Can You Hear Me Now

[coda]

17 kHz happens to be the upper frequency range of the Heritage line .

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A Ring Tone Meant to Fall on Deaf

Ears

By PAUL VITELLO

Published: June 12, 2006

In that old battle of the wills between young people and their

keepers, the young have found a new weapon that could change the balance of

power on the cellphone front: a ring tone that many adults cannot hear.

Multimedia -

href='http://graphics.nytimes.com/packages/audio/nyregion/20060610_RINGTONE.mp3'>Audio:

The High-Pitched Ring Tone

(mp3)

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width=190 align=left border=0>In settings where cellphone use is forbidden — in

class, for example — it is perfect for signaling the arrival of a text message

without being detected by an elder of the species.

"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.

Recently, in classes at Trinity and elsewhere, some students have begun

testing the boundaries of their new technology. One place was Michelle

Musorofiti's freshman honors math class at Roslyn High School on Long

Island.

At Roslyn, as at most schools, cellphones must be turned off during class.

But one morning last week, a high-pitched ring tone went off that set teeth on

edge for anyone who could hear it. To the students' surprise, that group

included their teacher.

"Whose cellphone is that?" Miss Musorofiti demanded, demonstrating that at

28, her ears had not lost their sensitivity to strangely annoying, high-pitched,

though virtually inaudible tones.

"You can hear that?" one of them asked.

"Adults are not supposed to be able to hear that," said another, according to

the teacher's account.

She had indeed heard that, Miss Musorofiti said, adding, "Now turn it off."

The cellphone ring tone that she heard was the offshoot of an invention

called the Mosquito, developed last year by a Welsh security company to annoy

teenagers and gratify adults, not the other way around.

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 Miss 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.

"It's the most common sensory abnormality in the world," said Dr. Rick A.

Friedman, an ear surgeon and research scientist at the House Ear Institute in

Los Angeles.

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.

The Mosquito noise was reinvented as a ring tone.

"Our high-frequency buzzer was copied. It is not exactly what we developed,

but it's a pretty good imitation," said Simon Morris, marketing director for

Compound Security, the company behind the Mosquito. "You've got to give the kids

credit for ingenuity."

British newspapers described the first use of the high-frequency ring tone

last month in some schools in Wales, where Compound Security's Mosquito device

was introduced as a "yob-buster," a reference to the hooligans it was meant to

disperse.

Since then, Mr. Morris said his company has received so much attention — none

of it profit-making because the ring tone was in effect pirated — that he and

his partner, Howard Stapleton, the inventor, 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."

David Herzka, a Roslyn High School freshman, said he researched the British

phenomenon a few weeks ago on the Web, and managed to upload a version of the

high-pitched sound into his cellphone.

He transferred the ring tone to the cellphones of two of his friends at a

birthday party on June 3. Two days later, he said, about five students at school

were using it, and by Tuesday the number was a couple of dozen.

"I just made it for my friends. I don't use a cellphone during class at

school," he said.

How, David was asked, did he think this new device would alter the balance of

power between adults and teenagers? Or did he suppose it was a passing fad?

"Well, probably it is," said David, who added after a moment's thought, "And

if not, I guess the school will just have to hire a lot of young teachers."

[rplace]

Interesting. I could hear it if I turned my built in lap top (very lo-fi) all the way up. It was actually quite an annoying sound. I don't think I will be putting that on my cell phone.

Cool use of technology

FYI, I am 40 attended lots of loud concerts back in the day. Still listen to music pretty loud but not ear ringing. Last time I went to a live show I used earplugs and still liked the concert. At what age should I start losing the upper end of my hearing?

[fanbrain]

OUCH!! That hurt. I can sure hear it. It made my ears hurt. I listened to it on my Promedia 4.1's. Most older people certainly can't hear high pitched sounds. Think of hearing aids. If the wearer covers their ears while wearing a hearing aid, it produces feedback and squeals like crazy inside their ears, but they can't hear it. My grandma's do that and sometimes it's really loud but she can't hear a thing.

EDIT: Can you imagine if this ringtone caught on? Think of a roomful of college or highschool students with their cellphones all making all with the same ringtone. They'd all go nuts. At least I would. That's why my phone is on vibrate all the time.

[colterphoto1]

Is this some sort of joke? I didn't hear a damn thing! Uh-oh!

I have like th $5 ultra-cheese computer speakers. I'll try hooking up something a bit better and see if that is the culprit.

If my hearing is bad, think of all the money I'll save on upgrading tweeters!

Michael

[3dzapper]

I could hear it at 90db on my 2.1s despite the TV and Dell's fan noise. I'm 58. My problem is a dip in the 3Khz range of a jet engine whine.

Rick

[sunburnwilly]

I am amazed my 40 year old highly abused ears could hear it !

[Marvel]

I hit 57 yesterday, and I can hear it, although rather faintly. Pretty funny. I had a monitor on my pc for a while, and could often hear the 15kHz coming out of it.

Bruce

[bkrop]

How many hertz is another octave higher above this level?

[Marvel]

How many hertz is another octave higher above this level?

Double -- to 34Khz. Definitely out of range there. Except for the dog.

[bkrop]

call me an old dog![]

[stormin]

Clear and annoying from this end.