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Technology Science

Driving Away Teens With High Frequency Noise 1035

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the get-off-my-lawn dept.
ars writes "The New York Times is reporting on a device called the Mosquito invented by Howard Stapleton designed to drive teens away by emitting a high frequency noise at 75db. Apparently most older people can not hear the sounds, but teens can not stand it. Reports are that it works quite well, but some older people can hear it too. He found the prefect irritating sound by experimenting on his children."
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Driving Away Teens With High Frequency Noise More

Driving Away Teens With High Frequency Noise

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  • FP (Score:5, Funny)

    by ZX81 ( 105194 ) on Tuesday November 29, 2005 @11:24PM (#14144249) Homepage
    Everyone driven away?

  • What's was wrong with... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Dance_Dance_Karnov ( 793804 ) on Tuesday November 29, 2005 @11:27PM (#14144255) Homepage
    sitting on the porch yelling and shaking a cane?

  • g0t d3af? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ZX81 ( 105194 ) on Tuesday November 29, 2005 @11:27PM (#14144257) Homepage
    Isn't this just going to make the kids as deaf as the adults?

    • Re:g0t d3af? (Score:3, Informative)

      by AKAImBatman ( 238306 )
      Isn't this just going to make the kids as deaf as the adults?

      I seriously doubt it. This just takes advantage of high frequency sounds that you can hear when you're younger, but don't necessarily find yourself completely unable to stand. A perfect example of this sound was the high pitched whine of the old televisions.

      Can I get a show of hands for every person here who couldn't stand the bloody noise from the things? Sure, you got used to the sound (since you wanted to watch your favorite show), but it was

      • Re:g0t d3af? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by dgatwood ( 11270 ) on Wednesday November 30, 2005 @02:03AM (#14145053) Homepage Journal
        I'm 29 and NEW televisions still bother me, high def sets with higher scan rates notwithstanding. I can hear my TV set right now, and it's about ten feet away. 15 kHz is audible for me even at relatively low volume. At sufficient levels, I can hear 23 kHz. Not perceive. Not feel. Hear. It's a very annoying squeal if you have the "pleasure" of hearing it. I haven't been able to produce enough volume to hear frequencies any higher than that. Speaker roll-off kind of bites you in the backside above about 18kHz.

        Heaven help me if I'm in a room with a TV where the flyback is really whining because of a missing sync signal.... The light dimmers at work piss me off because they hurt my ears. Many of my friends (even some younger ones) can barely hear them. Defective computer monitors? Torture. I'm told the lowest sync rate on VGA is 30 kHz, so I figure there must be a frequency divider somewhere, but I'm starting to wonder if I'm a bat or something. After my last job (slight flicker and lots of whine, with near-daily migraines), I now refuse to use any non-LCD displays when working with computers.

        I'll say this: as someone who takes care of my ears, if a store I shopped at regularly put one of these things in, I can be fairly certain that it would bother me well into my 40s. And I would choose to shop elsewhere. Companies should take into serious consideration that doing this sort of thing -will- undoubtedly drive away some of their actual customers....

        For now, I'll just stay away from people with dogs. :-D

        • Calculate the freq... (Score:5, Informative)

          by yroJJory ( 559141 ) <(gro.yroj) (ta) (em)> on Wednesday November 30, 2005 @04:19AM (#14145484) Homepage

          You can actually calculate what the audible frequency is of a TV.

          For NTSC in North America:

          • 60 Hz (refresh rate) * 525 (# of lines) / 2 (interleaved, ya know!) = 15,750 Hz (15.75kHz)

          For PAL in the UK:

          • 50 Hz (refresh rate) * 625 (# of lines) / 2 (interleaved, too!) = 15,625 Hz (15.625 kHz)

          And yes, the sound drives me crazy, too. I'm 30 and an audio engineer. And I'm the only one in my household who can hear the damn TVs whining. :-)

  • Yet another way for parents to avoid... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by The Lost Supertone ( 754279 ) on Tuesday November 29, 2005 @11:27PM (#14144258) Journal
    Yet another way for parents to avoid spending time with their kids. Seriously why the heck would anyone come up with this sort of thing? As someone who works with teenagers a lot already, I have to say I'm a bit annoyed. Tons of the kids I work with through our church have parents who I swear can't be bothered to give their kids the nurture and self respect they need. Instead they just buy them things. At least an iPod nano to an unloved kid makes the kid cool at school. This'll just drive them to try more medications designed for chemical imbalances that won't fix depression brought on by these sorts of situations.

    • Re:Yet another way for parents to avoid... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by blastwave ( 757518 ) on Tuesday November 29, 2005 @11:38PM (#14144352)
      Personally I don't get it. I can achieve the same effect by simply asking them to take out the trash.

      Honestly, I was just over at the server room with my teenage step-son and he is totally cool. He washed the white board, helped me install some servers, then I let him drive the Jeep around the parking lot and even go off road. I don't understand all his stuff and he doesn't understand all mine but we have fun together and thats all the counts. Hey, we even played HALO for an hour after school.

      A high freqency buzz to drive away teens? Something seriously wrong with this invention. Yet another examply of soulless empty technology. I am happy that God watches over my family and both my teenage kids are a gift. I would never drive them away. If we keep and hold the communication channel open then we will never have them feel that they can't talk and we can't listen.

      Dennis Clarke
      Director Blastwave.org
      http://www.blastwave.org/ [blastwave.org]

      • Re:Yet another way for parents to avoid... (Score:5, Informative)

        by FlameboyC11 ( 711446 ) on Wednesday November 30, 2005 @12:19AM (#14144626)
        The main reason for this is chavs, don't understand it, look it up. These are roving gangs of teens in England that like to fuck with people for no reason at all. Oh, and look up happy slapping while you're at it (honestly).

      • Re:Yet another way for parents to avoid... (Score:5, Insightful)

        by That's Unpossible! ( 722232 ) on Wednesday November 30, 2005 @01:26AM (#14144906)
        Personally I don't get it. I can achieve the same effect by simply asking them to take out the trash.

        Then again you're talking about your own kids living in your house, and not hooligans smoking cigarettes in front of your store and harassing your customers.

        Honestly, I was just over at the server room with my teenage step-son and he is totally cool.

        That's wonderful. He's also not the target of this type of device.

        A high freqency buzz to drive away teens? Something seriously wrong with this invention.

        Why?

        I own a gun. If a criminal enters my house to do me harm, I will have no choice but to kill him with this gun. That doesn't mean I want to kill everyone with this gun.

        Yet another examply of soulless empty technology.

        You mean like those servers you and your son installed? Or the Jeep you let him drive around in circles? Or the video game system you two played? What exactly is "soulless empty technology"? Technology is what it is.

        I am happy that God watches over my family and both my teenage kids are a gift.

        This thinking always bothers me. This is like the guy who comes out of his house after an earthquake, looks over at his dead neighbors, and says, "Thank God we survived!"

        I don't think God has anything to do with your kids, I think it may be that you're just a good parent.

        I would never drive them away. If we keep and hold the communication channel open then we will never have them feel that they can't talk and we can't listen.

        Again, great advice for parents, terrible advice for store owners.

    • Re:Yet another way for parents to avoid... (Score:5, Informative)

      by Draveed ( 664730 ) on Tuesday November 29, 2005 @11:39PM (#14144365)
      What are you talking about? This is just a device to stop teenagers from loitering. No one said anything about parents using this to get rid of their own kids.

  • I need this for my stores! (Score:5, Funny)

    by dada21 ( 163177 ) * <adam.dada@gmail.com> on Tuesday November 29, 2005 @11:27PM (#14144261) Homepage Journal
    We sell skateboards and paintball shit. We aren't in the mall.

    1. Hide a few dozen of these in the mall shops
    2. ???
    3. Profit!!!

  • I hope it doesn't get widely deployed (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 29, 2005 @11:28PM (#14144265)
    Teens have rights too, you can't discriminate on the basis of age.

    • Re:I hope it doesn't get widely deployed (Score:5, Insightful)

      by raoul666 ( 870362 ) <pi,rocks&gmail,com> on Tuesday November 29, 2005 @11:35PM (#14144331)
      Teens have rights too, you can't discriminate on the basis of age.

      You must be new here. And by here, I mean society. It's one of the few things that not only are people still discriminated against for, it's one that no one complains about, or really even thinks about.

    • Re:I hope it doesn't get widely deployed (Score:5, Funny)

      by Tore S B ( 711705 ) on Tuesday November 29, 2005 @11:49PM (#14144432) Homepage
      As a teen, having gone through very frustrating and annoying shit just because of my age, I'd love to know why the fuck this was modded funny.

      This *is* discrimination. If the guys are annoying, call the cops on the fuckers. Don't take it out on everyone who just happen to be the same age. It's no better than racism.

      • Re:I hope it doesn't get widely deployed (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Joe Random ( 777564 ) on Wednesday November 30, 2005 @12:11AM (#14144575)
        As a teen, having gone through very frustrating and annoying shit just because of my age, I'd love to know why the fuck this was modded funny.
        Probably for several reasons, one of which being that discrimination against teens is legal and state-sponsored. Can a 13-year-old drive a car? Buy a handgun? Drink alcohol? Buy cigarettes? Vote? There you go, state-sponsored and, many would argue, valid age discrimination. So there's a certain amount of humor for someone to say, obviously tongue-in-cheek, that you can't discriminate against teens.
        If the guys are annoying, call the cops on the fuckers. Don't take it out on everyone who just happen to be the same age.
        The sound is only annoying with constant exposure, and the only way someone is going to be constantly exposed is if they're loitering around outside the store. It will have no effect on people who are legitimate customers entering or leaving the store. No one, regardless of age, should be loitering outside this guy's store. And if there's a simply way to encourage a group not to loiter, especially when the loiterers are pretty much exclusively composed of that group, then I say "go for it!"
        • I can vote, drive a car, drink alcohol, look at porn and buy cigarettes. (I can't buy a handgun but alas I live in Australia where handguns are illegal without a license) I make my own money. I can still hear these noises and I'll be damned if I'm going to shop at a store that treats me like shit.

        • Re:I hope it doesn't get widely deployed (Score:5, Insightful)

          by donscarletti ( 569232 ) on Wednesday November 30, 2005 @01:42AM (#14144969)
          Probably for several reasons, one of which being that discrimination against teens is legal and state-sponsored. Can a 13-year-old drive a car? Buy a handgun? Drink alcohol? Buy cigarettes? Vote? There you go, state-sponsored and, many would argue, valid age discrimination. So there's a certain amount of humor for someone to say, obviously tongue-in-cheek, that you can't discriminate against teens.

          You should know full well that these restrictions have nothing in common with a device designed exclusivly to annoy and frustrate a given demographic. As a 22 year old who hears high frequencies very loudly (I can hear almost all screens whistle) I can imagine the havoc this will cause not just with teenagers, but with parents that have babies (who have even higher auditory ranges), with children wating outside while their mother shops and with people walking their dogs on the footpath. There are many legitimate uses for the public land outside this store and the public has the right to use it for things like waiting and pedestrian transport regardless of their age. I've met store owners that believe that they own the public land around where they are, such as one particually charitable gentleman who demanded my spastic uncle be moved from near his shop to improve the ambience, but they are invariably wrong. Public land belongs to the public, at least where I live.

          I find the public's callous attitudes towards teenagers to be disgusting. Sure, teenagers are stupid, boring to talk to and nearly everything they do is pointless, but this also applies to people who are mentally handicapped. Yet if someone was to invent the Retard-Prod(tm) that jabs everyone with an IQ less than 60, the inventor would be lynched within a day. I was a teenager 2 years ago, I was pretty stupid back when I was 15, in the same way I'll discover I'm stupid now in another six or seven years, but generally I didn't hurt anyone and only wanted to mind my own buisiness and have other people mind theirs, most teenagers are like that. Picking on kids because you don't like their demographic is not cool and it never will be.

      • Since you are a teen, I don't suppose you can tell me what is the draw behind hanging out in the parking lot of 7/11 stores late at night? I can never figure out what the point is.

  • Protractor holes (Score:5, Funny)

    by Ossifer ( 703813 ) on Tuesday November 29, 2005 @11:28PM (#14144266)
    We used to rebel in the 5th grade by blowing air through the small holes in our proctractors. Teacher nearing retirement had no clue. Sometimes the din was so loud that we couldn't hear teacher clearly...

    • Re:Protractor holes (Score:5, Funny)

      by npietraniec ( 519210 ) <npietran@@@resistive...net> on Tuesday November 29, 2005 @11:55PM (#14144477) Homepage
      We used to make little whistles out of the metal parts holding the eraser in on the end of pencils. The teacher used to stop the class everyday and walk around looking for the wistles that we assured her that we didn't hear. She thought she was going insane.

    • Re:Protractor holes (Score:5, Funny)

      by squidinkcalligraphy ( 558677 ) on Wednesday November 30, 2005 @12:40AM (#14144719)
      Once the whole class started humming quitely; and convinced the teacher there was a swarm of bees around. God we could be little shitheads. Then again, so could the teachers.

    • Resonant frequencies... (Score:4, Funny)

      by CreateWindowEx ( 630955 ) on Wednesday November 30, 2005 @01:33AM (#14144932)
      We had one classroom that happened thanks to some accidental miracle of 1960s construction technology to have the unique acoustic property that it would amplify a certain frequency. If one or more of us started humming at that special note, the whole classroom would start to resonate. The beauty was that it was totally non-directional, making nearly impossible to figure out who was doing it.

      Not that we abused this or anything...

      • Re:Resonant frequencies... (Score:4, Funny)

        by h4rm0ny ( 722443 ) on Wednesday November 30, 2005 @05:27AM (#14145645) Journal

        I did a short stint as a Maths teacher. The hardest part was trying to remember I was on the other side now (I was trouble at school). We had some construction work going on at the school and there was some sort of crane-mounted pile driving going on so that every five seconds or so, the entire classroom would shake and rattle. Just in one perfect lull in the general chaos that was the bottom year 11 maths set, one kid calls out to another: "'Ere, Darren! Yer mama's coming!"

        I have never had to try so hard not to laugh in my life.

  • Proper use. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Irvu ( 248207 ) on Tuesday November 29, 2005 @11:28PM (#14144268)
    In another article this would be called a "nonlethal weapon". Do we really want a world where people deploy such things to drive select non customers away? Legal or not I find the idea of such a system being used not only insulting but sad.

  • I beg to differ (Score:3, Funny)

    by IAstudent ( 919232 ) on Tuesday November 29, 2005 @11:30PM (#14144287)
    The teen population today is growing up with the voices of "pop music". If they can survive that drivel and keep it on the Top 20, what chances does this gadget have?

  • Hahaha!! (Score:4, Informative)

    by CupBeEmpty ( 720791 ) on Tuesday November 29, 2005 @11:33PM (#14144308)
    This is EXACTLY what I pulled in my undergraduate 'Modern Electronics' class. When we used small speakers I could adjust the frequency to a positively epilepsy inducing sound (especially if you ran the speakers on square wave functions with slight frequency scanning) that caused most of my classmates considerable discomfort but my professor (a fan of loud and live rock shows) could hear nothing. The best part is that he was proud that he was "immune" even though it indicates the beginnings of hearing loss.

  • Biological or Environmental? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ajax0187 ( 615355 ) on Tuesday November 29, 2005 @11:33PM (#14144317)
    Does this really work because they're teenagers, or because they just haven't lost the upper levels of their hearing? I remember reading that we can (originally) hear up to 30,000 Hz, but as we get exposed to loud noises, we gradually get more and more deaf as our ears lose more and more of their capability. Something like the first concert you go to cuts out the upper 2000 Hz of your hearing. Which brings up an interesting point - will this work on teens exposed to so much loud noises (music, lots of concerts, construction, trains, etc.) that it just won't work on them?

    By the way, a great role model for fathers everywhere:

    "Okay honey, how much does this hurt?"

    BZZZZT!!!!

    "Ah, turn it off, turn it off!!"

    "In a second honey. Daddy has to hurt you to show how much he loves you. Now, how about this?"

    BZZZZT!!!

    "AHHHHHH!"

    • Re:Biological or Environmental? (Score:4, Informative)

      by jhines ( 82154 ) <john@jhines.org> on Tuesday November 29, 2005 @11:51PM (#14144442) Homepage
      A little of both. The horizontal scanning frequency is 15,750 Hz (I think) and some but not all teens could hear it. I could, and going into a TV store would drive me nuts. Time and lots of rock and roll has cured that problem, and I no longer hear the TV sound.

      So yes sound wave could be tuned so that some, but not all could hear it. You might annoy some adults, and be ignored by other kids.

  • useless (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Lehk228 ( 705449 ) on Tuesday November 29, 2005 @11:36PM (#14144337) Journal
    This will have no effect on the metal heads and punk fans who go to loud shows who also happen to be the people buying it want to drive away anyways.

  • Reminds me of a guy I knew... (Score:5, Funny)

    by ChePibe ( 882378 ) on Tuesday November 29, 2005 @11:36PM (#14144340)
    This reminds me of a guy I knew once who kept an opera CD in his far-too-tricked-out-for-an-old-man car stereo. Only he optimized his stereo for treble rather than bass.

    Everytime a low-rider came next to his car at a stop light thumping away, he opened his windows and cranked some good ol' Italian opera out to screw with them. He told me he never could quite drown them out, but quite a few did turn down their stereos to try and figure out what the crazy old man next to them was doing...

  • this country is strange (Score:4, Insightful)

    by hansoloaf ( 668609 ) <hansoloaf AT yahoo DOT com> on Tuesday November 29, 2005 @11:36PM (#14144343)
    Why is this country so anti-teenager? We got the "coveted marketing demographics" of late teen to young adult that the tv networks and pretty much a lot of companies go for. Yet as a group, teenagers sure are very ostracized, looked down, and picked on. I'm sure there are some bad seeds but for the vast majority, I'm sure there are good kids. You got all these anti-cruising laws, school crackdowns, and now this. Shouldn't we be cherishing and nuturing them instead? I'm sure the Army would like to use this device to get them shepherded to the nearest recuriting office.

  • TTC (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 29, 2005 @11:36PM (#14144344)
    In Toronto, we used to have a problem with teen gangs hanging around the Kennedy subway station. The solution to this? The TTC started playing classical music over the loudspeakers. Pow, the gangs were gone, plus it was actually quite nice for those of us that enjoy classical music.

    The only thing to watch out for now would be gangs that listen to classical music. Care for a bit of Ludwig Van?

    • Re:TTC (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      The only thing to watch out for now would be gangs that listen to classical music.


      That East Coast classical is weak shit. I only blast J-$trau$$, Big Daddy Brahmzz & the Eastside Quartet, and The Notorious M.O.Z. in my ride.

      Rest in peace, 2-Bach.

    • Re:TTC (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Tom ( 822 ) on Wednesday November 30, 2005 @08:35AM (#14146256) Homepage Journal
      This is being used over here in Germany in several cities. Apparently it not only keeps gangs away, but also drug dealers, bums and other folks who loiter around at train and subway stations.

      I wonder if that says more about these people or about the music.

  • No problem (Score:3, Interesting)

    by JanneM ( 7445 ) on Tuesday November 29, 2005 @11:37PM (#14144349) Homepage
    Just shoplift some earplugs.

    Seriously, this shopkeeper exhibits a view of people that would make me very hesitant to be a customer at his store. He is saying, effectively, that "My interest in you is in your money and nothing else. If you spend money, I love you. If not, you're a creep and should not be in my sight." And, really, that is not the kind of person I'd like to be in any kind of relationship with, be it business of personal.

  • Terrible idea (Score:3, Informative)

    by Raindance ( 680694 ) <`johnsonmx' `at' `gmail.com'> on Tuesday November 29, 2005 @11:41PM (#14144377) Homepage Journal
    I think this is a terrible idea for any number of reasons, one being that supposedly "inaudible" noises effect people subconsciously. Even if the people involved don't report hearing anything.

    Relevant link with EEG results-
    http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~boyk/spectra/spectra.h tm [caltech.edu]
  • When I was a kid I built a variable frequency tone generator. Once I got it up above the range I could hear, I could make my dog go batshit. Not as in running around yelping, but scratching and chewing himself with a passion. Turns out it was the fleas that were going batshit; against his white fur, I could clearly see them start jumping incessanctly when I hit that certain range.

    So maybe his kids are just nasty.

  • Totally Absurd (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Darkshot ( 897143 ) on Tuesday November 29, 2005 @11:46PM (#14144413)
    This is ridiculus. They talk about using something like this to drive away 'bad teens' who hang around their store. Did they ever stop to consider that not all teens are bad, and what if some young person is actually going to their store to buy something legitimately. They need to stop stereotyping and realize most teens arent like that. I'm 17 and I do nothing of the sort. They are not only driving away these occassional trouble makers but also some of their own customers...

  • Wow, this is pretty stupid. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by loraksus ( 171574 ) on Tuesday November 29, 2005 @11:48PM (#14144425) Homepage
    At least, it seems like it to me.
    Back in the days of dos, pascal and c programming in a text based ide, I used to run high pitched noises out through the pc speaker. I believe I specified something between 21,000 and 24,000 hz - although I'm fairly sure that the speaker wasn't exactly tuned (although it did go a bit higher (27,000-ish hz), although only a few of us were able to hear it - we had the computer randomly play these high pitched tones and the monitor would change color about 5 seconds after the tone started, so it was sort of a double blind test)
    Yeah, high school was tons of fun.
    Anyways... Even though the old folks might not be able to hear it consciously, it still affects them. People become moody, short tempered, and in general, quite bitchy. I honestly can't say that it is due to the effects of the sound - or the effects of interacting with people who are able to consciously hear it, but - to me, at least - it doesn't really matter, because chances are that if you have teens hanging around your business, they probably spend money there and you're going to have to interact with them.

    And as for whether this bothers teens immensely, I call bullshit. Most of the older TVs out there put out a high pitched noise and it isn't like teens don't spend a ton of time sitting in front of one. Of course, old people enjoy buying crap like this, so it isn't to say there isn't a market.

    Also, the sensitivity seems to go away after being exposed to the sounds of gunfire (anecdotal evidence based on my experiences, so take with a grain of salt) and other loud noises, so gangbangers and punkheads probably won't be affected ;)
    And please, 75db? feh.

    (feel free to use this as a perfect example of how to not write an argumentative essay btw)

  • babies (Score:3, Insightful)

    by maxzilla ( 786061 ) on Wednesday November 30, 2005 @12:22AM (#14144636) Homepage
    if only the young can hear it, why do I think mothers with young children and babies will get peeved because it will wake up sleeping kids or provoke tantrums?

  • My experience (Score:3, Interesting)

    by glitch0 ( 859137 ) on Wednesday November 30, 2005 @12:24AM (#14144646) Homepage
    I frequently whip out my tone generator in class and put it at high frequencies very loud. Gets hilarious when half the class is yelling about a noise and the teacher thinks they're crazy.

    On another note, would those neat Bose active noise cancelling headphones remedy this problem? I know it's rather easy to build active noise cancelling headphones, and if this happened anywhere in my town I would make pairs of these for everyone just to spite them.

    Also, I tend to have worse hearing than most of my peers due to the fact that I play drums rather extensivly. Would this stop me from hearing the sound?

  • Huntington metro station in northern Virginia (Score:5, Interesting)

    by orangepeel ( 114557 ) on Wednesday November 30, 2005 @12:31AM (#14144678)
    This just looks like an ultrasonic animal repeller to me. Here's an easy Google Search [google.com] that shows how common they are. The thing is, anyone with decent hearing will hear these ultrasonic devices too -- and yes, they are extremeley irritating, to the point of being painful. My parents live way out in the country and use one to keep deer away from their garden, and another one to keep their neighbor's cats away from their parked cars. Having to suffer around 2 of those things any time I visit my folks, I can easily recognize the high-pitched agony-inducing devices now.

    And as a result, I suspect there is a powerful one in use at the Huntington metro station [wmata.com]. It's cranked way up, frankly to the point that I worry about hearing damage when I walk through the protected area. I can hear the sound just inside the entrance, aimed right at the turnstyles (slightly stronger at the side near the fare card machines). In this case, I imagine they're using it to keep birds and squirrels out of the station. The station itself is in a surprisingly wooded area, nestled into the side of a small hill. I'm sure they found an ultrasonic animal repeller was the only thing that worked at keeping critters out of the station. It nearly keeps me out too ... it actually makes me feel slightly nauseous if I hang around in that entrance area too long.

  • Home Made Version (Score:5, Funny)

    by rossz ( 67331 ) <ogreNO@SPAMgeekbiker.net> on Wednesday November 30, 2005 @12:32AM (#14144682) Journal
    It's easy enough for me to create a home made high pitched squeal. Just take the phone away from my teenage daughter. From what I have been able to ascertain, the telephone is permanently attached to her ear. Taking it away causes her physical pain which results in her emitting an extremely loud high pitched squeal.

    I try not to do that anymore because the neighbors complain.

  • A hearing aid works too (Score:5, Interesting)

    by BlindSpot ( 512363 ) on Wednesday November 30, 2005 @12:33AM (#14144688)
    I belong to a club that's made up of mostly seniors, so I'm one of just a few people there under 40. A few years ago (I was 25 or 26 then) I was playing with one of our long-time members when I began hearing this really high-pitched whining noise, right on the high edge of my auditory range. Wasn't super loud, but definitely loud enough to notice if you could indeed hear it. After determining to my satisfaction that I wasn't crazy, I deduced the noise was coming from some definite source. I asked my opponent if she could hear it, and she said no but wondered if it was her hearing aid. She turned it down and sure enough, the noise went away! Apparently I was the only one who could hear it.

    Two more occasions I heard the noise and immediately asked her to turn it down and it went away, so that pretty much confirmed the first time wasn't a fluke. I dunno exactly what was happening, but I figure the hearing aid was generating feedback when turned up too loud. After all they are just compact microphones and speakers.

    I tell you, when I heard this noise and I couldn't figure out what it was, I started to get really agitated. The agitation was to the point that where if someone heard it for a sustained long time they could seriously go insane or even try to kill themselves. It was bad. The sense of relief I felt when the noise was turned off was quite profound.

    So anyhow, I didn't RTFA but if they're talking about using this device on a long-term basis to keep teens away from somewhere, this is tantamount to torture. I think anybody considering using this for anything other than security in imminent danger (e.g. teens harassing you) deserves to lose the rest of their hearing too.

  • Today (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Jozer99 ( 693146 ) on Wednesday November 30, 2005 @12:36AM (#14144697)
    Today: Miracle Hypersonic siren drives away teens and children. Tomorrow: Modern teens going deaf, lets blame iPods.

  • Motivation?! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Maljin Jolt ( 746064 ) on Wednesday November 30, 2005 @12:49AM (#14144753) Journal
    by experimenting on his children

    I didn't considered *that* when I decided I shall have no children...

  • Two can play at that game: (Score:5, Funny)

    by Ralph Spoilsport ( 673134 ) on Wednesday November 30, 2005 @12:56AM (#14144783) Journal
    The Teenagers have Rap Music - it drives old people away.

    RS

  • Classical music works too (Score:4, Interesting)

    by jebiester ( 589234 ) on Wednesday November 30, 2005 @02:00AM (#14145047)
    A cinema in my town had the same problem with large groups of teenagers loitering at the entrance. Once they started playing nice classical music (not even loudly) they all dissappeared. I guess it was no longer a "cool" place to hang out any more. I think the makers of this device should have tried their first option, at least it's less iritating to customers.

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