• Vancouver schools to fight vandalism with teen-repelling sound device
    67 replies, posted
[img]http://nationalpostnews.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/mosquito1.jpg?w=620[/img] [quote]After a string of arson attacks on Lower Mainland schools, the Vancouver School Board is fast-tracking plans to reintroduce the Mosquito, a controversial device that wards off teenagers using a shrill noise that only they can hear. “As long as you’re putting it on private property — which is what school board property is — and you’re doing it in an open, informed way, it’s fine,” said Vancouver school trustee Mike Lombardi, noting that Vancouver schools are hit with $500,000 in vandalism per year. Invented in the U.K., the Mosquito exploits the gradual degradation of the human ear to zero in on a frequency that can only be heard by people between the ages of 13 and 25. Although the sound is imperceptible to adults, to teenagers it is often described as “nails on a chalkboard.” School board maintenance staff had installed 33 of the units by March, before complaints from neighbours and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association prompted trustees to order them all switched off. In the weeks since, Kerrisdale Annex, an elementary school that had been equipped with the devices, had its playground charred by vandals. Over the Victoria Day weekend, vandals broke windows at another elementary school and launched an incendiary device into a classroom, causing some smoke damage. Fires aside, Silise Lebedovich, a parent of students at Kerrisdale, told Vancouver media in early May that disabling the devices had had an immediate effect on playground safety. “The children have a right to go to school on Monday morning and not sidestep human feces, avoid needles, or see graffiti,” she told Postmedia. To be put before a school board committee Tuesday night, the proposal to reactivate the devices comes with an official thumbs-up from Vancouver Coastal Health, as well as a legal endorsement from the Board’s lawyers. “Assuming that access to school property during the night is not a service customarily made available to any member of the public, there doesn’t appear to be any basis for a complaint of discrimination under the Human Rights Code,” reads an opinion by Vancouver-based law firm Harris and Company. The devices can only be switched on between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., and must be surrounded by proper signage “to make sure there’s no misunderstanding,” said Mr. Lombardi. Others remain unconvinced. “I don’t understand how any lawyer could come to the conclusion that a government could punish youth differently than an adult,” said David Eby, executive director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association. In a recent op-ed, Mr. Eby warned that the effectiveness of the device may soon make it irresistible for a myriad of teen-plagued businesses — transforming urban areas into a landscape of “extremely annoying noise pollution” for teenagers. “If they’re good enough for schools, why not out front of all urban liquor stores, convenience stores, and fast food restaurants?” he wrote. The technology is certainly gaining ground. “Sales are increasing every year; this year we’ll do $800,000 of Mosquitoes,” said Mike Gibson, president of Vancouver-based Moving Sound Technologies, which manages North American sales of the device. A single Mosquito retails for $1100. At the Nanaimo Aquatic Centre in Nanaimo, B.C., the device was installed to clear crowds of teens blocking the front door: When the gaggle gets too thick, staff simply hit them with a five-minute burst from the Mosquito. “It doesn’t make them bolt and run, it just creates an annoying sound,” said Mark Demecha, Nanaimo’s manager of civic facilities. “It’s funny, when we first got it, we turned it on and you could immediately see the teenager’s heads move.” Although it is marketed as a “ultrasonic anti-loitering teen deterrent,” the Mosquito can be toggled to play slightly lower frequencies to target loiterers as old as 65. The problem, said Mr. Gibson, is that the lower frequencies cannot be as acutely focused as the teen-only sound beams, and are more likely to bounce onto neighbouring properties. Of course, teens can easily “beat” the device by wearing earplugs or an iPod at medium volume. In the U.K., high school students have even used the technology to their advantage by configuring their cell phones with teacher-proof ultrasonic ring tones. “All the kids were laughing about something, but I didn’t know what,” a Welsh schoolteacher told the website Gadget Spy in 2006. Still, Mr. Gibson maintains the Mosquito can still squash the appeal of a shadowy hangout spot. “Kids aren’t going to want to hang out and not talk to their friends.”[/quote] [url=http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/06/05/vancouver-schools-to-fight-vandalism-with-teen-repelling-sound-device/]**SPRUCE**[/url] I can't find the article now but part of the reason they also initially turned them off was because someone was ripping them down and smashing the windows at one school. I know the things and I fucking hate them and to boot, I'm 22 and out of their effective age range so it's not easy to file a complaint. I'm sure there's a lot of people out there too who are in the same boat. [quote]A single Mosquito retails for $1100.[/quote] If you're paying over $1000 for a noise maker, you sure as hell didn't shop around. No wonder the district is always crying for more money. They don't know how to spend it.
So many jokes can be made here. I'm just going to kick back, and relax whilst eating my doritos
[quote]A single Mosquito retails for $1100.[/quote] [quote]A single pair of earplugs retails for $2[/quote] Sometimes the high-tech solution isn't the best. [editline]6th June 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=MIPS;36219542] If you're paying over $1000 for a noise maker, you sure as hell didn't shop around[/QUOTE] Well it's clearly highly specialized technology... [quote]configuring their cell phones with teacher-proof ultrasonic ring tones.[/quote]
Fuck these things, they have these in some places to get rid of scum that hangs out around parks and shit. They work really well, except if you live near one of em, I can hear the fuckers 50 meters away and oh my god it hurts my ears.
Look at the face of that man in the picture, he's like Wacchu gonna do now huh?
I think they may be overestimating its capabilities by just a bit.
They should just play elvis loudly.
I have tinnitus, what are they gonna do now? :v:
this is so fucking late
If I ever go near one of those things my ears are actually gonna start bleed, no jesting.
I already destroyed my ears through sex, drugs, and rock and roll. These mosquitos shall have no effect on me! I'm not a vandalizing teenager, though.
I actually used to fuck with my friends with something like this. It never bothered me though.
Dont they know this wont work? You need to constantly play Safety Dance to ward people off.
[QUOTE=kenshin6;36220073]Dont they know this wont work? You need to constantly play Safety Dance to ward people off.[/QUOTE] That will just form an awkward crowd of people looking at their hands.
[QUOTE=MIPS;36219542]I know the things and I fucking hate them and to boot, I'm 22 and out of their effective age range so it's not easy to file a complaint. I'm sure there's a lot of people out there too who are in the same boat.[/QUOTE] The hilarious thing is, these don't actually work. There's no scientific reason why they would. The reason they cost so much is because all sound emitting devices are subject to a lot of various types of mechanical imperfections. The "ideal" sound emitter is a physically ridiculous device. If you look at a test of a loudspeaker playing a simple sin wave sweep you'll see a pattern of intensity that wobbles and woobles all over the place, and is generally ass to control. As the frequency a device is emitting gets smaller, that broadcast pattern gets narrower, almost like a piston of air. You also use small transducers to produce those small frequencies, which means the device has to consist of dozens of tiny little "sound needles". Those have to be spaced in such a way to reduce any constructive interference in the frequencies it's accidentally outputting, while still outputting a usable broadcast pattern. There's also the fact that amplifying a sound to drive it through a loudspeaker produces at least some distortion, so there's a bit of scratch going into a low-noise circuit. Now, let's dismiss the first two flaws of human hearing that render this device dangerous to the wrong parties- that independent of your ability to "hear" high frequencies, you can [I]feel[/I] them, and that human hearing is too variable to reliably say "most people over age X cannot hear Y". Let's also dismiss the fact the fact that exposure to a mosquito would gradually cause the degradation that supposedly makes you impervious to them. We're going to pretend all older folk can't hear 18kHz, cannot otherwise perceive anything at that frequency, and that young people cannot lose 18kHz+ hearing range via exposure to this device. There are, despite all these concessions, some huge problems. Sound waves don't keep their pitch perfectly outdoors. Air temperature gradients fuck things up. You walking fucks things up. Humidity fucks things up. That little thing called "wind" fucks things up. Now, these changes in frequency due to air being fruity are likely negligible, but they produce something very important in tandem with reflections and absorptions due to the uneven construction of an outdoor area- distortion. Funny thing... even for sounds a person can't hear, they can hear issues in the range they can hear, coming from the range they can't hear. Independent of your ability to hear or feel these high frequency noises, you can hear the them [I]interacting with the noises you can hear.[/I] Throw in the fact that our source isn't an even thing, but a big, needly, weird emitter, and you've got a recipe for a lot of annoyed individuals, even making idealized assumptions about human hearing. Throw back in the basic issues of human hearing, and you've got a device nobody with a shred of intelligence would pay for.
[QUOTE=Xenocidebot;36220107]The hilarious thing is, these don't actually work. There's no scientific reason why they would. The reason they cost so much is because all sound emitting devices are subject to a lot of various types of mechanical imperfections. The "ideal" sound emitter a physically ridiculous device. If you look at a test of a loudspeaker playing a simple sin wave sweep you'll see a pattern of intensity that wobbles and woobles all over the place, and is generally ass to control. As the frequency a device is emitting gets smaller, that broadcast pattern gets narrower, almost like a piston of air. You also use small transducers to produce those small frequencies, which means the device has to consist of dozens of tiny little "sound needles". Those have to be spaced in such a way to reduce any constructive interference in the frequencies it's accidentally outputting, while still outputting a usable broadcast pattern. There's also the fact that amplifying a sound to drive it through a loudspeaker produces at least some distortion, so there's a bit of scratch going into a low-noise circuit. Now, let's dismiss the first two flaws of human hearing that render this device dangerous to the wrong parties- that independent of your ability to "hear" high frequencies, you can [I]feel[/I] them, and that human hearing is too variable to reliably say "most people over age X cannot hear Y". Let's also dismiss the fact the fact that exposure to a mosquito would gradually cause the degredation that supposedly makes you impervious to them. We're going to pretend all older folk can't hear 18kHz, cannot otherwise percieve anything at that frequency, and that young people cannot lose 18kHz+ hearing range via exposure to this device. There are, despite all these concessions, some huge problems. Sound waves don't keep their pitch perfectly outdoors. Air temperature gradients fuck things up. You walking fucks things up. Humidity fucks things up. That little thing called "wind" fucks things up. Now, these changes in frequency due to air being fruity are likely negligible, but they produce something very important in tandem with reflections absortions due to the uneven construction of an outdoor area- distortion. Funny thing... even for sounds a person can't hear, they can hear issues in the range they can hear, coming from the range they can't hear. Independent of your ability to hear or feel these high frequency noises, you can hear the them [I]interacting with the noises you can hear.[/I] Throw in the fact that our source isn't an even thing, but a big, needly, weird emitter, and you've got a recipe for a lot of annoyed individuals, even making idealized assumptions about human hearing. Throw back in the basic issues of human hearing, and you've got a device nobody with a shred of intelligence would pay for.[/QUOTE] Why are you so smart? I rue the day that you step into an argument because no matter how right I am and how wrong you are I just know that I'm massively going to lose to you.
It's called security cameras.
[IMG]http://www.blogcdn.com/www.diylife.com/media/2010/08/sound-muffs-590.jpg[/IMG] Problem solved
I've been around one of these, it's not unbearable but I wouldn't want to hang around for very long. Also the "earplugs are $2" argument is shit, your average teen doesn't bring earplugs with them unless there's a concert or something.
In my town, the police hang around the more vandal-infested areas playing bagpipes to ward off unwanted youths. Which is absolutely more kick-ass then the MosquitoCube3000 because bagpipes rule.
[QUOTE=demoguy08;36220798]I've been around one of these, it's not unbearable but I wouldn't want to hang around for very long. Also the "earplugs are $2" argument is shit, your average teen doesn't bring earplugs with them unless there's a concert or something.[/QUOTE] IF they are gonna vandalize the place on purpose, they do.
[QUOTE=Van-man;36220853]IF they are gonna vandalize the place on purpose, they do.[/QUOTE] I'd say the vast majority of teen vandalism is just them getting bored while loitering and without much forethought.
These devices just help create an age gap which makes teenagers feel even more 'alone' with makes them resort to more stuff like vandalism. Deterring it isn't the right way to go about it.
[QUOTE=FalconKrunch;36219612]Fuck these things, they have these in some places to get rid of scum that hangs out around parks and shit. They work really well, except if you live near one of em, I can hear the fuckers 50 meters away and oh my god it hurts my ears.[/QUOTE] Ahah! You must be a teenager. We adults can live in peace because we are too old to hear the high pitch [editline]6th June 2012[/editline] How about playing annoying children s song instead? that deters a lot of teenagers or better yet, play justin beiber soundtracks
I remember when these were installed near my old school and they broke and ended up playing constantly until someone climbed up to where it was and unplugged it.
How about instead of just annoying the teenagers to the point they vandalize these devices first we figure out why they think the school is a good place to vandalize in the first place? Idunno maybe these schools are just plonked down in the middle of a ghetto. The ones I went to never had anywhere near as bad a problem with vandalism. The closest they came was someone drawing tits in the bathroom walls.
I think the vandalism is just a scheme made by the producers of those teen repelling sound devices. It makes perfect sense! These companies do everything in times of financial crisis...
implying these kids won't just smash the fucking things ahahah
I remember these things.. they didn't get rid of me so much as annoy me.. so you're going to put devices that irritate teens, who already have the idea of vandalism in mind, and cost $1000 in areas to cut down in destruction to property... I can see this going tits up very quickly.
I dunno if anyone else gets it, but whenever one is switched on near me, the noise makes me feel unbalanced for a second or two until I get used to it. If I have a migraine and I hear it it fucks me up. I always wondered what adults must think when they switch it on and see young people start looking around, when they have no indication that there's anything different except a little switch turned on.
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