'Phantom' mobile phone vibrations: why we get them

Professor Alex Blaszczynski of the School of Psychology at the University of Sydney has a scientific explanation from fanthom vibrations — when you hear your phone vibrate —  but no one is actually calling you. The Sydney Morning Herald reports.

According to Blaszczynski, the vibration people felt was not "phantom" nor related to an addiction but "a real sensation" similar to what occurs when you place your mobile near a speaker and hear a buzzing sound when it's communicating with a tower.

That sound, caused by electromagnetic interference (EMI), occurs even when a mobile isn't receiving a text message or ringing, and it can often happen when the mobile is doing what is known as a "hand shake" with a mobile tower, he said.

The "burst of electrical activity" in that hand shake affects skin nerves, causing transcutaneous muscle stimulation and giving the impression of a vibration, he believes.

According to Rob Nokes, president of Sound Dogs, a sound effects company in California.", phantom rings are a "psycho-acoustic phenomenon" related to the way the human brain interprets sound.

Read full article.

Related articles on audio illusion, phantom phone rings ringxiety or fauxcellarm blogged by textually over the years.

emily | 8:55 AM | News, Buzz |
The Permanent Link to this page is: http://www.textually.org/ringtonia/archives/2012/02/030239.htm

Tweet