Silent Teen Buzz
p2p news / p2pnet: The "Mosquito ultrasonic teenage deterrent" is, normally used as the, "solution to the eternal problem of unwanted gatherings of youths and teenagers in shopping malls and around shops," say its makers.
It’s, "Acclaimed by the Police forces of many areas of the United Kingdom," claims Compound Security Systems.
Now, however, the Mosquito ultrasonic teenage deterrent is also acclaimed by school kids in the UK who’ve figured out a way to use it so they can text message each other without their teachers knowing.
The catch is presbycusis, age-related hearing loss.
"Anyone turning 20 begins to lose their hearing, starting with the highest frequencies from 18KHz to 20KHz," says vnunet. "The company used this information to generate a high-frequency sound that is audible only to teenagers."
But, "Teenagers have now sampled the sound, known as Teen Buzz to those swapping it over Bluetooth and text messages, so they can hear their phone ringing without the teacher knowing."
Also See:
Compound Security Systems – MDesmond Dekker Dies, May 26, 2006
vnunet – Teenagers hijack ’silent’ alarm for mobiles, May 25, 2006
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May 27th, 2006 at 12:39 am
Putting a piece of electrical or duct tape over the speaker of such a device will muffle the output dramatically. Tape also works well for door alarms.
May 27th, 2006 at 1:36 pm
buzz buzzz buzzzzzzzz
May 27th, 2006 at 3:06 pm
i’ve read this a few times and i still have no idea what it’s about. someone please explain. thanks.
May 27th, 2006 at 8:14 pm
Do marketer’s use that frequency to send teen specific advertisments?
I’m sure that would be just wonderful.
May 28th, 2006 at 8:07 pm
In telephony, the usable voice frequency band ranges from approximately 300 Hz to 3400 Hz. The bandwidth allocated for a single voice-frequency transmission channel is usually 4 kHz…
…the vast majority (read: all) mobile phone speakers will top out between 8 – 12KHz which is perfect for voice and lowish quality recordings…therefore it is technicaly impossible to play a 20KHz sound on a mobile phone.
May 28th, 2006 at 11:36 pm
you are thinking about the simple ear reciever part of a cellphone.. some cellphones can play full mp3s out of their speakers.. and many cellphones come with a wide range of different types of speakers
this is very possible..
May 28th, 2006 at 11:37 pm
to clarify: its not like they’re acually sending the messages like “hi what are you doing after school” to eachother in this frequency
they are simply setting their ringtones (that use the fancier speaker in modern cellphones) to notify them of messages under the radar so addults cant hear that they may have just recieved a text message
May 29th, 2006 at 6:19 am
Seems a bit pointless to me. Why don’t they just use the “silent mode” on the phone?
May 30th, 2006 at 5:23 pm
The silent feature on some phones work on only calling. When there is any text messages there will be a sound. Plus, its vibration, it still can be heard if it is vibrating against something.
June 9th, 2006 at 4:59 am
I think a lot of adults could still hear it. I’m well over 20, and I can still hear that sound that the TV makes when the sound is muted. And what about people walking their dogs? They’d be annoyed by it too. Probably not good for the wildlife in the area either.
June 9th, 2006 at 5:01 am
spam, spam, spam, spam, spam!
(gotta love the monty python!)
June 18th, 2006 at 4:36 am
Looking for the much talked about mosquito ringtone?
http://www.jetcityorange.com/MosquitoRingtone.html