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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 06/12/2006 : 10:11:26
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In retrospect, this was inevitable:quote:
Students Use Ring Tone Teachers Can't Hear
By The Associated Press
posted: 12 June 2006
12:32 pm ET
NEW YORK (AP)—Students are using a new ring tone to receive messages in class—and many teachers can't even hear the ring.
Some students are downloading a ring tone off the Internet that is too high-pitched to be heard by most adults. With it, high schoolers can receive text message alerts on their cell phones without the teacher knowing.
As people age, many develop what's known as aging ear—a loss of the ability to hear higher-frequency sounds.
The ring tone is a spin-off of technology that was originally meant to repel teenagers—not help them. A Welsh security company developed the tone to help shopkeepers disperse young people loitering in front of their stores while leaving adults unaffected. The company called their product the ``Mosquito.''
. . .
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 06/12/2006 : 12:31:28 [Permalink]
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Thanks for the link, Dave. The War Between the Young and the Old continues, with the Young always winning, then growing Old and losing. I just hope someone invents near-ultrasonic rap music next.
I'll add my own observation to the topic: The high-frequency ring tones have another possible advantage to the students: It's nearly impossible for people to get good stereo positioning information with high frequencies. So, even if the teacher hears the tone, it will be next to impossible to tell where it's coming from. The kids these days, they're too damned smart for their own good! 
I'm imagining a non-electronic countermeaure for teachers: A set of simple earplugs that have a membrane in them designed to naturally resonate at half the frequency of the ring tones, letting the teacher hear the rings. Or, it might more likely be an electronic device, because simple ideas are harder to market.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 06/12/2006 12:36:45 |
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pleco
SFN Addict
USA
2998 Posts |
Posted - 06/12/2006 : 12:34:58 [Permalink]
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| Better yet, the teacher could have a device which emits the noise at random times, fooling the students and causing general frustration until they give up. |
by Filthy
The neo-con methane machine will soon be running at full fart. |
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
Posted - 06/12/2006 : 13:46:34 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by HalfMooner
I'll add my own observation to the topic: The high-frequency ring tones have another possible advantage to the students: It's nearly impossible for people to get good stereo positioning information with high frequencies. So, even if the teacher hears the tone, it will be next to impossible to tell where it's coming from. The kids these days, they're too damned smart for their own good!
I was thinking the same thing, Moooner. I could hear the sound perfectly. But I imagine that if you were a few paces away and tried to pick where that sound came from, you'd have trouble even saying whether it's in front or behind! |
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Chippewa
SFN Regular
USA
1496 Posts |
Posted - 06/12/2006 : 14:26:59 [Permalink]
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So why not:
"OK, let's have our test today - get out a piece of paper and a pencil," - (I was a music teacher and pens were not used,) - "and as this is an exam, everybody knows the rules, no cell phones, no electronic devices, no ear phones allowed"...( ing at class.) |
Diversity, independence, innovation and imagination are progressive concepts ultimately alien to the conservative mind.
"TAX AND SPEND" IS GOOD! (TAX: Wealthy corporations who won't go poor even after taxes. SPEND: On public works programs, education, the environment, improvements.) |
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
Posted - 06/12/2006 : 17:27:16 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Chippewa
So why not:
"OK, let's have our test today - get out a piece of paper and a pencil," - (I was a music teacher and pens were not used,) - "and as this is an exam, everybody knows the rules, no cell phones, no electronic devices, no ear phones allowed"...(ing at class.)
Well, that's the trick. Teachers say that, but enforcing is difficult. A kid at a desk wearing baggy clothes can hide a cell in her or his lap. Then, if she's looking down, is she looking at her exam, or at the phone in her lap? It's hard (I just proctored an exam a few weeks ago, and was looking for cell-phone stuff), but requires lots of work. Annoyingly, some kids use their phone as a watch, and so keep it on the desk! (I'm one to talk, since I do that, too!) As long as they don't open it (if it's a flip-top) or mess with it, though, it's generally not a problem if its out... |
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard
USA
4907 Posts |
Posted - 06/12/2006 : 18:12:31 [Permalink]
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During my Modern Algebra (Intro to Abstract Algebra basically) final, I had run out of sheets to write on. So during the middle of the test, I went into my notebook to get one. Of course, it was at the end of the year, so my notebook was mostly filled. There I was, during the middle of an exam, looking through my entire notebook for a piece of blank paper to use. Luckily, I knew the professor pretty well, and he knew me, so he wasn't worried that I was cheating.
I also do the cell phones on the desk, because none of our rooms have clocks. Professors never seem to be worried about that.
As for the cell phone text messages, you can also put your cell on silent. I can't imagine why you would ever need this ringtone. |
Why continue? Because we must. Because we have the call. Because it is nobler to fight for rationality without winning than to give up in the face of continued defeats. Because whatever true progress humanity makes is through the rationality of the occasional individual and because any one individual we may win for the cause may do more for humanity than a hundred thousand who hug their superstitions to their breast.
- Isaac Asimov |
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woolytoad
Skeptic Friend
313 Posts |
Posted - 06/12/2006 : 18:33:29 [Permalink]
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| Finally a perk to getting old. Sometimes the high pitches from electronics really annoy me. |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
Posted - 06/12/2006 : 19:20:19 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Ricky
As for the cell phone text messages, you can also put your cell on silent. I can't imagine why you would ever need this ringtone.
Well, if you'd listened to the NPR story I linked to, you'd know that even old folks can hear some cell phones when they're on vibrate. I had mine on vibrate for a while, but people would still say, "what's that noise?" when it rang. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
Posted - 06/12/2006 : 19:57:30 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Dave W.
quote:
Originally posted by Ricky
As for the cell phone text messages, you can also put your cell on silent. I can't imagine why you would ever need this ringtone.
Well, if you'd listened to the NPR story I linked to, you'd know that even old folks can hear some cell phones when they're on vibrate. I had mine on vibrate for a while, but people would still say, "what's that noise?" when it rang.
Right. The whole point of vibrate is to "feel" the phone when there's too much noise to otherwise hear it. Like at a sporting event, or while in the car listening to the radio with the volume all the way up. Or something.
Sure, some people put it on vibrate in meetings or some such, but we can all hear it. But to be honest, I'd rather hear that vibrating bzzzz-bzzzz than the into to the synthesized version of some crappy 80's song or an old Irish hymn or something! |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 06/12/2006 : 20:24:03 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Cuneiformist
I'd rather hear that vibrating bzzzz-bzzzz than the into to the synthesized version of some crappy 80's song or an old Irish hymn or something!
My cell phone ring tone is a vacillation between a crying baby and a car alarm.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
Posted - 06/13/2006 : 00:54:37 [Permalink]
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| My son played it and I could hear it. |
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
Posted - 06/13/2006 : 00:55:51 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Dave W.
...I had mine on vibrate for a while, but people would still say, "what's that noise?" when it rang.
I had to get over thinking a bug was on me. |
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9687 Posts |
Posted - 06/13/2006 : 06:54:29 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Cuneiformist
I'd rather hear that vibrating bzzzz-bzzzz than the into to the synthesized version of some crappy 80's song or an old Irish hymn or something!
Mine plays Black Adder Theme.
My girfriend's plays the MacGyver Theme when I'm the caller. |
Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder. |
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JohnOAS
SFN Regular
Australia
800 Posts |
Posted - 06/13/2006 : 17:14:42 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by HalfMooner
I'll add my own observation to the topic: The high-frequency ring tones have another possible advantage to the students: It's nearly impossible for people to get good stereo positioning information with high frequencies. So, even if the teacher hears the tone, it will be next to impossible to tell where it's coming from.
Actually, there are a few factors that come into play when humans determine the direction from which a sound came. That wonderful bit of gear we all carry around in our heads has a few tricks up it's metaphorical sleeve:
1. Difference in time of arrival at each ear, best for transient sounds.
2. Difference in intensity, best for sounds in the voice range.
3. Phase difference, obviously best for low frequency sounds. There is naturally a lower limit beyond which this principle doesn't work too well. This is why it's not sonically critical where your sub-woofer goes.
It's generally easier to pick the direction of an incoming sound for higher frequencies, although I'm not sure what the actual frequency of this ring tone is.
As far as counter-measures go, a resourceful person could build a "jammer" very easily. a cheap tweeter, battery and oscillator circuit would inhibit the use of the ring tone. It does, however have the effect of unfriendly fire, there would presumably be plenty of students doing the right thing who would be subjected to the jammers sound.
If the use of phones has been banned, a simpler solution would be to use an off-the-shelf "bug detector" which generally detects the presence of mobile phone bands, 802.xx bands, FM radio and similar frequencies where commercial devices like video/audio monitoring devices operate.
Perhaps I've thought about this a little too much. |
John's just this guy, you know. |
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