Mosquito: A Dog-Whistle for Teens
You’re a teenager in a classroom where cellphones are prohibited. Your friend texts you. Your phone rings but your teacher can’t hear it. You sneak a glance at your text message. Done... none the wiser.
Sound implausible? Well not only is it plausible but it’s happening right now in the UK.
In an article by Paul Vitello in the Technology section of Sunday’s New York Times clever teens are taking advantage of, Mosquito, a program actually designed as a weapon against them.
The technology relies on the natural occurrence of presbycusis (aka aging ear) in which humans lose the ability the process certain audio frequencies with age. It was actually designed by a security firm as an aggressive agent for dispersing loitering teens in shop-fronts, parking lots and malls by blasting them with a shrieking 17-kilohertz tone (that brain-damaging high note on the piano only registers 4-kh) while leaving the shoppers unaffected.
Clever technophiles (no doubt young) pirated the technology (or at least a very good copy of it) to develop a ringtone that only teens and young adults can hear.
The success of the pirated program has left the developers scrambling to market, Mosquitotone, "the authentic Mosquito ring tone” in order to try and profit from their own invention.
Read the Times story here. (Note: Depending on when you read this, NYTimes may require registration to read the article. Registering is quick and easy and they don’t sell you out to spammers.)
Sound implausible? Well not only is it plausible but it’s happening right now in the UK.
In an article by Paul Vitello in the Technology section of Sunday’s New York Times clever teens are taking advantage of, Mosquito, a program actually designed as a weapon against them.
The technology relies on the natural occurrence of presbycusis (aka aging ear) in which humans lose the ability the process certain audio frequencies with age. It was actually designed by a security firm as an aggressive agent for dispersing loitering teens in shop-fronts, parking lots and malls by blasting them with a shrieking 17-kilohertz tone (that brain-damaging high note on the piano only registers 4-kh) while leaving the shoppers unaffected.
Clever technophiles (no doubt young) pirated the technology (or at least a very good copy of it) to develop a ringtone that only teens and young adults can hear.
The success of the pirated program has left the developers scrambling to market, Mosquitotone, "the authentic Mosquito ring tone” in order to try and profit from their own invention.
Read the Times story here. (Note: Depending on when you read this, NYTimes may require registration to read the article. Registering is quick and easy and they don’t sell you out to spammers.)
posted by caliban23 at Monday, June 12, 2006
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