Endless High-Pitched Screeching Drives Off Youths

W H E R E

C A N

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D I S

S O U N D ? ? ?

CAN I KNOW..

PLEASE TELL!

I WANT TO DOWNLOAD IT!

REGARDS!

[27], that's the whine from the flyback transformer that all CRTs use. I used to find that annoying, too, before age took out too many cochlear hair cells.

As for anybody patting themselves on the back that they can hear it just fine at their age and anyone who can't must be deaf, why don't you try going to an audiologist? It's easy to have an uncontrolled environment where you don't know what the volume or even the real frequency is and God only knows what kind of distortion and harmonics your el-cheapo computer speakers and sound card are throwing into the mix. Do the same thing with properly calibrated test equipment then I'll be impressed.

"The concept is actually turning an idea used by teens to outsmart their teachers on its ear. Ringtones at the same high frequency that were supposed to be inaudible to adults were being used by students to evade attention when their cell phones rang."

You have this backwards. It was first marketed as a teen prevention tone in G.B., then teens there turned it into ringtones. It is now completing the circle and going back to adults for teen prevention.

Im 28 and can hear it fine. Sounds exaclty like the sound my old non flat TV used to make when it was on. Actually everyones TV that is not flat sounded like that. One of the best reasons im glad I got a flat.. the sound is annoying, with any distraction though can be easily ignored.

These things are quite annoying and anyone who would pay money for it is an idiot since all you would need is an mp3 player and some speakers after you download the sound.

One of the things I wonder is if it effects animals as well.

I know they sell some sort of sonic rodent repeller that works on a similar principle.

And if you really want to drive kids away, I think piping in Barry Manilow or maybe C-SPAN would work better.

westernqueensland:

the next time you see a large group of rowdy teens hanging out somewhere in NYC, ask them politely to disperse. they will most likely apologize, go home, do their homework and grow up to be doctors.

they certainly won't stomp you to death.

These things are quite annoying and anyone who would pay money for it is an idiot since all you would need is an mp3 player and some speakers after you download the sound.

One of the things I wonder is if it effects animals as well.

I know they sell some sort of sonic rodent repeller that works on a similar principle.

And if you really want to drive kids away, I think piping in Barry Manilow or maybe C-SPAN would work better.

These things are quite annoying and anyone who would pay money for it is an idiot since all you would need is an mp3 player and some speakers after you download the sound.

One of the things I wonder is if it effects animals as well.

I know they sell some sort of sonic rodent repeller that works on a similar principle.

And if you really want to drive kids away, I think piping in Barry Manilow or maybe C-SPAN would work better.

The Post quoted a doctor who said that extended exposure to any frequency at 85 decibels could cause hearing damage.

I don't trust this doctor. 85db is not that dangerous. That's the lower threshold of possible hearing damage and most agencies allow exposure of up to 8 hours a day at that level. If kids are standing around that for 8 hours, they definitely need something better to do. It's hardly "deafening and excruciating." Kids listen to headphones at 100db or higher. It just happens to be a very annoying tone if you can hear it, just like fingernails on chalkboard don't need to be very loud to get on your nerves.

Bad idea;

reminds me of a bad Star Trek episode.

And that's saying a lot since there are no bad Star Trek episodes.

@eyekantspel,

well... i am almost 40, with a long history of listening to loud music (even a career as a dj), i still blast my headphones everyday on the subway loud enough for the people to give me looks... and i know my hearing is not very good.

i can still hear that crap.

my conclusion: if you can't hear that ringtone, you are deaf, and if you are using it to deceive older people, you are dumb.

Its great when you can disconnect them and the people who installed them can't tell if they're running.

Whatever happened to communicating with those that annoyed you? Technology like this is a sort of crutch for poor civic and social ability.

This gizmo is the entitled shoooing away the unwanted.

this would be perfect for all those recent muggings in prospect heights/park slope!!

I have a question about this device and human hearing. It's advertising as being audible only to kids between the ages of 13 and early 20s. Conveniently, that's when young people often have the most potential to be independently annoying.

But are the manufacturers claiming that children under 13 are unable to hear this frequency, or they suddenly develop the ability to hear this frequency when they reach a sweet-spot of teenagerdom?

If that's not the case, wouldn't a building or store owner self-admittedly be installing a torture or torment device that also is directed at infants, toddlers, and young children? I can think of an unnamed Brooklyn bar looking to deter the stroller set, but this seems like a terrible and possibly cruel idea.

A 40-something mom rolls her toddler into a store equipped with the device. She can't hear it, but the kid is exposed to a deafening and excruciating pitch as long it's in the store? Not good.

In Britian kids made the sound a ring tone so that they could get txts in class without having the phone ring or make a noise while vibrating. Old fart teachers couldn't hear it. That is nature finding a way.

I'd rather have the military's crowd control heat ray as seen on 60 Minutes last night. Goodbye skate boarders outside my apartment at all hours, every day, doing the same lame tricks.

@eyekantspel

Wow, yeah, that is DEFINITELY still audible for me, and I'm thirty. That'd drive me crazy if it was being broadcast anywhere near me.

-cwb

Glad to hear I have good hearing. (Ha!) These things annoy the crap outta me. They should sell these to the cantankerous old people in the suburbs to those fist-waving "get outta my lawn!" types. It can be sold in hardware stores in the pest aisle, alongside dog whistles and deer repellent whistles as "child and teen repellent".

Personally, they should just play Michael Bolton music. That'll keep em out while also attracting the olds.

if this is the tone, I have no problem hearing it and I'm outside the target age group.

http://tinyurl.com/gwfr4

with their ipods on and music cranking at over 85 decibles they should be deaf in no time.

It doesn't take great vision to predict that the targeted teens will simply put their headphones on and respond with the very behavior this attempts to curtail.

Way to report on a story that was in the NY times like 2 years ago.

the kids who live in the building won't be causing trouble in the lobby anymore. the range is only 60 feet. more of these things need to be installed.

$1400.00 for the machine? what a ripoff. All you have to do is have the sound file and then pump it through your speakers at a a higher decibel. you can easily get this ringtone off the web for free. Old people are not only cantankerous but dumb.

What about kids who live in the building?

What about kids who live in the building?

That link with the Ringtones has a scale of different frequencies that should be inaudible to people of different ages. I was alarmed to hear--or not hear as is the case--that I'm about 20 yrs ahead of the predicted curve. I blame the iPod and that damn rock & roll music I've been listening to. [shaking my fist] Bah!!

another way for grumpy old people to discriminate against the young; great. sure, it scares off city raggamuffins now, but soon it will just your haggard old neighborhors who don't like when you toss the frisbee in your backyard with your friends. or, worse, GOP members trying to scatter an Obama rally! Not cool!!

Any chance of my being able to hear one of these things ended at Shea Stadium in October 1982 when The Clash opened for The Who.