6/21/06

. . .

Hear that? There's a new sound in the air, and it's so high-pitched that most adult ears can't detect it. A Welsh security company devised this almost-ultrasonic ruckus as a sort anti-teenager siren, deployed outside storefronts to drive away young loiterers. The crafty kids, though, figured out how to use this eeeeee to their advantage.

It's called the Mosquito -- that's what the security company christened it -- and you can now download this noise to your cell phone and use it as a ringtone. The purpose? To be alerted of incoming text messages during class without your teacher knowing.

Ingenious.

However, at 17 thousand cycles per second, it is a very hard sound to localize, even if you can hear it, so I'm picturing a room full of ninth-graders perking up their ears all at once, then simultaneously checking their little cell phone windows in hopes that the incoming message is theirs. Hard to imagine a teacher not noticing that.

I was reading about this last night, wondering if I'd be able to hear the noise or not. So I looked it up online, pressed play and waited. I didn't hear anything, but Penny, from across the room, looks up from her reading and says, "Whatever that is, it's gotta stop."

So if you're ever sitting in class where Lope is the teacher, don't try pulling a fast one with your fancy ringtone and bat ears. She's onto you.

*****

Click HERE to listen for yourself.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Colin.... You'll never guess where I am RIGHT NOW!!! I'm in the center of the big glowing cube... that amazing new APPLE STORE you posted about some bits back! Greetings from NYC!

xo Wee and the City xoxox

Anonymous said...

Hooo-Wee!

-Colin

Anonymous said...

Oh yeah! That is really annoying and you couldn't hear it?
It kind of reminds me of Howard and him buying that stupid device for the dog. He always pushed the button that would drive the dog crazy.
vz

Colin said...

Yeah, I hear it too. At first I just had my head in the wrong place, but I moved it a few inches and the eeeee came through loud and clear.

And oh yeah - I always wanted to smack Howard for antagonizing Phife Dog like that.

It's funny this should be coming up, because here at my office we just converted the spare room into workspace for two animators, and we're all going crazy trying to track down a noise coming from some piece of equipment. It's even higher pitched than the mosquito, and no one seems able to stop it.

Thomas said...

Alison couldn't hear it at all until I pushed pause-play-pause-play. It's hilarious, but drove my ears bonkers.

Easy said...

I'm going to have to agree with penelope on that one.... that noise hurts!