[Gllug] Yoof got mail

[David L Neil Mailing list a/c]

j.roberts wrote:
> Perhaps unwisely, taking this seriously (yes it's Friday)...

=actually it is a real enquiry, although I can't believe I'm doing it...
(do I win the 'weirdest question of the week' award?)


> David L Neil Mailing list a/c wrote:
>> Is a PC's built-in speaker able to produce sound at frequencies above
>> the capacity of the average adult, but within that of a young person, to
>> hear - and are such 'you got mail' messages available on the web?
> No.
> 
> The typical small speaker used has an effective HF limit in the low kHz, 
> say 8-10kHz, and is a good 10dB down by then. I've tested them.

=that's what I guessed - see also reply to Alistair.


> The even-smaller piezoelectric or magnetic units found in newer Dell or 
> HP machines have an even lower limit.

=yet if they work as claimed, the ?piezo transducer in cell phones must
have a better range...


> ...
> 
>> Apparently 'the kids at school' had a wheeze of a cell phone ring tone
>> which ran only at a high frequency - and thus they were able to receive
>> SMS even after the teacher/school had banned such, simply because they
>> could hear the clarion call whereas the adults remained oblivious...
> 
> I suppose this is meant:
> http://www.teenbuzz.org/

=yes, suppose so. Thanks!


> Teacher was probably a bit deaf. Hearing varies between individuals, I 
> (at 58, but an ex-studio-desk engineer and producer) can still detect 
> presence/absence of 16kHz.

=don't you have to be deaf to survive the roar that passes for a
studious class room these days?


> Age-related hearing loss is complex and variable. There is no simple 
> graph available for this. Best I can do is:
> 
> http://www.usouthal.edu/alliedhealth/speechandhearing/ramkissoon/AUD643_Aging/stenklev_2004.pdf

=I agree, and can so attest (again, see earlier reply).

=However I guess if you have a phone next to you, the volume would have
to be quite high to reach the front of a class room, and yet not need to
be v.high to attract the owner's attention.

=I used to have radios on around me all the time, and maybe multiple
units. They were turned down so as not to be too intrusive, yet if my
call-sign came through, my mind would pick it up 'just like that' - most
times even if I was asleep. So it's not just audiology!


> OTOH I have tested would-be sound engineers who were deaf above 10kHz at 
> 22 years old - don't turn your headphones up too high, kids!
> http://www.abelard.org/hear/hear.php

=yes, I have tests on tertiary students showing selected frequency
hearing loss-differences during the short space of one academic year.
These surveys were done over two decades ago, back in the early days of
the Sony Walkman and the increasing trend for putting pips in your ears
to shut out the real world...


> Given any typical audio system it should be feasible to let out an HF 
> mail yell in the range above 16 or 18kHz which most people older than 3 
> will not be likely to hear.

=dog got mail?


> Implementation is left as an exercise for the demented or desperate...
> :)

=ah well, it's sufficiently stupid to amuse me whilst I sort out the
mind-numbing aforementioned WinXP mess, so generously passed on by my
client...

=Nope, strike that, time to go to pick up the CO from her hospital
operation - via the video library...

=Regards,
=dn
(less Tom Hanks and more Forrest Gump...)

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