June 12th, 2006
Ring Tones That Fall on Deaf (Adult) Ears
By Michael Santo
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews
You may recall the Mosquito, a device I wrote about late last year, which broadcasts a high-frequency sound that almost no one over 30 can hear. This was designed to help shop owners with groups of teens, by broadcasting an irritating sound that would drive them away. Supposedly, first tested in Great Britain, it worked. Well, the same technology has been adapted to solve a totally different issue … places, like schools, that ban cell phones. That same technology was turned against the adults who developed it.
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 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.
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. Source: The New York Times via IHT
We Say: Simon Morris, marketing director for Compound Security, the company behind the Mosquito, said “You’ve got to give the kids credit for ingenuity”. And, in a case of caving in to what was a decent demand and a lot of publicity (though none of it making them any money, since the tone was pirated), the company 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.” Go figure.
Bill M says:
As if someone won’t notice the phone stuck in their ear, or their hands and head down thumbing IM. Jammers are still illegal, but I have two words for anyone building a school, theatre, or place of worship — “Faraday cage”.
June 12th, 2006 at 10:35 am
Armchair Anarchist says:
I lost the link, but this one was debunked somewhere else; the speakers on a cellphone couldn’t handle frequencies in that range well enough to make them audible; nor could the mics on them record it accurately. I suspect a crafty viral marketing ploy by the Mosquito people, myself…it seems to have worked!
June 12th, 2006 at 10:45 am
Al Coholic says:
Here’s the link.
http://lm2005.googlepages.com/highfreq1.mp3
I’m 39 & could hear it fine, & it’s super annoying.
June 14th, 2006 at 7:55 am
Andrea says:
I am 38 and could hear it fine as well, but it hurt my ears that’s for sure, could not listen to that for long, I wonder if people that suffer from Tinnitis are more prone to hear it? I do have Tinnitis which is a very high pitched sound as well, at least the mosquito ring tone can be turned off, Tinnitis can’t, only drowned out
June 14th, 2006 at 5:15 pm
Al Coholic says:
I listened to it again through my logitech 2 speaker headset & heard it from a distance of 2′ away.
June 15th, 2006 at 7:55 am
mike paills says:
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August 2nd, 2006 at 6:05 am
mike paills says:
I am a security consultant of a place of worship and troubled youth center I am interested in your jammer claim my interest are for ultrasonic jammer with a swept frequency from 25KHz to 65 KHz if you can help me with this interest please contact me at Email address darkman685 with any information thank you
August 2nd, 2006 at 6:18 am