The Sonic Teenager Deterrent is an alarm that fits onto the sides of buildings that goes off when roudy, drunken teenagers are in the neighbourhood.
But only teenagers and young people can hear it - the older people and elderly in the neighbourhood cannot hear the sirens when they sound, meaning that teenagers will be scared off, but the older residents can live in peace.
Noises to annoy all the family
Lucy Mangan
Friday February 17, 2006
The Guardian
For those whose sadistic tendencies are not sated by the knowledge that the lout playing his iPod at an egregious volume is signing a delivery note for early-onset deafness and tinnitus, we bring you the Sonic Teenager Deterrent. It may sound like it comes straight from the Gene Roddenberry Futuristic But Slightly Unconvincing Weapons Department, but it is in fact a pretty accurate description of the device's modus operandi.
Invented by a former electronics apprentice at British Aerospace (now BAE Systems), the device emits an extremely high-pitched noise (16kHz) which sounds like a very angry insect (hence its nickname, the Mosquito) or, alternatively, a very badly played violin. Those who can hear it find it so uncomfortable that they have to leave the vicinity. However, it is so high pitched that only people under the age of 20 can hear it, thus making it ideal for driving disruptive teenagers out of shops.
There is a scientific explanation for this. "The ability to hear high-frequency sounds deteriorates from about the age of 18," explains Vicki Kirwin, an audiology specialist with the National Deaf Children's Society. "It's because of the delicacy of the hair cells in the cochlea, the inner ear, which detect them. We're all familiar with the concept of the elderly losing their hearing, but really it starts much younger. But it's only when it gets to a certain level and affects the frequency range we use in normal speech and communication - 500-4,000Hz - that we begin to notice it."
Shopkeepers were among the first to embrace the invention, but the police and local authorities are becoming increasingly alive to the possibilities offered by the system, which could be fitted in any trouble spots and switched on when suspicious hooded elements begin to gather.
But, even my aged ears can hear you ask, why stop there? Why indeed? Surely the world is crying out for a handheld, multigenerational version of the Mosquito that can, with a few recalibrations, be used to disperse whatever undesirables exist within one's immediate environment. Surrounded by clear-eyed, pink-livered, dewy-skinned twentysomethings? Set phaser to deliver at 14kHz the sound of parents offering advice on pensions, bank managers calling in £20,000 of student loans, and Tom Baker stage-whispering, "You feel the first dark and wretched stirrings of the fearsome, awful knowledge that your best years are already behind you and that it is from here nought but a long, slow march into the grave."
Suddenly playing host to a gaggle of braying thirtysomethings? Move the dial to 12Khz and deliver a 90-second blast of "Why do you stand here laughing while your ovaries shrivel and your sperm die in their thousands? Gottahaveababygottahaveababygottahaveababygottahaveababy."
A clutch of boring fortysomethings will scatter to the four winds rather than be zapped by "House prices? Holiday villas? Why don't you tell them how you haven't had sex for 10 years and spend your evenings dreaming about illegal adventures with your adolescent offspring's friends?"
Fiftysomethings can be sent rushing back to their homes and Basildon Bond by playing a fake recording of the controller of Radio 4 saying he's planning to torch Jenni Murray and replace the Archers theme tune with the sound of her screams and the crackling flames, while anyone over retirement age can be happily eased on their way if you pose them, at around the 10kHz mark, the question "What are you going to do? Continue to squander the rich array of opportunities offered to you by this uniquely bounteous planet as you have done for three-quarters of a lifetime, or spend the kids' inheritance instead? Do it, squander it - remember you're nearly dead, nearlydead, nearlydeadnearlydeadnearlydeadnearlydea ...".
guardian.co.uk
But only teenagers and young people can hear it - the older people and elderly in the neighbourhood cannot hear the sirens when they sound, meaning that teenagers will be scared off, but the older residents can live in peace.
Noises to annoy all the family
Lucy Mangan
Friday February 17, 2006
The Guardian
For those whose sadistic tendencies are not sated by the knowledge that the lout playing his iPod at an egregious volume is signing a delivery note for early-onset deafness and tinnitus, we bring you the Sonic Teenager Deterrent. It may sound like it comes straight from the Gene Roddenberry Futuristic But Slightly Unconvincing Weapons Department, but it is in fact a pretty accurate description of the device's modus operandi.
Invented by a former electronics apprentice at British Aerospace (now BAE Systems), the device emits an extremely high-pitched noise (16kHz) which sounds like a very angry insect (hence its nickname, the Mosquito) or, alternatively, a very badly played violin. Those who can hear it find it so uncomfortable that they have to leave the vicinity. However, it is so high pitched that only people under the age of 20 can hear it, thus making it ideal for driving disruptive teenagers out of shops.
There is a scientific explanation for this. "The ability to hear high-frequency sounds deteriorates from about the age of 18," explains Vicki Kirwin, an audiology specialist with the National Deaf Children's Society. "It's because of the delicacy of the hair cells in the cochlea, the inner ear, which detect them. We're all familiar with the concept of the elderly losing their hearing, but really it starts much younger. But it's only when it gets to a certain level and affects the frequency range we use in normal speech and communication - 500-4,000Hz - that we begin to notice it."
Shopkeepers were among the first to embrace the invention, but the police and local authorities are becoming increasingly alive to the possibilities offered by the system, which could be fitted in any trouble spots and switched on when suspicious hooded elements begin to gather.
But, even my aged ears can hear you ask, why stop there? Why indeed? Surely the world is crying out for a handheld, multigenerational version of the Mosquito that can, with a few recalibrations, be used to disperse whatever undesirables exist within one's immediate environment. Surrounded by clear-eyed, pink-livered, dewy-skinned twentysomethings? Set phaser to deliver at 14kHz the sound of parents offering advice on pensions, bank managers calling in £20,000 of student loans, and Tom Baker stage-whispering, "You feel the first dark and wretched stirrings of the fearsome, awful knowledge that your best years are already behind you and that it is from here nought but a long, slow march into the grave."
Suddenly playing host to a gaggle of braying thirtysomethings? Move the dial to 12Khz and deliver a 90-second blast of "Why do you stand here laughing while your ovaries shrivel and your sperm die in their thousands? Gottahaveababygottahaveababygottahaveababygottahaveababy."
A clutch of boring fortysomethings will scatter to the four winds rather than be zapped by "House prices? Holiday villas? Why don't you tell them how you haven't had sex for 10 years and spend your evenings dreaming about illegal adventures with your adolescent offspring's friends?"
Fiftysomethings can be sent rushing back to their homes and Basildon Bond by playing a fake recording of the controller of Radio 4 saying he's planning to torch Jenni Murray and replace the Archers theme tune with the sound of her screams and the crackling flames, while anyone over retirement age can be happily eased on their way if you pose them, at around the 10kHz mark, the question "What are you going to do? Continue to squander the rich array of opportunities offered to you by this uniquely bounteous planet as you have done for three-quarters of a lifetime, or spend the kids' inheritance instead? Do it, squander it - remember you're nearly dead, nearlydead, nearlydeadnearlydeadnearlydeadnearlydea ...".
guardian.co.uk
