Did Your Code Ever Make Anyone Deaf?

theodp writes "Siemens AG anticipates additional costs from a software problem with new mobile phones that has led retailers to suspend sales. Five models of its new 65 series can emit a piercing melody into users' ears if the battery fails during a call, causing hearing damage in extreme cases, according to a statement."

Comments

No, but..

[Anonymous Coward]

it.slashdot.org made me blind.

Re:No, but..

[Anonymous Coward]

I love you.

No...

[ebrandsberg]

But if they looked at it they could have gone blind. Seriously, I've seen some messed up code, but deaf?

Re:No...

[PeterPumpkin]

"Hearing damage" is sort of ambiguous I guess. You can lose your hearing in very small increments, only noticable over months or years of exposure. I doubt the phone would be able to output enough of a blast to take out your eardrums.

Re:No...

[gl4ss]

the thing is that you have the phone pressed against your ear, speaking to someone and *beep* it makes a sound you would hear to the next room.

it's a stupid double idiotic design issue, first a) the phone makes a very irritating noise when it's battery goes out(meaning that actually the phone turns off itself long before the batt is really really empty, now they might have some reasons like reducing memory corruption, preserving the batt health or something like that) but the second design flaw is the more stupid one: it makes that shutdown noise even if you're making a call(and the batt runs low).

personally I'd rather have the phone go down in silence and IF there's _any_ juice left let the phone wait untill the call is finished before turning off in a controlled fashion(also, it's less annoying if it just goes off without all the racket).

Where's the QA

[Anonymous Coward]

Seems like a simple test case to me: battery fails during a call.

Re:Where's the QA

[eln]

Well, if you keep your batteries charged at least halfway at all times, the phone is far more likely to burn your ear off before you get to this condition anyway. Most cell phones generate enough heat for you to want to end the call quickly far before this particular condition occurs.

Having said that, I've certainly had cell phones whose "low battery" beeps can be pretty damn ear-splitting when they happen when you're in the middle of a call, but I've never had one that could actually make you deaf.

Re:Where's the QA

[Anonymous Coward]

low battery" beeps can be pretty damn ear-splitting when they happen when you're in the middle of a call

Actually, I think you will find that the low battery beeps tend to occur at the end of your call. I.R. Pedant.

Verizon Wireless

[968134]

Can you hear me now? What?

Re:Verizon Wireless

[Adam9]

Can you hear me now?

Testing.

[hot_Karls_bad_cavern]

i know you can't cover every corner case, but, er a cell phone hitting low battery is not what i'd consider a corner case. Now, if there was 3rd party this or that crammed in there after the fact (ie customer did that crap), now way to forsee that, but damn....hearing damage? C'mon, if i had to choose one of two options:

a) batt low, be fucking LOUD to warn of it..
b> batt low, warn, beep, blink, flash, beep more...and then even more...

hell, beep that ass off, but loud enough to damage one's ear? Fuck that. No one to blame, but the dudes that made it...period.

Re:Testing.

[Nos.]

That's just it, wouldn't your low battery indicator be one of the things you would test? Even if it wasn't, if they had done enough testing and betas with staff, they would have run into that problem before releasing it to the customer. Guess speed to market is more important than quality, or in this case, safety.

Can you hear me now?

[Bill_Royle]

Good.

Sucks for Siemens. Heh... a twofer!

Hearing damage = deaf

[Capt'n Hector]

Any time your ears ring, it's "hearing damage". I play violin, and whenever I practice, and for a few hours afterword, I get a noticable ringing in my ears. It actually doesn't go away fully, I can always hear this ringing (sometimes a lower frequency buzzing) at night. This is hearing damage, but I'm not deaf. However, if this were caused by a cellpone, you bet I'd be suing.

Re:Hearing damage = deaf

[AlphaPB]

The quiet buzzing when you're in a silent place is actually caused by the sound-sensitive cilia in your inner ear vibrating of their own accord when they don't have any external stimulation. This is a normal phenomenon.

Of course, this is different from the kind of hearing damage that you're referring to. Maybe you should wear earplugs while practising. I wear them at rock concerts. You ought to look into musician's plugs, which have specially tuned noise-dampening responses that are consistent in how they reduce noise levels at various frequencies.

Re:Hearing damage = deaf

[obi-1-kenobi]

Its called Tinnitus.
I have tinnitus
(I used to have it then it went away... then I was exposed to more loud noises and it came back)

I went to a Tinnitus specialist (Ear Nose and throat) and got my hearing tested. I have an above average hearing. However I hear ringing in my ears. After you are exposed to loud noise (usually amplified music) sometimes you can hear a almost like putting your ear on a shell... Its like a blowing noise...
(people who go clubbing know this)

This initial noise can go away... However sometimes if you are stressed out your mind will hear this noise and it will asume that you need to hear it. Because thoes actual hairs in your ear are now damanged and your mind keeps the sound. Then you will hear the 'ringing noise' in your ears when there is no other noise avaliable.

This old Russian doctor who I saw told me this:
"your brain is like a computer, there is no problem with your hardware, this is a software error. You need to learn how to ignore it" (this guy was like 70 years old, really neat old guy)

The only way to stop it is to releax and have a background noise. If you pay attention to the noise you will get extremely stressed out and it will become worse.

Your ears will also become more sensitive to louder noises, not really its just that you think to your self loud noise bad.

NOW the reason people listen (like loud music), your brain percieves the pain in your ears due to the loud noise. It then releases a chemical in your brain that is similar to morphine.
(according to the doctor)

Re:Hearing damage = deaf

[eliza_effect]

A drummer friend of mine has these. They were custom -molded to his ears, and I think they were around $300 AFAIK. High price aside, he said they've pretty much saved his hearing, as he can hear everything just about as clearly as normal, however, most of the harmful frequencies are blocked. You can literally have them in and hear someone wisper, and then go play the drums without hurting yourself.

Re:Hearing damage = deaf

[silentbozo]

There's a broad selection of musician's earplugs that preserve a select set of frequencies to aid in pitch transmission, while blocking the majority of the energy in the soundwaves.

I always keep a pair of regular hearos with me - you never know when you'll need em (for example, you end up having to spend more than a few hours servicing equipment in a noisy server room, you want to catch a nap and want to block out noise, you decide to take a trip out to the range and need hearing protection.)

Maximum volume

[whereiswaldo]

What is the maximum volume on this phone? Why not just cap the volume at a non-hearing-threatening level and be done with it? If they don't do that, isn't it just a matter of someone cranking the volume too loud, or is the low battery warning allowed to exceed the regular max. volume level?

Re:Maximum volume

[Flexagon]

Didn't even old 500 phones have a current limiter across the earpiece to prevent just this sort of thing? (I.e., a phone ring voltage somehow arriving while the handset is at your ear.) This isn't a new problem.

Funniest thing

[cablepokerface]

My gf bought one of these things a couple of days ago, when this statement was released the Dutch news networks thought it was important enough to put in the news on the radio. So I heard it driving home from work.

The first thing I did when I got home was telling the misses that that tune she always hears when the phone is actually ringing on the other side (when every phone user already has the thing to his ear) was not here to stay.

I am not sure if this is how it's done with every Siemens but with her it was menu option 3.8.3 (or Sound Options -> Other Tunes -> Connection Tune (on/off). Get rid of it.

Misread

[xsupergr0verx]

I thought it said "Did Your Code Ever Make Anyone Dead?"

That time will come, but first the killer robots need some touching up around the joints...

Mobile Phone Usage

[Detritus]

However, this danger can only arise if the mobile phone is held up directly to the ear while the melody is playing.

Gee whiz, what are the chances of a user holding a mobile phone next to their ear? I always keep mine strapped to my elbow.

Let that be a lesson

[Insurgent2]

That's what happens when you outsource the hardware to Singapore and the software to India.
"Soft beep" in Mandarin probably translates to "Loud, deafening tone" in Hindi.

How many dbs? Frequency?

[Shant3030]

Anyone know the db and frequency of any of the ring tones?

Could not find the info. Purposelly withheld from the articles?

Design Defect

[Detritus]

The driver and transducer should have been selected so that there was no possibility of dangerous sound levels, no matter what the software decided to do.

My professor...

[A1miras]

Often upon seeing my solutions to the labs in my first programming class, the Professor would let out a shriek that caused hearing damage to virtually everyone within a 3 mile radius and killed several Koi fish in a nearby pond.

What the..?

[Azureflare]

Does the hardware for these phones not have a built in filter to protect the user from this type of thing?

Isn't there hardware in these devices that prevents very loud noises/extremely high pitched noise? I mean, how hard is it to put a volume hardware filter on these devices. There's no reason to have something as loud or as high pitched as was being described, is there?

As a side note, what if an mp3 is corrupted on my mp3 player and the corrupted data causes an extremely high-pitched tone to be emitted for a long duration...? Do mp3 players have hardware (like a volume filter, or a high pass filter) that would prevent me from going deaf?

Only after three tries

[RollingThunder]

The story on El Reg has a bit of helpful information (emphasis mine):

The flaw affects version 11 of the software of the C65, CX65, M65, S65 model phones, and then only if the phone has already issued three low-battery warnings.

With the "only after three" it sounds like this was meant a 'feature' where they assumed that if you didn't do something after the first three beeps, it must be in your pocket or somewhere else you can't hear it - so crank up the volume.

Obviously, they forgot that people won't immediately end their calls - rather, they'll stay on the call, because their phone is about to die, and they want to get as much info across before it kicks the bucket.

An idea

[Teahouse]

Here's a horrible idea I know some l33t3r is probably working on right now. How about a worm that makes the screen strobe-flash red? I wonder how many poor kids some idiot programmer is going to put into convlusions to prove they have skills. Infect 1 million computers with this, and you can expect at least 100 seizures. You know someone is working on it.

No, but...

[precogpunk]

I had a user complain that my website gave them a hairy palm.

New Poll

[Anonymous Coward]

Does it.slashdot.org make you

[ ] Happy
[ ] Sad
[ ] Nauseated
[ ] Suicidal
[ ] Manic
[ ] Blind
[ ] Anonymous Coward
[ ] Cowboyneal

Re:Software errors also cost lives

[PitaBred]

Most software CLAIMS to be exempt. There are cases where it can be liable, especially when it's marketed to a specific purpose and fails. Kinda like those "Not responsible for broken windshields" signs on the back of dump trucks... they may say they aren't responsible, but at least in my state, they're responsible if they didn't secure their load correctly and a rock comes off and breaks my windshield.

I've got a new M65...

[Zarathustra.fi]

And it's software is a piece of crap, full of bugs! I know there're software updates out there, but conveniently Siemens didn't supply the phone with a data cable. But hey, I could buy it for 30 euros! Brilliant, I can buy myself a right to patch the phone!! Or, as it turned out, I could find the single provider in my home town who's able to patch the phone. Though, I'm not sure if it's cost free even there..

Enough of personal whine, here're some of the most annoying bugs and misfeatures:

- The sounds are really loud, even in their lowest setting.
- Software crashes if I try to read SMS messages through a shortcut interface. Instead, I must go carefully through few extra menus not to crash the system.
- GUI jams if I cancel a call just after I dialed it in
- The battery dies in just a few days' casual use
- Sometimes during battery charging the screen backlight hangs on, so when you pick up your phone, the backlight has used all the power in the battery and it's all out again.

So, these are the "few" little bugs I'm experiencing. My previous phone was not totally bug free itself, but those few little hickups were nothing considered to these MAJOR bugs Siemens let in the wild with a crappy software on a good looking phone!

The laws of acoustics and hearing damage

[incog8723]

I submitted a comment accidentally without the proper references, but basically, OSHA says that

Sound level:
Maximum allowable duration per day
100 dB: 2 hours
102 dB: 1½ hour
105 dB: 1 hour
110 dB: ½ hour
115 dB: ¼ hour or less

Reference: http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_docum ent?p_table=STANDARDS&p_id=9735

So, unless your cellphone is expressing 115db ringtones, for over 15 minutes, and you're STILL listening to it, you have nothing to worry about. DUH!!!!!! This is a case of hot coffee from McDonalds. If you're having a painful noise injected into your ear, you remove yourself from the source. Hot coffee is even MORE of a reason to sue than this. WAKE UP PEOPLE.

Re:The laws of acoustics and hearing damage

[Idarubicin]

So, unless your cellphone is expressing 115db ringtones, for over 15 minutes, and you're STILL listening to it, you have nothing to worry about. DUH!!!!!!

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Some rough guesstimates--I'm in a bit of a hurry this morning, and someone is welcome to do a sanity check.

Say the phone rings at perceived 85 dB when it's on your belt or in your pocket. That's loud enough to be heard over most traffic downtown, though you would likely miss it if a truck was going by. Figure the phone is one meter (a little over three feet) away from your eardrum.

When the phone is at your ear, the speaker is maybe three centimeters (about an inch) from your eardrum. That's a reduction in distance by a factor of around thirty or so. Since sound intensity follows an inverse square relation, you're looking at about a thousand times as much intensity. The decibel scale is logarithmic, so that's an extra 30 dB right there, putting us at 115 dB.

If the phone is a little louder than that initial estimate, or held slightly closer to the ear, we're moving towards 120 dB and up. Even if it's not doing permanent harm, those sounds are loud enough to be physically painful at short durations, especially if the person is listening intently and not expecting to be blasted. The startle response that's prompted could also be harmful.

Ericsson And Sony-Ericss phones have similar flaws

[djace]

I've owned an Ericsson phone, and it had a similar flaw. After hitting the Automatically Redial option when a number is busy, when the phone is able to go thru, it plays a LOUD tone. And, this is done even when the phone is on "Silent" mode. Newer Sony-Ericsson models only do this when the "Silent" mode is off. Even though, nowhere in the manual does it say that you should NOT hold the phone next to your ear when using the Automatically Redial option.

Re:Mod parent down!

[jb.hl.com]

My advice; ignore any link on this whole fucking site with the word "goat" or "tub" in the URL.

That fixes it.

Possible explanation here

[Archimonde]

Older siemens mobile phones had two speakers. One was normal speaker and the other was just for ringing. When batteries reached minimum the ringing speaker sounded with ear piercing beeps but fortunately the speaker was placed on the side of the phone.

Todays phones have one speaker for both communication and ringing. So siemens probably sticked to their software design and implemented it in the modern phones. The result is obviously not so satisfying considering those high pitched tones resonating in your ear.

Example of bad sound code...

[feidaykin]

I was using a friend's computer... this friend just happened to have the fancy Klipsch THX certified speakers, which cost a pretty penny... Anyway, we got to talking about old DOS games and this one called "Acid Tetris" came to mind, and for nostalgia purposes, we decided to download it. My friend was a little concerned something "bad" would happen running such an old DOS game in XP, but I was confident since I've run games like Dune II without any major issues, and besides, the worst that can happen is it just won't work... right?

So, so very wrong. The instant it opened an eardrum-shattering scream let loose through the mighty, three figure dollar amount speakers. I instantly closed out the game only to find that a persistent buzzing sound was present. At this point I think my friend stopped breathing (fearing the speakers were totally ruined) and I thought, hey no big deal, I'll just reboot. Buzz sound was still there. Well no big deal, let's just power down and unplug everything. Buzz sound still there. I didn't think it was that bad, but this nameless friend of mine couldn't stand it and bought new speakers.

And I now have a pair of Klipsch speakers that make a rather obnoxious buzzing noise. But they were free! So, in a sense, this bad sound code that almost ruined these speakers (they're worthless in dollar terms, no way I could sell them on eBay, etc) also provided me with free speakers that I never would have bought with my own funds.

I must therefore both curse and thank the developers of Acid Tetris, and more likely the folks in charge of backwards compatibility at Microsoft, and my own stupid self for running an old program and trusting XP to not bork itself.

If you've read this whole thing you're a brave, yet sad soul... but stay tuned for further adventures in computing with your hero(or nemesis?), the one and only Michael "Mad" Raymer!

Re:Example of bad sound code...

[Zone-MR]

It sounds like your friend hadn't set the volume levels correctly.

Most likely, the speakers were set to a very high volume, and this was compensated for by setting the volume level on Windows XP very low. The old DOS game ignored the WinXP volume level, and produced the maximum output the sound card was capable of.

If the speakers were set to produce a loud but non-destructive level of sound at the soundcards maximum output, this would never have happened. However badly the game was designed, it could not have made the soundcard produce an output higher than 5V pk-pk

It isn't like you don't have TWO ears

[The Other White Meat]

Frankly, I do not see what the problem is.

As the owner of a Siemens Series 65 phone, you have the responsibility to care for it. If you didn't feed your child, it would cry loudly, would it not?

That the Siemens Series 65 phone emits an ear bleeding shreak when starved for energy (and obviously attention as well) is just survival of the fittest. Other phones may be regularly left to starve until shutdown, but with the Siemens, that is likely to never happen a second time.

I for one welcome our ear destroying, power requiring, attention demanding Cellular Overlord®.

Olden Code

[MykeBNY]

I'm surprised some of the code from olden days hasn't made anyone deaf yet, with all that shouting..

10 REM HELLO WORLD
20 CLS
30 PRINT "HELLO WORLD!" .. okay, bad joke..

Safety engineering can crop up anywhere

[Beryllium Sphere(tm)]

You'd expect your code to be safety-critical on a jetliner or a radiation therapy machine, but would it occur to you to worry about danger to humans in a cell phone UI?

This makes at least two places that cell phone embedded software has safety implications. The other is charge control on lithium batteries: a lithium fire in your pocket is enough to ruin your whole day.

No, but it can kill chickens

[ChopsMIDI]

From the borland Turbo C++ 3.0 help file for the function "sound()".

/* True story: 7 Hz is the resonant
frequency of a chicken's skull cavity.
This was determined empirically in
Australia, where a new factory
generating 7-Hz tones was located too
close to a chicken ranch: When the
factory started up, all the chickens
died.

Your PC may not be able to emit a 7-Hz tone. */

#include <dos.h>

int main(void)
{
sound(7);
delay(10000);
nosound();
return 0;
}