A Ring Tone Meant to Fall on Deaf Ears

[craigwatanabe]

Re: A Ring Tone Meant to Fall on Deaf Ears

Wow I had to really listen really hard to hear that tone. Here's the link to play it. You need quicktime to play this mp3: http://graphics.nytimes.com/packages...0_RINGTONE.mp3

[kupomog]

Re: A Ring Tone Meant to Fall on Deaf Ears

Blech, annoying and high pitched indeed. I'd hate to hear that noise...ever.

[adrian]

Re: A Ring Tone Meant to Fall on Deaf Ears

hehe, I played that ringtone during my physics class yesterday, and quite a few people could hear it. Granted, if I blasted the volume to 7 (my phone can go real loud) I bet I would have hurt some people, as at volume 5, some people were already dreading that sound. Unfortunately, the teacher (who's about 40) can still hear that.

I'll try it with my teacher who's deaf in one ear tomorrow.

[Pomai]

Re: A Ring Tone Meant to Fall on Deaf Ears

When I repeatedly played that MP3 sample a few minutes ago, a person on another computer across the room began tapping on their CRT monitor as if something were wrong it. Man, was that funny!

I certainly could hear that loud and clear.

That school should just simply BAN celphone use in the classroom. Duh.

[Creative-1]

Re: A Ring Tone Meant to Fall on Deaf Ears

The news reports said it was designed so that young people could hear it but their parents and teachers could not.

It prompted fears they would take calls and cheat on tests and no one would know.

This ignores one thing: What about VIBRATE mode??? They can do these things already.

Anyway, the problem isn't that young people are hiding things from parents, it's that parents AREN'T PAYING ATTENTION.

Bob Sigall

[adrian]

Re: A Ring Tone Meant to Fall on Deaf Ears

I'm 37 and I heard it very clearly.

damn, I must be listening to my bass-filled music too loud, as I can't hear nothing, but my younger sister and cousin can hear it like dogs.

[Cameron]

Re: A Ring Tone Meant to Fall on Deaf Ears

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.

Ah how the tables have turned! We use it as a ring tone now, pretty soon we(the teens) will be using this sound morse code style to communicate while we rob stores

[drumorgan]

Re: A Ring Tone Meant to Fall on Deaf Ears

I'm 37 and I heard it very clearly.

[adrian]

A Ring Tone Meant to Fall on Deaf Ears

Source

"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.

I saw the report on KHON a few minutes ago, and they dubbed it "the mosquito ringtone". I'll see if I can test it out on my siblings, and the website has a copy also.

[pzarquon]

How about a ringtone only young whippersnappers can hear?

I'm all for it... if I'm old enough to not notice it!