Repel Mosquitos With Your Mobile Phone?!?

[Brad Adrian]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/tech/200307/kt2003070917100211810.htm' target='_blank'>http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/tec...17100211810.htm</a><br /><br /></div>I just couldn't pass on posting about this! Korea's SK Telecom will soon be offering a really unique mobile phone download: a mosquito repellant!<br /><br />"The service, which costs 3,000 won per download, generates anti-mosquito sound waves to control mosquitoes within a range of one meter. The mosquito repelling service uses a particular spectrum of sound waves, which are undetectable by human ears. But the frequencies annoy mosquitoes, SK Telecom said. <br /><br />"A disadvantage is that the service takes up more battery power, but customers can effectively use the service with rechargeable equipment."<br /><br />It is always good to see attempts at pushing the envelope when it comes to new application development, but this one is definitely "out there."

[JonnoB]

Now I am waiting for the first company to make subliminal message sound wave software.... so that you have an edge when going into a meeting to negotiate something :roll:

[Crystal Eitle]

We need this feature in Minnesota! The mosquito venom has been especially vile this year. I'm usually not very sensitive to mosquitoes, but for some reason all the bites I've gotten this year have left huge nasty red welts that lasted for days.

[CTSLICK]

If this actually works then it would sell HUGE here in Minnesota....really...I'm serious.

[mattchapin]

Oh boy...

Just yesterday I was reading an article in the NY Times about dealing with mosquitoes in your backyard... it specifically said that those ultrasonic mosquito repellant contraptions have been tested scientifically and show no repellent effect, though the same tests have shown that some other types of sounds do actually attract mosquitoes...

'Course, the text of the original post said the sound frequencies merely "annoy" mosquitoes... now that could be true...

[whydidnt]

Amen to those MN comments. I was trying to play Soccer in the yard with my Daughter the other day and I thought the Mosquitos were going to carry us away!

Actually, whether this works or not, it is nice to see companies thinking "outside the box" when developing uses for our electric toys. :lol:

Whydidnt

[sponge]

There was a Slashdot comment that said something to the effect of that Koreans are especially sensitive to mosquitos, and thus will buy anything in masses that claim to repel them. Unfortunately, none of them work.

[Eitel]

I can see the demo now. It repels 10 mosquitos and then it stops. :mrgreen:

[Brad Adrian]

I can see the demo now. It repels 10 mosquitos and then it stops. :mrgreen:
LOL! See the current discussion about software demos here (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=14758).

[Brad Adrian]

I think the best way to use a PDA to repel bugs is to squash them with a Palm device!

[JonnoB]

I think the best way to use a PDA to repel bugs is to squash them with a Palm device!

Or to leak a few small drops of blood and let the huge mosquitos carry that old palm away.

[Howard2k]

How long before someone sells a Mosquito Repellent MP3?

[Jacob]

How long before someone sells a Mosquito Repellent MP3?

He he.. and how long after that will we see the "Techno remix" of it. :D

[Stillwater]

How long before someone sells a Mosquito Repellent MP3?

Can't happen. MP3 is designed to filter out frequencies that the human ear can not hear. So it would have to be a .wav file or another format that keeps those frequencies intact. That is if the technology actually repells the insects.

And what if your speakers on the device that is playing the file doesn't play the required frequency? Who puts top of the line speakers in a Pocket PC or a cell phone for that matter?

[Janak Parekh]

Can't happen. MP3 is designed to filter out frequencies that the human ear can not hear. So it would have to be a .wav file or another format that keeps those frequencies intact. That is if the technology actually repells the insects.
I think it was intended to be a joke. :mrgreen:

--janak

[delfuhd]

Actually, being a Boy Scout, I frequently go on camp outs, and of course, here in CT, mosquitos can be annoying. Sprays were used so much at Scout camps as well, until one year a friend of mine brought two of those little "Mosquito watch repellers" that emit a sound of a dragonfly or something that scares away mosquitos. I'm not exactley sure how it works. But quite honestly, it worked nonetheless. I didn't have to use mostuito netting when i slept anymore, I'd just pop one of the watches on, lay it next to my cot, and sleep. It really works, it's actually kind of cool, so I'm interested in what is coming out with this product.

[jefferl]

Actually, they do have pocket PC software that has done this (or at least attempted). It's called Mosquito Prevent.

http://www.pocketkai.de/en/

[droppedd]

I'm kind of curious if the speaker in most Pocket PCs is even capable of producing notes that high at a reasonable volume. That said, how do you tell if the software's working on your unit? This sounds like the kind of vaporware that that guy who's selling the "universal PPC 2003 upgrade" on handango would be creating :roll:. And yes, studies have shown the ineffectiveness of ultrasonic mosquito repellents. Here's a lovely quote:

"Gorham was able to calculate that had he been stripped naked and tied to a post at Sagwon, he would have died from loss of blood in two and a half hours. Then he turned on the whining device, and found that with its help, he'd die more quickly. The number of mosquitoes biting within five minutes actually increased slightly. "

(from http://www.ipmofalaska.com/files/mosquitoes.html#ultrasound).

Also, Bug Zappers are useless (you know, the blue buzzing things), although the new propane-gas bug frier vacuum machines supposedly do work. Now integrate that into a Pocket PC... imagine the possibilities :twisted:.

[ctmagnus]

We need this feature in Minnesota! The mosquito venom has been especially vile this year. I'm usually not very sensitive to mosquitoes, but for some reason all the bites I've gotten this year have left huge nasty red welts that lasted for days.

Welcome to the Columbia Wetlands. :wink: The buggers always leave me covered in welts every warm season.

fwiw, in my experience those ultrasonic mosquito repellers neither repel mosquitoes nor are ultrasonic.

[Will T Smith]

I've heard that snake oil is equally effective as this method for repelling mosquitos ;-)


"There's a sucker born every day."
- PT Barnum

[Jonathon Watkins]

I seem to remember we had a discussion on this topic last year and the end result was that the product did not/could not work.

[GoldKey]

Is this what you are refering to?

Mosquito thread from last year (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2864&highlight=mosquito)

[Jonathon Watkins]

Yes, that'll be the one. 8)

Ecclesiastes 1:9-10 What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, "Look! This is something new"? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time. (NIV)

[Icekilled]

How long before someone sells a Mosquito Repellent MP3?
Nope, MP3 Format will compress music by "erasing" all the inaudible frequencies, I think the limit is 20 000 hertz.
noW
To the good stuff
.
ALL THAT MOSQUITO REPELLER DOES
IS
GENERATE a 20000 - 21000 - 22000 hz Sound
That frequency is known to repell mosquitos!
- Achille

[GoldKey]

BTW, Sunbeam makes a standalone product that does this. According to this review, it does not work. She put it right next to a mosquito that was biting here and it did not move.

Review (http://www.kark.com/karktv/news/story_tmp.asp?cmd=view&storyid=3950)

[ctmagnus]

From the aforementioned review:

Individual body chemistry may also make a difference.

This is why so many of these products don't work for so many people. Personally, I can be sitting in a yard with 30 other people and I'll be the only one getting bitten.

[Hydra]

I can be sitting in a yard with 30 other people and I'll be the only one getting bitten.

you must have smelly blood :razzing: .. I don't get bitten by mosquito's, aparently it's because i take vitamin B everyday... :D