A Ringtone That Only Dogs Can Hear

Dwango, the company behind web video site Nico Nico Douga, just came out with a new ringtone that's at a frequency only dogs can hear. How bizarre! I guess it's like having your phone on Silent mode, but you can train your dog to paw at you when he hears it. Or something. I don't know. It sounds pretty useless to me.

via CrunchGear

Comments

[Pallavicini]

I don't read Japanese (yet) but this sounds like a fad that was big in England for a while until it was banned in schools. There, the frequency used for the ringtone was at the edge of human hearing - so it was audible for kids, but not for adults because it was in the range that virtually everyone loses the ability to hear after a certain age. The frequency was originally deployed at high volume as a deterrent against young loiterers at shopping centers and such, but was developed instead as a ringtone after people who could hear the sound complained about it. Could it be that kids, as well as dogs, can actually hear this new ring tone in Japan?

[D-mon]

That ringtone is also wellknown in the Netherlands. Unfortunately, the TV-ads where the ringtone supposedly played, played nothing but silence.
Research on the internet revealed that it was a ringtone in the 17kHz area. Just google on that frequency and it will give you plenty more info.
I am 38 years old, but have excellent hearing: I can hear when a tv-set is in standby mode from the high pitched tone it emits, so this ringtone made me gnash my teeth from the pain it caused to my ears.
And those cat/dog repellent tones hurt too. :(