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 KaylinQ rated 27 months ago- From the page: "The NY Times published a story on the Mosquito Ringtone this morning. Allegedly inaudible to adults, this 17Khz ringtone has become popular among teens looking to be able to send and receive text messages surreptitiously in class. They even included a sample of the ringtone, s...
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4 Reviews
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- bamaG33K rated 26 months ago
- From the page: "The NY Times published a story on the Mosquito Ringtone this morning. Allegedly inaudible to adults, this 17Khz ringtone has become popular among teens looking to be able to send and receive text messages surreptitiously in class. They even included a sample of the ringtone, so you could determine for yourself whether it's audible or not."
I can hear at least one harmonic. The main frequency must blend into my tinnitis. This might be a good way to demonstrate hearing loss: "Careful with those iPods, kids. In 30 years, you could be hearing this sound all the time!"
- KaylinQ rated 27 months ago
- From the page: "The NY Times published a story on the Mosquito Ringtone this morning. Allegedly inaudible to adults, this 17Khz ringtone has become popular among teens looking to be able to send and receive text messages surreptitiously in class. They even included a sample of the ringtone, so you could determine for yourself whether it%u2019s audible or not. Well, I had no trouble hearing it, and according to the convenient chart provided (reproduced at left), at the age of 42 most people my age can't hear anything beyond 13Khz. Apparently, I am more youthful than I thought%u2026"
- orangeate rated 28 months ago
- Heard about the mosquity ringtone adults aren't supposed to hear? Here's a sample. Can you hear me now?
- sacratomato rated 28 months ago
- Investigating the now-infamous ringtone that kids are using to confound adults who'd like to keep tabs on their cellphone and texting, the writer of this piece found that he could hear it, despite his advancing age (42). "Apparently I am more youthful than I thought..," he wrote.
Wondering what I could hear, I took a quick trip to the NCH Swift Sound website, and downloaded the NCH Tone Generator application. This little tool is used by audio engineers to generate various different kinds of tones ranging from square waves to pink noise to sine waves, and a bunch more. I generated a four different sets of tones at 15Khz, 16Khz, 17Khz, and 18Khz and listened to them, comparing them with the mosquito. The mosquito is a very dirty tone, with lots of noise in it. Perhaps that's because it's been converted to MP3, or perhaps it's not a pure sine wave. In any case, while the allegedly 17Khz mosquito tone is quite audible, I had difficulty hearing a true 17Khz sine wave. The 18Khz tone was inaudible.
He provides .wav files of these dreadful tones (all of which I can hear, despite my own advancing decrepitude and all those rock concerts I attended as a young'un; my husband is just a little older and can't hear any of them). I agree with his warning -- they might be barely audible, but they ARE "loud" and will bug your ears, so be judicious with your volume control if you decide to check the tone samples he's provided. Also, my cats did not like these sounds ONE BIT. Warn your animals first. :-)
My husband is already hatching a devious plan to somehow harness the power of the high Khz tone to combat the stereo systems of our neighbors who love rap so much they want to share it with everyone on our street. At great volume, involving much subwoofertude.
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