Re: Tone Deafness

From	Martin Brown <\|\|\|newspam\|\|\|@nezumi.demon.co.uk>
Newsgroups	comp.arch.embedded, sci.electronics.design
Subject	Re: Tone Deafness
References	<WPGdneG5cYUrnpHPnZ2dnUVZ5ugAAAAA@giganews.com> <MyNameForward-85A008.12052215082013@news.eternal-september.org>
Message-ID	<rl7Pt.63007$BW2.60682@fx04.am4> (permalink)
Organization	TeraNews.com
Date	2013-08-15 17:29 +0100

Cross-posted to 2 groups.

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On 15/08/2013 17:05, Ecnerwal wrote:
> In article <WPGdneG5cYUrnpHPnZ2dnUVZ5ugAAAAA@giganews.com>,
>   Tim Wescott <tim@seemywebsite.really> wrote:
>
>> Like a good percentage of human males, I'm partially color blind to green
>> and red.  In my case, it's enough that I can't tell the difference
>> between a green or a red LED -- so a piece of equipment that depends on
>> the operator being able to see the color of a bi-color LED is totally
>> useless to me.
>>
>> Needless to say, this is irritating.
>>
>> Does anyone on the group know how many people are really, truly tone
>> deaf?  I don't just mean unable to hear when they're playing out of tune,
>> but people who are unable to tell the difference between a "beep" and a
>> "boop" when it's coming out of a piece of electronic equipment?
>>
>> I'm thinking of communicating status via a beeper, and for obvious
>> reasons I don't want to do the same "bicolor LED" crap to someone, only
>> with sound.
>
> If you want to cover _everyone_, you have to get multi-modal.
>
> The simple solution to your status problem for the non-blind (colorblind
> fine) is, of course, two LEDS NOT in the same package. If you were
> contemplating a third state corresponding to amber in a bicolor, that
> can be a third LED or just both LEDs on at once, depending how
> counter-intuitive both on at once would be.
>
> Unless the device is actually bursting into flames, or will in a few
> seconds, "beeps" and "boops" make _me_ want to use a hammer on it until
> it shuts the "<bleep>" up. _Irritating_ is in the eye or ear of the
> beholder/behearer. They are also hard as heck to write documentation for
> - without a reference sound, one man's text-written "beep" is another
> fellow's text-written "boop." So you need some way to disambiguate the
> audio/written and audible. If your target market is geeks who understand
> R2D2 without a translator, you're all set.
>
> If I were blind, I'd no doubt feel rather differently. But deaf folks
> would not be fond of beeps and boops, either.

I don't known about it in the US but over here supermarket scanners make 
some really annoying beeps and buzzes when scanning in items but it is 
as nothing to the dreaded high pitched mechanical voice which mutters 
the curious phrase "unexpected item in the bagging area".

Also be careful how annoying you make the sound - aircraft cockpit 
sounders have it about right to grab attention but not paralyse the crew 
into inaction or worse still forcing them to look up how to disable the 
wretched alarm so that they can hear themselves think.

The latter was apparently the fate of the unfortunate Three Mile Island 
operators who were faced with multiple failure alarms and klaxons going 
off left right and centre. They were well aware they had big trouble and 
didn't need to spend all that extra time consulting manuals and fighting 
the instrumentation to get the alarm sounders cancelled.

-- 
Regards,
Martin Brown

Thread

Tone Deafness Tim Wescott <tim@seemywebsite.really> - 2013-08-14 17:24 -0500
  Re: Tone Deafness Rob Gaddi <rgaddi@technologyhighland.invalid> - 2013-08-14 15:43 -0700
    Re: Tone Deafness Robert Baer <robertbaer@localnet.com> - 2013-08-14 17:18 -0800
    Re: Tone Deafness David Brown <david@westcontrol.removethisbit.com> - 2013-08-15 08:53 +0200
    Re: Tone Deafness josephkk <joseph_barrett@sbcglobal.net> - 2013-08-15 08:48 +0000
    Re: Tone Deafness Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2013-08-15 10:17 +0100
    Re: Tone Deafness Martin Brown <|||newspam|||@nezumi.demon.co.uk> - 2013-08-15 12:09 +0100
      Re: Tone Deafness Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-15 10:47 -0700
      Re: Tone Deafness gof@somewhere.invalid (Adam Wysocki) - 2013-08-28 18:44 +0000
  Re: Tone Deafness Frank Miles <fpm@u.washington.edu> - 2013-08-14 22:51 +0000
  Re: Tone Deafness Fredxx <fredxx@nospam.com> - 2013-08-14 23:53 +0100
  Re: Tone Deafness Syd Rumpo <usenet@nononono.co.uk> - 2013-08-15 00:05 +0100
  Re: Tone Deafness Syd Rumpo <usenet@nononono.co.uk> - 2013-08-15 00:13 +0100
    Re: Tone Deafness Jan Panteltje <pNaonStpealmtje@yahoo.com> - 2013-08-15 05:46 +0000
    Re: Tone Deafness Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-14 23:31 -0700
  Re: Tone Deafness John Larkin <jlarkin@highlandtechnology.com> - 2013-08-14 16:14 -0700
    Re: Tone Deafness Tim Wescott <tim@seemywebsite.really> - 2013-08-14 18:58 -0500
      Re: Tone Deafness Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2013-08-15 09:22 +0100
    Re: Tone Deafness RobertMacy <robert.a.macy@gmail.com> - 2013-08-15 07:53 -0700
      Re: Tone Deafness John Larkin <jjlarkin@highNOTlandTHIStechnologyPART.com> - 2013-08-15 08:18 -0700
        Re: Tone Deafness "Boudewijn Dijkstra" <sp4mtr4p.boudewijn@indes.com> - 2013-08-22 12:27 +0200
  Re: Tone Deafness Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-14 17:15 -0700
  Re: Tone Deafness Joerg <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2013-08-14 17:21 -0700
  Re: Tone Deafness Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2013-08-15 02:11 +0100
  Re: Tone Deafness Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2013-08-14 18:29 -0700
    Re: Tone Deafness "Tim Williams" <tmoranwms@charter.net> - 2013-08-14 22:51 -0500
  Re: Tone Deafness Vladimir Vassilevsky <nospam@nowhere.com> - 2013-08-14 21:34 -0500
    Re: Tone Deafness "Tim Williams" <tmoranwms@charter.net> - 2013-08-14 23:07 -0500
      Re: Tone Deafness "P E Schoen" <paul@peschoen.com> - 2013-08-15 21:48 -0400
      Re: Tone Deafness gof@somewhere.invalid (Adam Wysocki) - 2013-08-28 18:42 +0000
        Re: Tone Deafness "Tim Williams" <tmoranwms@charter.net> - 2013-08-28 16:38 -0500
    Re: Tone Deafness Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2013-08-15 09:24 +0100
      Re: Tone Deafness pippo2@disney.com (Jack) - 2013-08-15 10:48 +0200
        Re: Tone Deafness Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2013-08-15 10:24 +0100
          Re: Tone Deafness Paul <paul@pcserviceselectronics.co.uk> - 2013-08-15 14:00 +0100
  Re: Tone Deafness Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2013-08-14 22:25 -0500
  Re: Tone Deafness Jan Panteltje <pNaonStpealmtje@yahoo.com> - 2013-08-15 05:42 +0000
    Re: Tone Deafness "Michael A. Terrell" <mike.terrell@earthlink.net> - 2013-08-15 10:23 -0400
  Re: Tone Deafness "Tom Del Rosso" <tomd_u1@verizon.net.invalid> - 2013-08-15 08:30 -0400
    Re: Tone Deafness nico@puntnl.niks (Nico Coesel) - 2013-08-15 19:07 +0000
      Re: Tone Deafness "Michael A. Terrell" <mike.terrell@earthlink.net> - 2013-08-15 15:40 -0400
        Re: Tone Deafness "Tom Del Rosso" <tomd_u1@verizon.net.invalid> - 2013-08-16 22:23 -0400
          Re: Tone Deafness "Michael A. Terrell" <mike.terrell@earthlink.net> - 2013-08-17 04:26 -0400
            Re: Tone Deafness josephkk <joseph_barrett@sbcglobal.net> - 2013-08-18 05:00 +0000
            Re: Tone Deafness gof@somewhere.invalid (Adam Wysocki) - 2013-08-28 18:48 +0000
    Re: Tone Deafness Charlie E. <edmondson@ieee.org> - 2013-08-15 15:48 -0700
      Re: Tone Deafness Spehro Pefhany <speffSNIP@interlogDOTyou.knowwhat> - 2013-08-15 19:55 -0400
        Re: Tone Deafness Stef <stef33d@yahooI-N-V-A-L-I-D.com.invalid> - 2013-08-16 09:30 +0200
        Re: Tone Deafness Charlie E. <edmondson@ieee.org> - 2013-08-16 13:47 -0700
      Re: Tone Deafness T <kd1s.nospam@cox.nospam.net> - 2013-08-16 01:50 -0400
        Re: Tone Deafness Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2013-08-16 10:16 -0500
      Re: Tone Deafness Martin Brown <|||newspam|||@nezumi.demon.co.uk> - 2013-08-16 09:16 +0100
      Re: Tone Deafness gof@somewhere.invalid (Adam Wysocki) - 2013-08-28 18:50 +0000
        Re: Tone Deafness Charlie E. <edmondson@ieee.org> - 2013-08-28 19:44 -0700
          Re: Tone Deafness gof@somewhere.invalid (Adam Wysocki) - 2013-08-29 09:26 +0000
            Re: Tone Deafness Charlie E. <edmondson@ieee.org> - 2013-08-29 09:17 -0700
  Re: Tone Deafness Ecnerwal <MyNameForward@ReplaceWithMyVices.Com.invalid> - 2013-08-15 12:05 -0400
    Re: Tone Deafness Martin Brown <|||newspam|||@nezumi.demon.co.uk> - 2013-08-15 17:29 +0100
      Re: Tone Deafness Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2013-08-15 18:00 +0100
      Re: Tone Deafness Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-15 11:16 -0700
        Re: Tone Deafness josephkk <joseph_barrett@sbcglobal.net> - 2013-08-16 02:56 +0000
          Re: Tone Deafness Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-15 21:47 -0700
            Re: Tone Deafness josephkk <joseph_barrett@sbcglobal.net> - 2013-08-17 16:36 +0000
              Re: Tone Deafness Don Y <this@isnotme.com> - 2013-08-17 11:49 -0700
  Re: Tone Deafness NotReallyMe <nrm@vallidatedsoftware.com> - 2013-08-16 10:23 -0700
    Re: Tone Deafness Jan Panteltje <pNaonStpealmtje@yahoo.com> - 2013-08-16 17:29 +0000
      Re: Tone Deafness "Michael A. Terrell" <mike.terrell@earthlink.net> - 2013-08-17 04:32 -0400
      Re: Tone Deafness "Boudewijn Dijkstra" <sp4mtr4p.boudewijn@indes.com> - 2013-08-22 13:10 +0200
  Re: Tone Deafness Jim Stewart <jstewart@jkmicro.com> - 2013-08-20 13:18 -0700
  Re: Tone Deafness bbhack <bbhack@gmail.com> - 2013-08-25 23:49 -0500
    Re: Tone Deafness bbhack <bbhack@gmail.com> - 2013-08-26 01:21 -0500
    Re: Tone Deafness Jan Panteltje <pNaonStpealmtje@yahoo.com> - 2013-08-26 07:01 +0000
    Re: Tone Deafness josephkk <joseph_barrett@sbcglobal.net> - 2013-08-28 03:51 +0000

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