Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: busy

Ultrasonic Ringtones

Long ago, I learned that my hearing range is far wider than human norm. So I saw this page and just had to test all the ringtones. I should have remembered that 1) ultrasonic sounds give me a headache, and 2) pushing the envelope too far away from human norm makes it hard to snap back to my usual configuration, which is more or less within a stone's throw of it. But oh, the results were fascinating.

I can hear them all. That's over the roaring of the computer fan. The test says:

You are a dog
Or maybe you are a mosquito, you certainly can't be human.

The highest pitched ultrasonic mosquito ringtone that I can hear is 21.1kHz
Find out which ultrasonic ringtones you can hear!


The first four are loud to me. A couple of them are typical of noise emitted by electronics, which is why I avoid arcades and enertainment departments. Surveillance cameras are ear-splitting; sirens are miserable.

A# and B are quiet but notable.

C and C# are barely audible; I have to concentrate to hear them.

D is oddly more like a whirr than a whine. D# I can hardly hear at all. I probably wouldn't hear these if I wasn't really trying to.

E is a buzz and louder than several of the recent ones.

F is a blank file, intended to be soundless. But my computer's speakers, for whatever reason, are responding to it somehow, because I can hear them going on and off. Go figure.

I even tried playing these soundfiles with my eyes closed; I could still tell when they turned on and off.

If you think they're cool and you want to download one for your cell phone? Please don't. You could hurt someone. Kids and dogs don't necessarily have the option of getting away from your ringer, and adult hearers may not realize the source of distress.
Tags: personal, science
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  • 2 comments
mtrose2

Yeah, I can hear them too

mtrose2

March 19 2008, 04:34:25 UTC 13 years ago

Up to C is really easy to hear. C sharp through E I can hear the start-stop just fine, but have to really concentrate to hear the tone itself. F... there's no start-stop, and I'm not even sure what I hear, but sure enough, I close my eyes and I can tell when the thing stops. Which I guess explains why I can hear things like "Oh, the TV is on", and why I sometimes find the buzz of my computer really annoying when I notice it.

Once, my sister, stepsister, and I were all walking into the living room, and the TV was on, but the screen was dark.

My sister: "Oh, the TV is on." Goes to turn it off.
Stepsister frowns: "How can you tell?"
My sister and I both turn to look at her in surprise: "You can't hear it?"
Stepsister: "Ummmm... no."
ysabetwordsmith

Re: Yeah, I can hear them too

ysabetwordsmith

March 19 2008, 04:44:05 UTC 13 years ago

That is routinely how I can tell that something has been left on: the sound.

I can sometimes hear bats, too -- clicks and squeaks and chirps. But with them I can't tell what is ultrasonic and what's not, because they make both kinds of sounds.