John, have to run across this yet in your classrooms?





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

June 12, 2006
A Ring Tone Meant to Fall on Deaf Ears
By PAUL VITELLO
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.

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."

Kate Hammer and Nate Schweber contributed reporting for this article.



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"Mys Terry" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 12 Jun 2006 14:31:57 GMT, "JoeSpareBedroom"
wrote:

John, have to run across this yet in your classrooms?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

June 12, 2006
A Ring Tone Meant to Fall on Deaf Ears

Kind iof silly, when you realize that many (most?) phones have a
"vibrate" feature.



Yeah, but to a teenager, that's not as cool as putting one over on an adult.

On Mon, 12 Jun 2006 15:41:19 GMT, "JoeSpareBedroom"
wrote:


"Mys Terry" wrote in message
.. .
On Mon, 12 Jun 2006 14:31:57 GMT, "JoeSpareBedroom"
wrote:

John, have to run across this yet in your classrooms?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

June 12, 2006
A Ring Tone Meant to Fall on Deaf Ears

Kind iof silly, when you realize that many (most?) phones have a
"vibrate" feature.



Yeah, but to a teenager, that's not as cool as putting one over on an adult.


Somehow, I missed your original message. My students all know that I'm
about half deaf. I can barely hear a *normal* cell phone ring. I can't hear
an alarm watch at all. So, they can 'get over' on me all they want. It just
disrupts other students, not me.

Cell phones are illegal for use in the school where I work. If they are
taken out while in the building, the phone is taken away and given to a
principal. Then the parents are called to come and get it.

Pretty good idea



JohnH wrote:
Cell phones are illegal for use in the school where I work. If they are
taken out while in the building, the phone is taken away and given to a
principal. Then the parents are called to come and get it.

"JohnH" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 12 Jun 2006 15:41:19 GMT, "JoeSpareBedroom"
wrote:


"Mys Terry" wrote in message
. ..
On Mon, 12 Jun 2006 14:31:57 GMT, "JoeSpareBedroom"
wrote:

John, have to run across this yet in your classrooms?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

June 12, 2006
A Ring Tone Meant to Fall on Deaf Ears

Kind iof silly, when you realize that many (most?) phones have a
"vibrate" feature.



Yeah, but to a teenager, that's not as cool as putting one over on an
adult.


Somehow, I missed your original message. My students all know that I'm
about half deaf. I can barely hear a *normal* cell phone ring. I can't
hear
an alarm watch at all. So, they can 'get over' on me all they want. It
just
disrupts other students, not me.

Cell phones are illegal for use in the school where I work. If they are
taken out while in the building, the phone is taken away and given to a
principal. Then the parents are called to come and get it.

They can't have them, even if they're turned off?

JoeSpareBedroom wrote:


Cell phones are illegal for use in the school where I work. If they are
taken out while in the building, the phone is taken away and given to a
principal. Then the parents are called to come and get it.

They can't have them, even if they're turned off?

"Cell phones are "illegal for use" in the school where I work. I"f they
are
taken out (I'm assuming to make a call or check a page/email etc) while
in the building," the phone is taken away and given to a
principal. Then the parents are called to come and get it. ..."

wrote in message
ups.com...



JoeSpareBedroom wrote:


Cell phones are illegal for use in the school where I work. If they are
taken out while in the building, the phone is taken away and given to a
principal. Then the parents are called to come and get it.

They can't have them, even if they're turned off?

"Cell phones are "illegal for use" in the school where I work. I"f they
are
taken out (I'm assuming to make a call or check a page/email etc) while
in the building," the phone is taken away and given to a
principal. Then the parents are called to come and get it. ..."


John must work in a district where parents teach their kids absolutely
nothing about what's appropriate.

It seems like that's almost a plaque these days...


JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
wrote in message
ups.com...



JoeSpareBedroom wrote:


Cell phones are illegal for use in the school where I work. If they are
taken out while in the building, the phone is taken away and given to a
principal. Then the parents are called to come and get it.

They can't have them, even if they're turned off?

"Cell phones are "illegal for use" in the school where I work. I"f they
are
taken out (I'm assuming to make a call or check a page/email etc) while
in the building," the phone is taken away and given to a
principal. Then the parents are called to come and get it. ..."


John must work in a district where parents teach their kids absolutely
nothing about what's appropriate.

On Tue, 13 Jun 2006 03:01:53 GMT, "JoeSpareBedroom"
wrote:

"JohnH" wrote in message
.. .
On Mon, 12 Jun 2006 15:41:19 GMT, "JoeSpareBedroom"
wrote:


"Mys Terry" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 12 Jun 2006 14:31:57 GMT, "JoeSpareBedroom"
wrote:

John, have to run across this yet in your classrooms?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

June 12, 2006
A Ring Tone Meant to Fall on Deaf Ears

Kind iof silly, when you realize that many (most?) phones have a
"vibrate" feature.



Yeah, but to a teenager, that's not as cool as putting one over on an
adult.


Somehow, I missed your original message. My students all know that I'm
about half deaf. I can barely hear a *normal* cell phone ring. I can't
hear
an alarm watch at all. So, they can 'get over' on me all they want. It
just
disrupts other students, not me.

Cell phones are illegal for use in the school where I work. If they are
taken out while in the building, the phone is taken away and given to a
principal. Then the parents are called to come and get it.

They can't have them, even if they're turned off?


Well, they aren't searched for them. But, if they take them out, the phone
gets confiscated.

On Tue, 13 Jun 2006 10:44:17 GMT, "JoeSpareBedroom"
wrote:


wrote in message
oups.com...



JoeSpareBedroom wrote:


Cell phones are illegal for use in the school where I work. If they are
taken out while in the building, the phone is taken away and given to a
principal. Then the parents are called to come and get it.

They can't have them, even if they're turned off?

"Cell phones are "illegal for use" in the school where I work. I"f they
are
taken out (I'm assuming to make a call or check a page/email etc) while
in the building," the phone is taken away and given to a
principal. Then the parents are called to come and get it. ..."


John must work in a district where parents teach their kids absolutely
nothing about what's appropriate.


Why would you make such a comment?