What's the Buzz? Rowdy Teenagers Don't Want to Hear It

New York Times ^ | 11/29/05 | Sarah Lyall

[saquin]

BARRY, Wales - Though he did not know it at the time, the idea came to Howard Stapleton when he was 12 and visiting a factory with his father, a manufacturing executive in London. Opening the door to a room where workers were using high-frequency welding equipment, he found he could not bear to go inside.

"The noise!" he complained.

"What noise?" the grownups asked.

Now 39, Mr. Stapleton has taken the lesson he learned that day - that children can hear sounds at higher frequencies than adults can - to fashion a novel device that he hopes will provide a solution to the eternal problem of obstreperous teenagers who hang around outside stores and cause trouble.

The device, called the Mosquito ("It's small and annoying," Mr. Stapleton said), emits a high-frequency pulsing sound that, he says, can be heard by most people younger than 20 and almost no one older than 30. The sound is designed to so irritate young people that after several minutes, they cannot stand it and go away.

So far, the Mosquito has been road-tested in only one place, at the entrance to the Spar convenience store in this town in South Wales. Like birds perched on telephone wires, surly teenagers used to plant themselves on the railings just outside the door, smoking, drinking, shouting rude words at customers and making regular disruptive forays inside.

[...]

...last month, Mr. Stapleton gave him a Mosquito for a free trial. The results were almost instantaneous. It was as if someone had used anti-teenager spray around the entrance, the way you might spray your sofas to keep pets off. Where disaffected youths used to congregate, now there is no one.

[caryatid]

There should be infinite demand for this innovative device. LOL

[Slings and Arrows]

I'll take a dozen.

[AgThorn]

fascinating .... this guy will make a fortune - hope he gets his patents right.

[Talking_Mouse]

I think it sounds great :-) . However I know that somehow the liberals will say this discriminates against teenagers.

[DUBYAisconsin]

Can't "invent" Mozart.

[Prime Choice]

Oh, I need that. I'll take a dozen!

[Natty Bumppo@frontier.net]

In another life I worked in a secure facility that used ultrasonic technology as part of the alarm system sensors. Most of us had spent way to much time around carrier aviation and had hearing loss of one form or another. However, our intel officer was in her twenties and had not deployed aboard an aircraft carrier yet.

When we closed up shop at night, if one of us armed the alarm system before she left the room we would be treated to a genuine yelp of pain. She likened it to a thousand fingernails on a chalkboard.

I imagine the technology and effect of this device to be similar. I can't wait for the local Radio Shack to stock them. I wonder if there will be a vehicle mounted version to compete with the kid in the car next to me who is using oversized subwoofers and bass speakers to compensate for his lack of intelligence and underdeveloped manhood.

[mmercier]

>> Can't "invent" Mozart.

Mozart is also a teen repellent I have found.

[Fierce Allegiance]

Will it work for my entire house, or do I need more than one to drive my teens out?

[Lloyd227]

Absolutely precious! But, I'm afraid the ACLU will be along within ten minutes of any American business actually installing this device.

[RandallFlagg]

LOL!! At last! A retaliatory device against gangsta thump-mobiles cruising the neighborhood at one AM.

[Fresh Wind]

A good idea, but this technique probably won't be effective once they get ipods grafted to their ears.