If you are under 25, you might want to think twice before lingering outside a grocery store or even your school after hours! Some 200 places in the U.S. are now euipped with a small black device, operated on a timer, which will emit a high-pitched-annoying tone that only youths can hear. The transmitter know as the "Mosquito", is believed to discourage young loiterers near grocery stores and schools. It's inventor, Howard Stapleton, had this idea when he was 12. Here's the story behind his idea from the New York Times :
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.
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.
About 3500 such units have been sold in Britain, and 1500 more outside Britain, since it's introduction in 2006. Young children across Britain have been campaigning against the device saying it's discriminating young people; and it's now popularly termed as the "teen tormentor" by many angry teens.
According to the Washington Post - "some young people have gotten back by using similar technology -- cellphone ring tones in those same high frequencies. Kids can hear them, parents and teachers often can't, thwarting many an effort to limit the phones' use. "
What do you think? Give us your thoughts. Should these devices be banned in the U.S. before they start getting into every school and convenience store? Do you have any evolutionary ideas? Maybe something that helps teens for a change? Enter them to our competitions, get your voice heard and win a fat sum of $10,000 plus a day with an innovator!