“Phantom” rings and/or flashes
September 24th, 2007 by Scott Janousek
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...Someone sent me this recently, I thought it was interesting (if not a bit unsettling) so I am posting to see if anyone else has experienced this “phenomena”:
From what I’ve read on your Web site, you’re a lover of new devices. I’m writing about people who experience phantom vibrations (or rings, or flashing lights) from mobile devices and I’m wondering if you’ve ever experienced this. If you have, I’d like to interview you sometime this week, if you have time.
Myself … I have had two separate and memorable occasions where I thought my device was vibrating and/or ringing and it wasn’t. I am not talking about when someone else’s (similar/same) device has gone off …
Don’t count me off as a lunatic just yet … I don’t think I would have received this email if there wasn’t something more to this … than just mere coincidence.
Perhaps, there is some psychology to this? … not sure, this area of research is not “my bag baby”.
Post your experiences, thoughts.
Print This Post
September 24th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
Definitely had a few of these. Vibrations mainly. Is it just a phantom or is there something behind it?…. I’m not sure on the science on this one but there’s times where I’ve felt a call or message coming through before the phone does anything, could be pure coincidence of course. I know that loud-speakers and radios audibly pick up the familiar sequence of beeps you hear before the phone rings/vibrates, but is it possible we can also pick up on these radio waves through any part of the body? Another common manifestation for me is with my bog-standard Microsoft Optical mouse, which decides to scroll the page randomly whenever the phone is getting a message or performing a network request, I had to check with other people to make sure I wasn’t going mad, I’ve had the phone up to 30cm away and it still happened. There’s also the wavering of old CRT monitors, although I haven’t seen that for a few years now, you don’t get it with LCD or TFT.
Shall we just go with the good old metal tooth fillings picking up the radio waves story
Maybe there’s a correlation with the SAR value?
http://www.sarvalues.com/eu-complete.html
September 24th, 2007 at 9:52 pm
People who have braces have reported hearing voices. Research found (no, I have no citation source) that this was merely radio waves being picked up by the metal in their mouths.
I don’t believe in a human 6th sense, but definately believe you can be in-tune with your device, and can sense when it’s about it go off.
September 25th, 2007 at 11:57 am
I get phantom rings and phantom vibrations at least once a day. For me personally, it’s because my phone is just barely audible when it’s in my pocket. I think I probably have a subconcious brain process dedicated to listening intently for phone rings. Since I’m trying so hard to hear my phone ring, I do - whether it is or not. Also, I’ve noticed it happens more when I’ve been up late watching Painkiller Jane or Battlestar Galactica.
September 27th, 2007 at 8:11 am
Hehe… Yeah. the TV show matters. I agree with Tom though. I usually have my phone in my pocket with the sounds switched off and I’ve had a lot of occasions where I were dead certain that it had dinged when it did not. I’ve checked this and I always had plenty of battery when it happened, so it couldn’t be a low battery warning either.
My k810 have been acting weird lately though, but that’s probably since I lost it on a rock floor the other week