The Mind Molester
posted Jul 11th 2005 1:46PM
We are so hiding one of these next time we're over at Ryan's house: Shomer-Tec, a company specializing in "Law
Enforcement & Military Equipment", is selling a little something called the Mind Molester which is supposed to be a
non-violent way to mess with your enemies. The genius of the Mind Molester is in its simplicity — it's an electronic
device which emits a single one-second chirp every four minutes. That'd be annoying enough on its own, but the kicker
is that because of the chirp's duration, frequency, and sound characteristics they claim it'll be "very, very
difficult, time-consuming, frustrating and maddening task to locate the unit. And even if they find it, they'll have no
idea what it is." Which at the moment just happens to be exactly what we're looking for in a prank.
[Via pasta & vinegar]
I'm ordering half a dozen of these right now. This would kill the air gun that i'm using in the office!
Sounds like when a smoke detector in my house has a low battery... It can take awhile to figure out where it's chirping from.
So I guess I've been audibly molested for years, as have fans of Neil Diamond.
Just put a low battery in a smoke detector and burry that, works just the same.
And of course the police and military uses are obvious.
What marketing genius decided "molester" was a good name for a product?
It looks like a diffrent kind of 'molester' lol
I wouldnt mind a few of these. Hide them in a church...a bank....safeway...lol
They should package this with an African Grey Parrot. Lord knows, mine picked up the sound and ran with it....now I don't know when the smoke alarm needs changing or if it's just the goddamn bird again. (His impression of a dieing cellphone battery is dead on too.)
Last weekend my next door neighbour went away, leaving a half-dead smoke detector in their house, which chirruped constantly, like a low-level car alarm, for 24 hours (it wasn't just the flat battery beeps, it was sort-of-going off the whole time, with little annoying breaks). I can confirm that my mind was comprehensively molested. At 3am, I was seriously considering climbing over the garden fence and breaking into their house to find and destroy it (and the rest of their posessions, if necessary).
I am ordering one of these NOW
I have a number of devices that do this when their batteries are about to croak... and they are usually hidden under the bed/behind the couch/etc. The sound itself carries in such a way, and with the single chirp - it is almost impossible to triangulate without more information.
I have often found myself searching rooms sq. foot by sq. foot to locate the offending device - usually in the middle of the night when that intermittent chirp has driven me out of sleep/bed/happiness to do so.
I want a dozen to get rid of/annoy neighbors-children-pets.
That's great, but to be more effective, they should've made it chirp at random intervals. It's easier to locate when you know exactly when the next beep is coming.
This has been out for 10+ years from Shomer Tec. There are plans somewhere on the internets.
Plant a few of them to really screw with someone. Just when they think they have discovered the source of the chirping they find out there's more of them! :D
I believe someone has done something similar as a college prank. I think it made cricket noises, ran off of a 9 volt, and it had a photoelectric sensor. If you turned on the lights to look for it, it went silent.
Oh this was perfect! I just read this then had gone to my usual forums on myspace. Well in a iPod forum someone commented that her iPod had been beeping for weeks. I pointed her back to this article. Man that's funny! BTW, now she wants 6 or 7 of these as a result. :)
mind molesters have actually been out for like, thousands of years. i believe they were originally called "women".
Oh this is totally worth it. And thanks mike for telling me about the birds stuff, I know a kid with a few african greys. It would be great if they later came with either a random switch (that makes the time intervals random) or if they included a the light sensor that one guy was talking about. It wouldnt be that hard to actually make your own if you have electronics knowledge and access to the needed tools.
Phoenixfury,
you might also want to tell her that she probably has the alarm set on her ipod. Mine was doing that for a month (in addition to turning itself on and draining the battery) before i figured it out.
and i can also think of tons of places i want to hide these beeping things.
Another inexpensive method is to use a cheap digital watch that has an alarm. I lived in a house that someone had hidden one somewhere under the floorboards that was set to go off at 2:12 am every morning. Drove us nuts.
I'll get you for this, Rojas!
Can someone link to plans where to build your own? I'm not sure what the device would be called to even start looking.
go to a friends house with a screwdriver and open up a air vent and drop it down ito the duct, theyd have to take apart some walls to get it if you find the right one and get it far enough :)
Recently had a low battery smoke alarm buried somewhere in an attic filled with boxes and leaf bags full o' junk. The attic was conveniently located over the master bedroom and the chirping smoke alarm started at 3am in 15 second intervals. Worse that water torture - had to dump or move a dozen boxes before the seek and destroy mission was complete.
Why does the Mind Molester look like a large penis?!
i haven't checked, but www.commlinx.com.au would probably have the schematics for it.
Cuby said: "Mind molesters have actually been out for like, thousands of years. I believe they were originally called 'women'."
That's about the funniest sh*t I've read in ages. Thanks, Cuby!
Cuby said: "Mind molesters have actually been out for like, thousands of years. I believe they were originally called 'women'."
That's about the funniest sh*t I've read in ages. Thanks, Cuby!
Back in the day when I was probably 14, I though it was cool to build these and stick them around the house. Drove my parents nuts. Now that I'm a full blown electrical engineer, its funny to see everyone getting so worked up over such a silly product. I should have started selling them and by now I could be retired! For anyone intersted in a schematic or kit, just do a google or ebay search for "electronic cricket". Here is a kit on ebay that showed up... see item #3866977951
lol. I agree. That product is just so simple. Plus it beeps for 1 second?
A friend of mine used to build a similar device for about $5 of hardware from Radio Shack. The genius of his "cricket" was the added light sensor that turned off the chirp. He would hide them in the ceiling or other dark place with a chirp interval of about 13 seconds. Much harder to ignore and even harder to find because as soon as you went searching with the flashlight, the critter became suddenly mute.
here are some links...
usa...
http://www.gibsonteched.com/vmk104.html
uk...
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=22547&&source=14&doy=search
Here's an even better one, it stops when you turn on the lights...
http://www.transeltech.com/kits/nc-1p.html
See thread below of a person living with similar beeping device somewhere in their house...
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/printthread.php?t=239068&page=1&pp=30
Anyone have links to a schematic to build one? It doesn't look to be too complex.