Wow, so I had fun this past day! Thanks everyone who gave their 2 cents in last day's post - I think you'll enjoy this next bit.
First off, I'll say that I can like, just barely hear the thing on slightly higher-than-normal volume . . . like, it's really quiet for me.
So let's get into this . . .
Alright, so if any of you did the URL-hopping, you would have learned that that the site was called http://www.noloitering.ca and that it was a site selling the "Mosquito Ultrasonic Teen Deterrent".
Here's the sciencey bit:
As you age, your hearing deteriorates - probably stating the obvious, huh? Here's the kicker: as you get older, you lose the ability to hear certain high frequency sounds. As such, that tone I posted yesterday is something most adults lose the ability to hear once they get to about the age of 25 or so. This is literally a noise that only people aged about 15-25 can hear.
Actually, that's not quite true. children younger than 13 should also be able to hear it; however, as their hearing is still more sensitive, they can actually hear even higher frequency sounds. As such, that high-pitched tone so many of you heard isn't in their extreme registers and thus is not quite as . . . annoying, of a noise for them. Once you get into that particular age group, though, hoo boy . . . that's like, the highest, most extreme possible frequency you can hear, and as such it's not very pleasant (or is it? You tell me).
So why is this awesome?
So this group in the UK invented it: the Mosquito Ultrasonic Teen Deterrent. Basically, it's a sound device that plays this noise. People like shop owners and theater owners are installing these outside or above their front doors. If they have problems with, say, young teens loitering and causing trouble, they can hit the on switches and encourage the youths to get a move on. From what I understand it's not that it's painful, it's just really, really annoying.
Hehe, Stupid Ed told me he actually had the sound file and brought it to work at Microsoft, just slowly walking through the offices pissing people off . . . I think that's hilarious.
Pretty badass, huh?
This is Discriminatory!
It gets even better . . . teens, while being the main targets of this audio repellent, have actually found a way to use it for their own means:
Ringtones; ones they can hear, but their older in-class teachers cannot.
I really don't need to explain that one much more, do I?
So that's the Mosquito.
So again, take this information, take your own ears, and think about what that means. If you're 20 and already can't hear it, then well . . . hehe, dang. If you're almost 30 and can still hear it, well . . . congrats for having some powerful ears still!
Oh, for the record, if anyone who can't hear the Mosquito tone are curious, here's a link to the lower-frequency tone (DO NOT crank your volume for this!):
http://www.noloitering.ca/over25yo.mp3
Practical Science is fun, eh?
