Mosquito

[40cakes]

Business Ingenuity - A company makes a high-pitched tone that's seen as "teenager repellent": Most people over the age of 20 can't hear it, but it's a head-splitting shrill whistle to those who can. Sound is marketed to adults who run shops that want to cater to a more mature crowd and keep the kids out.

BUT THEN! Same business turns around and markets the tone as "The Mosquito Ringtone" to kids who want to let their phones ring in class without the teachers hearing.

For the curious, NPR has the ringtone available in this story. Warning: I listened to this for about a minute today, in ten-second increments, as people kept gathering around, saying, "Wait, play it again!" and my head felt like it was going to explode from screeching noise. And I don't get bothered by nails on a chalkboard.

Comments

[suburban-panic.livejournal.com]

Yikes. Well, it's good to know my ears are still working.

[fadingembers.livejournal.com]

Seriously. Especially since I turn my iPod up in proportion to how loud other people are talking on the train.

[dialogue.livejournal.com]

It's almost like I can feel it rather than hear it. It's the sort of sound that let me know when a TV was turned on in another room, even if it wasn't set to any station.

I can see how it might get annoying.

[fadingembers.livejournal.com]

I could feel it IN MY BRAIN.

[nothingjerk.livejournal.com]

So I'm either really old, or all those rock concerts have screwed up my hearing

[fadingembers.livejournal.com]

Ha ha, I'm gonna set your ringtone to that now.

[nothingjerk.livejournal.com]

like i need an excuse not to answer my phone

[fadingembers.livejournal.com]

"I didn't call you back because of the mosquitos!"

[nothingjerk.livejournal.com]

Ialready used that excuse once, they looked at me werid and bought me some OFF spray

[fadingembers.livejournal.com]

Hey, you got free OFF spray out of that deal, not bad.

[sache.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm 25 and I hear it just fine. Yikes. It's like the sound I hear when the dentist starts sand blasting my teeth. (I feel it in my brain!)

[fadingembers.livejournal.com]

ME TOO! IN MY BRAIN!

[osl.livejournal.com]

This pleases me. Not just the turning-it-against-the-Man bit, but also that I can hear it, and I have hearing loss (too many hours behind a machine gun). Apparently, however, I'm just fine for that frequency. :)

[fadingembers.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking it's less "Can you hear it or not?" and more "I hear a high-pitched frequency and ignore it because I'm used to it." Sometimes my little a/c unit makes a high-pitched whine, but I'm so used to it, I forget about it.

[restivemind.livejournal.com]

That is EXACTLY the sound the aliens made when they abducted me and started all that probing...

[fadingembers.livejournal.com]

No WONDER it made my head split! It's bringing back repressed memories!

[arafel.livejournal.com]

Fuck, I can't hear a thing. O_o

[phanatic.livejournal.com]

I can hear it. But here's why I don't believe the cell-phone aspect of this.

The tone's centered on 17 kHz, and there's no good reason for a cellphone speaker to be able to reproduce frequencies that high, and a very good one (cost) for it not to be able to.