The Sound of Safety?

Nostrada writes: "Gone are the days of mobile phones ringing with the latest and greatest melodies? Following this article, "A new sound that could revolutionise mobile telephones and safety alarms because it is less intrusive yet easy to pinpoint is being ordered worldwide after being developed by a British scientist." Anyone got some URLs for samples?"

Comments

More Information Regarding The Sound

[waldoj]

This British government site has some interesting information regarding pinpointable sound.

In principle, the alarm has to alert people and signal the direction of travel. The Localizer fulfils both these criteria. According to Deborah, 'There is only one type of sound that our brains can pinpoint, called 'white noise', like running water, the cracking of a twig or rustle of leaves. This is the sort of sound used since ancient times to pinpoint sound and avoid being eaten by prey.' So the Localizer siren uses short pulses of white noise, like radio static.

The article is about a University of Leeds audiologist that got a "Smart award" for developing a siren that's more easily pinpointed.

A sidenote. I read something about a year ago, but I just can't recall where. (I'll keep Googling, but I think I read it in Scientific American or something.) A fire department tested out one of these new sirens, and they worked splendidly in all the important ways...but one. Traffic could easily determine where the fire engine was coming from, the siren was easily heard, and that was all nice. The problem was that firemen have learned to associate the sound of the engine with excitement. So they arrived at fires unprepared, psychologically, and without the gusto to fight the fire. Weird, huh?

-Waldo

Re:More Information Regarding The Sound

[Incongruity]

This is the sort of sound used since ancient times to pinpoint sound and avoid being eaten by prey.

Yeah, I hate it when my prey gets noisy and decides to eat me.

Oh man. I'm sorry; that quote made me chuckle.

Re:Baby's Cry

[mlc]

Couldn't we make these things give a small (or large if you don't like cell phone users) electric shock to their owner? That way we wouldn't need to worry about any noise polution whatsoever.

They have already developed a similar (though somewhat less violent) thing... it's called vibrate mode. I leave my phone on vibrate, and it has the double benefit that:

• Other people aren't disturbed when someone calls me, and if I'm busy I can totally ignore the call without anyone else knowing.
• When someone else's phone rings, I know it's not mine, so I don't have to run around checking my phone to see if someone's calling me or not.

--
// mlc, user 16290

SBD? LBH?

[Mike Schiraldi]

A new sound ... that is less intrusive yet easy to pinpoint

Cellphones that fart. That's just great.

URL of stream

[inio]

Some spelunking through the mess of javascript turned up this:
http://mfile.akamai.com/2611/rm/twimedia.download. akamai.com/2611/2001/06/18/0000522955.rm
It plays at ~100kbit for me.

Re:Company website

[p3d0]

Ok, I found it. There's an interview video here, and it contains samples of the sound:

http://www.now.com/feature.now?javascript=dhtml&fi d=1922344&cid=1023695
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Chusssh Chusssh Chusssh

[jhoffoss]

"hearers of the new noise are virtually unable to resist turning to face the direction from which it is coming"

Gawd, can't wait until I can't resist turning to the prick sitting two seats down in a final exam who can't turn the ringer off.

On the plus side, I now know how to get my /. postings read by everyone: include "chusssh chusssh chusssh" in each message, then all /.ers will be irresistably drawn to my post!
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Baby's Cry

[jackal!]

They say a mother can tell exactly what a baby wants by it's whine. Maybe this would be a good basis for a phone ring sound. With just a peep a well trained ear can tell that marketing hit development over the head with the lego bucket again.

Ads

[Argy]

"Because hearers of the new noise are virtually unable to resist turning to face the direction from which it is coming, banks and shops are evaluating its potential for catching criminals."

Oh c'mon, if this works as well as he says, you know the main application will be advertising. Beer cans will be chusshh-chuusshh-chusshing from the aisles before a bank robber is ever caught looking at a chussh-chuush-chuushing security camera.

embarrassing?

[aozilla]

The new sound could also rid everyday life of one of its embarrassing moments, when everyone in a room searches for their mobile phone when just one rings.

And at a new embarrassing moment, when the entire room is unable to resist turning to face your crotch.

Re: Benefits of vibrating phones

[dazed-n-confused]

They have already developed a similar (though somewhat less violent) thing... it's called vibrate mode. I leave my phone on vibrate, and it has the double benefit that:

• Other people aren't disturbed when someone calls me, and if I'm busy I can totally ignore the call without anyone else knowing.
• When someone else's phone rings, I know it's not mine, so I don't have to run around checking my phone to see if someone's calling me or not.

There is, of course, a third benefit (for female customers), best illustrated at Jeffrey Zeldman's Ad Graveyard.

How long before we tune this one out?

[CritterNYC]

If it is actually put in all these different devices... how long do you think it'll be before we automatically tune this one out, too? Living in New York City, we learn to tune out a lot of annoying noises... like the ubiquitous multi-tone car alarms.

Re:chusssh-chusssh-chusssh, huh?

[grammar nazi]

Apparently this sound has some overwhelming draw to attract a human's attention and the best they can describe it is as "chusssh-chusssh-chusssh"?!

Have you ever deer hunted or do you go on walks in the country? Often a sharp quick whistle is all it takes to stop varmin dead in their tracks.

Although this doesn't always work for deer, it has occasionally worked for deer. It almost always stops rabbits, squirrels, and birds.

What you do is let out a sharp whistle as soon as the said varment is spooked, as it is running away. You'd be amazed how often the creature stops in its tracks and turns to look at you. Of course it might start running again after it notices you, but try it.

The article makes it sound like the chussh-chussh-chussh does something similar to humans. I think this might endanger more lives than it would save.