High Frequency Ring Tones

Although younger students may be familiar with high frequency ring tones or the "Mosquito" ring tone, I had not heard of such a thing until reading the class textbook.  I found a link that tests your ability to hear different frequency ring tones.  In fact, once you've tried the ring tones on the website, the website will guess your age!  The highest frequency I was able to hear was 15.8kHz.  When I indicated this as the highest frequency I was able to detect, the website guessed I was "in my twenties."  The guess was close as I am 33 years old.  This technology is going to make me a bit more leery about cell phones as a parent.



As we age, we begin to lose our ability to hear higher frequencies.  Typically, younger adults are able to detect tones at a range of 20 Hz to about 20,000 Hz, whereas older adults may experience difficulty in detecting tones at such a high range (Foley, H.J., Matlin, M.W., 2010).  Perhaps this explains why I often have to ask my husband to translate when attempting to converse with his father and grandfather who both suffer from hearing loss.  Their difficulty in hearing my voice may be due to the higher frequency tone as simply repeating myself in a louder voice does not seem to do the trick!  I thought it was "selective" hearing!

The technology was developed in Britain when various retailers wanted to keep teenagers from loitering around their stores.  The high frequency pitch would keep the younger crowd away, while remaining completely undetected by adult shoppers.  Although popular in Europe, the high frequency ring tones are still fairly new to the U.S.  As the ring tones are gaining popularity, teenagers are using the ring tones to their advantage.  In our technologically advanced society, school policies have been forced to add cell phones to their long list of "no-no's."  As teens often times find a loophole around school rules, cell phones are no exception.  Students are using high frequency ring tones as a means of using cell phones in the classroom while remaining under the radar of older teachers.  Although a bit scary for parents, I have to commend teenagers for their creativity.  I only wish we had this technology in the age of pagers and beepers!

If you would like to test your frequency range from the website I mentioned, please click on the link below.  However, I do have to warn you that my pets and my ears did not appreciate my testing of the frequencies.
http://www.ultrasonic-ringtones.com/.

Elizabeth Brothers

Foley, H. J., Matlin, M. W. (2010). Sensation and perception (5^th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education.

Vitello, P. (2006). A ring tone meant to fall on deaf ears. Retrieved November 18, 2011, from http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/12/technology/12ring.html