The Buzz on Ringtones – July 2010
Tuesday, July 20th, 2010Researchers at a university in Germany have established that the human brain is wired to hear familiar sounds, such as your cell phone’s ringtone, much faster than it hears other sounds.
The study, which was conducted by researchers at the University of Leipzig, involved a group of volunteers who had their neural activity monitored. While electrodes were attached to their scalps, the group heard the recorded text message alert tones and ringtones of all the volunteers in the group, including their own.
The New Scientist reports that that there were three different trials. During the first trial, volunteers heard the tones while watching a muted, subtitled film. During the next trial, they were once again played all the tones. This time, there was no movie or subtitles to distract them and they had to push a button whenever they heard their own tone. For the third and final trial, the volunteers were asked to select a ringtone belonging to another volunteer.
The trials indicated that those areas in the brain that are linked to memory retrieval and hearing lit up whenever participants heard their own ringtone or the one they were assigned. But even though they also heard the assigned tone much faster than other ringtones, more neurons were active when hearing their own tones.
The researchers concluded that the human brain stores templates enabling it – and therefore us – to quickly identify and pick out familiar tones.
Of course, if you have also joined the rest of the world in downloading the vuvuzela ringtone mentioned in our previous column, neither you nor your brain’s neurons are going to have a moment’s rest.
However, if you want a unique and distinctive ringtone on your phone, there are many places offering you the opportunity to create and download a custom, easily recognisable tone.
One such place is Peternalove.com. The California-based company specialises in products that “help pet owners celebrate the love of their pets”.
The company has teamed up with an award-winning songwriter and producer Alice Leon to create special pet ringtones. It all began as a bit of fun when Alice used her iPod to record her dog Lucy’s bark. Alice then composed a special ringtone featuring Lucy barking along to a song. “I thought it would be cool and very funny to have my cell phone go off and hear her voice during the day,” Alice says. “My phone is ringing all the time and it really cracks people up and brings a smile to my face.”
Alice’s “barking ringtone” became such a hit that Peternalove.com now offers custom-made versions for sale exclusively via the site. If you want your own beloved Fido barking along to your ringtone, you simply go to the site, answer some specific questions about your pet’s personality, choose a pre-recorded musical style – such as jazz, classic rock, country, disco, or R&B – and add a recording of Fido barking. Alice then writes completely original lyrics based on the answers you gave about your pet’s personality, combines them with the chosen musical style and bark, and the finished ringtone is then sent directly to the customer’s cell phone.
As with any ringtone, this one also carries the risk of driving some people barking mad. But hey, this service is not just for the dogs. All the different pet species are welcome to lend their voices to a ringtone. If you can get your cat to meow into your computer’s mic, or record the horse whinnying… well, you get the idea!
At least your brain will instantly recognise your unique pet ringtone!
Maybe in future I’ll do a follow up tutorial for experienced users! Remember to register in the