. Both
>> myself and my 8-year-old heard the same (or at least described it the
>> same).
>
> I heard exactly as above but with a very high pitched beep beep noise going
> on and off about twice a second throughout the recording - this is as heard
> through my £5 computer speakers. It sounds to me like this was probably
> recorded in a public place and the stuff you describe above is the
> background noise, but you couldn't hear the high pitched noise itself.
>
> JP
> (27yr)

I'm 21 and it's not particularly noticable. In saying that, in school
I'm sure it would bother me enough if I had it already on my phone - but
if you weren't aware a sound would be emitted by anything with that high
a pitch then it probably wouldn't bother you, which is pretty interesting.

I hear high-pitched noises that my friends and elders simply cannot - I
thought I had problems at first, but it seems that I hear these sounds
emitted from electronic devices and what-not.

On Mon, 12 Jun 2006 19:53:56 +0100, Gyp wrote:

> Bloody kids.
>
> What I would like is a pure recording of the tone without the background
> noise in a desperate attempt to prove I'm not that old

There's one there:
<http://www.infowing.ch/web/sounds/mms/248-teenbuzz.mp3>. Unlike the bbc
one that could be easily heard from my laptop's built-in speakers, i've had
to plug my laptop to my stereo to be able to hear it this time. Must be me
old age...

On Mon, 12 Jun 2006 17:11:23 +0100, "dave @ stejonda"
<[email protected]> wrote:

>In message <[email protected]>, King Queen
><[email protected]> writes
>>http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/audio/mosquito_sound.mp3
>
>seems to be low-pitched traffic sound and someone laugh?

Last time I went for audiometric testing I had marked high frequency
loss of hearing. I have to 'pitch shift' the sample by about 140% to
145% before I can hear it.

In message <[email protected]>, Mehdi
<[email protected]> writes

>There's one there:
><http://www.infowing.ch/web/sounds/mms/248-teenbuzz.mp3>. Unlike the bbc
>one that could be easily heard from my laptop's built-in speakers, i've had
>to plug my laptop to my stereo to be able to hear it this time. Must be me
>old age...

Hmmm. Unlike the BBC one that I couldn't hear at all, that one is
crystal clear through the laptop and when I put it through the hi-fi I'm
sure the people down the road should be able to hear it.
--
Gyp
Take out the chemical loo to reply

"Mehdi" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> There's one there:
> <http://www.infowing.ch/web/sounds/mms/248-teenbuzz.mp3>. Unlike the bbc
> one that could be easily heard from my laptop's built-in speakers, i've
> had
> to plug my laptop to my stereo to be able to hear it this time. Must be me
> old age...

I find this one much easier to hear than the BBC sample. Are you sure it's
not a lower frequency?

JP

On Mon, 12 Jun 2006 21:32:06 +0100, Jeremy Porteous wrote:

> "Mehdi" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>> There's one there:
>> <http://www.infowing.ch/web/sounds/mms/248-teenbuzz.mp3>. Unlike the bbc
>> one that could be easily heard from my laptop's built-in speakers, i've
>> had
>> to plug my laptop to my stereo to be able to hear it this time. Must be me
>> old age...
>
> I find this one much easier to hear than the BBC sample. Are you sure it's
> not a lower frequency?

I'm not sure of anything, i haven't got any sound authoring tool to check
at what frequencies these sounds are. It surprises me that you both find
this one easier to hear than the other one as i really can't hear a thing
when i play it on my laptop while with the bbc one the ringtone is like
screaming to my hears. I suppose that my hearing must have a weak point at
this particular frequency.

What i'm sure of though is that this kind of ringtones can be made in at
most 2 seconds with any half-decent music authoring software. Yet, some
people must have already made a fortune out of these. Why can't i never
have these ideas first?