| Does TeenBuzz exist ? | I read recently on a particularly innovative trick being employed by British teenagers. Basically there was on anti-teenager device being marketed under the name Mosquito that played a high-pitched frequency which was almost imperceptible to adults, but really irratating to teenagers. Apparently someone has used the idea as a ringtone that can be used in schools so that teachers are unaware that a pupils phone is ringing. Very sneeky. I read on BoingBoing that it was not believed possible. Well I don't believe everything I read on the net, so I just tried it, and it appears to work perfectly on my phone. However I am still to do a frequency analysis on the output from my phone. You can download my version as an MP3 and/or a WAV. Of course if your hearing is shot, then you may not hear anything, or I am playing a trick on you. You just don't know. Now if only everyone else would use ring tones that were completely imperceptable, I would really appreciate it ... or just stick it on vibrate, you know you want to. UPDATE : The original TeenBuzz ringtone, that has been passed around by teenagers via BlueTooth can be found here. UPDATE : I have done a frequency analysis of my self produced TeenBuzz ringtone and can verify that the output frequency is the same as the frequency I used as an input ( around 14KHz. ) I have not verified yet that the mobile phones speaker is producing the same frequency. UPDATE : I've done a frequency analysis of a recording of my phone playing my homebrewed TeenBuzz sample and although the recording appears to have the pitch slightly lower than I hear it, the analysis appears to confirm that the frequency is present ( in fact it is the only one that shows up, albiet faintly. ) UPDATE : The swines are now using Barry Manilow songs to deter teenage loitering. Oh the humanity ! UPDATE : Latest 17KHz MP3 available here, I haven't uploaded to my phone yet, so I have no idea how effective it is. UPDATE : The 17KHz MP3 works fine. UPDATE : I found this thread discussing this post. I feel I should explain, the ringtones I created were to test the hypothesis that ringtones of 14KHz and 17KHz would be audible from a phone as a ringtone. At the time I created these ringtones Teenbuzz was merely a rumour circling the web, and after a while people started chiming in with opinions to wether or not it was possible without actually hearing it, if you pardon the expression. 14KHz was picked as it was the rumoured pitch of the ringtone, 17KHz was chosen because it was the pitch of the original teen repellent. How these tones actually work as a practical ringtone, I have no idea, I always have my phone set to vibrate. UPDATE : CO OP are trying to discourage youths from hanging around their stores by playing classical music. Personally I am all in favour of playing Mozart, Beethoven or Bach to teenagers, a little culture won't harm them, and at least it isn't Barry Manilow. UPDATE : I've just noticed this article is currently, as of the 17th January 2008, the second hit on Google for "teenbuzz" after the wikipedia entry, but not for "teen buzz". Whoever is linking to me, thanks, let me know who you are. |
2006-05-25 23:01:24 |
| John says ... |
| "Excellent, thanks. I had been looking for those. I will mirror the files, if you don't mind, to help your bandwidth." |
2006-06-12 06:24:06 |
| Optimist says ... |
| "No problem. You are more than welocome to mirror them, but I am removing the recorded wav as it takes up too much space, but it's not really useful to anyone." |
2006-06-12 16:49:56 |
| Martin says ... |
| "Does it work? My Parents can hear that noise." |
2006-06-13 04:00:57 |
| Optimist says ... |
| "Depends what you mean by working, my goal was to see if it was actually possible to do, and it was. The ringtone that was being used was actually pitched lower than the original Mosquito sound, and that was what I attempted to produce. I believe mine is actually better than the original ringtone. Now as for wether or not your parents can hear it, there is no real reason why it should not be possible, but they probably can not hear it as clearly, and especially not at a distance. By pitching it up, they would be less likely to hear it, but it also depends on other factors such as distance, amplitude, ambient noise etc. The teenagers in the original ringtone story were using it in classrooms, where the teacher is very likely to be stood at some distance from the pupils with the phones, so they would probably not have heard it, the other thing is that when you play this sample, if you are listening for it, you probably will hear it, but if you weren't listening for it, you could quite easily miss it. If I get the time I'll produce one that is nearer to the original Mosquito." |
2006-06-13 10:00:55 |
| saloni says ... |
| "it dosnt workk..!! r u sure dis is not a joke" |
2006-06-14 08:52:06 |
| Optimist says ... |
| "It works fine for me, what is the problem you are experiencing ?" |
2006-06-14 19:57:50 |
| st0le says ... |
| "#include int main(void) { sound(12900); //change the frequency delay(1000); nosound(); return 0; } a C++ program for the same... enjoy!" |
2006-06-15 23:25:39 |
| st0le says ... |
| "anyone over 30 can hear the beep below 13000 Hz...(during my testing)" |
2006-06-15 23:26:27 |
| dh says ... |
| "Your new ringtone "17KHz MP3" is more effectif. I can hear the first one (I'm 37 jears old), but the second one is very difficult to hear. But my children are saying thas the new one is stronger!" |
2006-06-17 00:22:47 |
| Optimist says ... |
| "Good stuff, thanks for testing it." |
2006-06-17 12:13:19 |
| Jade says ... |
| "Please also make a new one which is very high pitched so that even teachers standing next to you cant hear it, and only students can." |
2006-06-22 04:33:09 |
| Optimist says ... |
| "st0le, you appear to have missed out the header to be included, anything between an "<" and a ">" gets trimmed here. Sound isn't very cross platform in C++, so it might not work for everyone. A frequency of 12.9KHz is also very low, considering your comments." |
2006-06-16 08:23:20 |
| poonam says ... |
| "i want to know if this is true sum1 pls tell me ." |
2006-06-22 06:18:48 |
| Optimist says ... |
| "poonam : of course it works, but don\'t take my word for it, download it and try it yourself." |
2006-06-22 09:42:47 |
| Optimist says ... |
| "Jade : there are actual limits to what can be done, the perceptible threshold differs from person to person, and the closer they are physically, the more they are likely to hear it. A young teacher in their late 20s early 30s probably would hear it reasonably well, where as a teacher in their 40s or 50s are less likely. There are other factors like room acoustics, direction the listener is facing etc. It is also worth remembering that the chances are better if you are listening for it. So a teenager, with the phone in their pocket, with the volume set audible enough to just hear it, in a quiet room, with some but not a lot of dampening and who is listening for it, stands a reasonbly good chance of hearing the tone. Anyway, I\'ll see what I can do, it would be nice to find the upper limit of what a phone can produce. The problems, for me at least, I see being 1. I have a cold that is making it hard to hear at the moment 2. I am not sure what the upper limit of my hearing is 3. I have no real world test circumstances to try this in 4. I am incredibly lazy All the same, watch this space" |
2006-06-22 09:54:15 |
| mike says ... |
| "i cant figure out how to download it someone plz helppp i want to try it on my razr but cant get i on my computer" |
2006-07-05 07:11:24 |
| Optimist says ... |
| "Downloading should not be a problem, just right-click on the link, and select an appropriate \"save as\" option. I\'m not sure about getting it onto a RAZR, I put it onto mine using OSX via BlueTooth and it was eeeeaaaasy, OSX knows all about the RAZR so I didn\'t need to install anything. I have no idea what users of other systems have to do, not that I don\'t run other OSes, I just haven\'t bothered trying, but there are plenty of websites that cover transferring files to RAZRs." |
2006-07-05 08:30:11 |
| Zim says ... |
| "Alas, my parents can't hear it-unless I crank up the volume. All I need to do now is figure out how to make it a ringtone... I rather enjoy the sound XD Makes the back of my head tingle a little. Plus, I find it hilarious that I can go ask my brothers 'if they hear that', and then ask my dad. He always ends up asking what the heck I'm talking about-And I just laugh. Evil, evil me o.o" |
2006-07-15 14:15:02 |
| Zim says ... |
| "The question is-Is it possible without Bluetooth? My dad didn't like his, and turned it back awhile ago-before I actually got a chance to hear what Teenbuzz /really/ was..." |
2006-07-15 14:28:01 |
| Optimist says ... |
| "Is it possible without BlueTooth ? Depends on the phone, certainly BlueTooth is not required by the phone for audio playback, but that goes without saying. The mini-USB on the side of many mobile phones ( including the RAZR ) can be used for transferring files, but I haven\'t tried doing it that way as the RAZR has built in BlueTooth, and I bought a cheap USB-BlueTooth adaptor and it all just ... worked." |
2006-07-17 14:34:56 |
| rokas says ... |
| "i can hear it too. its not very good sound.... thanks for this link" |
2006-10-04 20:00:29 |
| Izryo says ... |
| "Do you think you can make a download link for cell phones? i can't send it in an MMS, so i tried typing in the download link but it doesn't work. The only way i could download it was by going to the main page, but when i downloaded it to my phone, it didn't play." |
2007-01-12 23:18:30 |
| Optimist says ... |
| "Is it that it didn't play, or was it that you just cannot hear it ? I just transfer mine via Bluetooth, it's quick and easy for me. I haven't done any MMS work in years, there is probably a quick and simple solution I'm sure, but to be quite honest, I haven't the time to look into it right now. Sorry." |
2007-01-17 15:16:24 |
| ??? says ... |
| "WERE do i download it" |
2007-01-30 16:03:08 |
| Optimist says ... |
| "http://optimist.geekisp.com/samwise/audio/TeenBuzz.mp3 http://optimist.geekisp.com/samwise/audio/17Khz.mp3 http://optimist.geekisp.com/samwise/audio/b4-1013361053.mp3" |
2007-01-31 09:00:33 |
| WAV lover says ... |
| "Wow thank you so much for the .wav file I couldn't find it anywhere! I use Thunderbird for my email and long story short... Needed the .wav this is an awesome site and have already bookmarked you. Also I have to say that the b4-1013361053.mp3 is really COOL. Thanks." |
2007-04-10 03:11:47 |
| Optimist says ... |
| "I'd forgotten I'd added a .wav file, though I only did one for the 14KHz, I could look at doing one at a higher frequency." |
2007-04-10 08:45:10 |
| Bryce says ... |
| "yeh i have had this for a while but the b4-1013361053.mp3 is great when you are walking down the street :D tricked everyone ppl looking in the sky and all :D" |
2007-06-18 00:43:29 |
| Tom says ... |
| "This is really interesting. I am 48 and have been working at an airport for more than 20 years. Every 12 months we´re doing an hearing-test. I know that my results is extraordinary, and due to my age I also know that I have so called drop-outs. I downloaded all three ringtones, and if my Mac and my phone both is able to play back the original frequency without distortion, then I´m really surprised. I´m able to hear all three of them. Or maybe it´s more correct to say; detect all three of them." |
2008-01-09 02:48:44 |
| Optimist says ... |
| "The local noise in your environment can make quite a difference, I can normally hear them all, but I was demonstrating the tones to my boss the other day and I could barely hear the 17KHz, though I was the only one who could hear it at all. The 14Khz tone was detected by others who were in the room to differing degrees. I found moving the phone slightly helped people detect the tone better." |
2008-01-09 09:09:21 |
| TeenBuzz says ... |
| "Lots of formats and versions over here at http://www.teenbuzz.org" |
2008-01-17 05:19:47 |
| Optimist says ... |
| "Actually that looks like a good site, you can have your spam." |
2008-01-17 08:25:49 |
Powered by FreeBSD |