Delete: Weird Sound (Was Radar Detector, not Dashcam)

[SPL15]

Delete post: Found out it was my Radar Detector making a sound for a GPS User Mark I had put in a few weeks back that I forgot about. Thought it was the A139 Pro, but it was not.

Driving home from a friend’s house, heard two chimes that I think came from the dash cam. Have never heard these before, sounded like someone tipped me on only fans or something (no, I’m not a streamer, but I’d most certainly do it if people would pay me money to do so 😉 ).

 

[Dashmellow]

Typically, when someone reports a weird sound they're not familiar with it turns out to be the G-sensor alerting that it's locking a clip when the sensitivity is set too high but when I watched your clip the sounds didn't make any sense. Glad you figured it out. 🙂

 

[kamkar]

There really is a thing as too many beeps and bongs in life.
My phone are constantly in sleep mode, meaning if someone call me and i pick up, i have actually seen the screen come on, and this is pretty rare even if i try to place my phone where i can see the screen.
Of course i also do not use the sex toy feature in the phone ( vibrator )

 

[SPL15]

There really is a thing as too many beeps and bongs in life.
My phone are constantly in sleep mode, meaning if someone call me and i pick up, i have actually seen the screen come on, and this is pretty rare even if i try to place my phone where i can see the screen.
Of course i also do not use the sex toy feature in the phone ( vibrator )

I agree, too many nondescript beeps, boops, & bongs these days, where the problem will only get worse.

I think a significant & growing part of competent product design & industrial design should focus on alert tones to make them purposeful, not just aesthetically pleasing to the ear, but also utilizing psychoacoustic cues to make them inherently meaningful. Part of a product manufacturer’s “brand language” are the audible alerts & tones their products produce; it should be a bigger focus, as these sounds can be as recognizable to consumers as the trademarked fonts & colors used in the brand’s logo.

Utilization of odd order harmonics & chords for warning alerts, even order harmonics & chords for things that aren’t warnings, etc. are already utilized by more detail oriented western brands (Apple, Google, Microsoft as examples); however, with Chinese & other small cap Asian designed products, alert tones seem to be an afterthought & are often randomly nondescript, while also being incredibly unpleasant to listen to as well (eg Viofo startup chime, Ring Doorbell Chimes, & in this instance, Uniden Radar Detector’s GPS user mark).

 

[Dashmellow]

I agree, too many nondescript beeps, boops, & bongs these days, where the problem will only get worse.

I think a significant & growing part of competent product design & industrial design should focus on alert tones to make them purposeful, not just aesthetically pleasing to the ear, but also utilizing psychoacoustic cues to make them inherently meaningful. Part of a product manufacturer’s “brand language” are the audible alerts & tones their products produce; it should be a bigger focus, as these sounds can be as recognizable to consumers as the trademarked fonts & colors used in the brand’s logo.

Utilization of odd order harmonics & chords for warning alerts, even order harmonics & chords for things that aren’t warnings, etc. are already utilized by more detail oriented western brands (Apple, Google, Microsoft as examples); however, with Chinese & other small cap Asian designed products, alert tones seem to be an afterthought & are often randomly nondescript, while also being incredibly unpleasant to listen to as well (eg Viofo startup chime, Ring Doorbell Chimes, & in this instance, Uniden Radar Detector’s GPS user mark).

Everything beeps now.
- George Carlin


You make some good points. The alert and warning sounds we hear on our devices are the product of a growing field of academic study in engineering, psychology, audiology and electronics that many researchers devote their whole careers to across many industries and disciplines including aviation, automotive, medical devices, mobile phones, power tools, radio communications, computing, consumer electronics, manufacturing equipment, etc. The field is expanding rapidly with the anticipation of electric vehicles becoming ubiquitous in the relatively near future as sound systems are being developed to warn pedestrians of otherwise silent electric cars as they approach.

But like many lower priced consumer goods, especially those coming out of China, such as dash cams and radar detectors, these sounds get only minimal attention, thought or investment. Manufactures will usually select these sounds from available open source libraries much like the clip art or stock photography often used in packaging and advertising.

Inside the World of Sound Designers Who Create Tech’s Noisy Notifications

Notifications have come a long way since AOL’s notorious ‘You’ve Got Mail.’

observer.com

Design of Natural Warning Sounds
in Human-Machine Systems
Doctoral thesis by
PERNILLA ULFVENGREN

 

[JWT]

Delete post: Found out it was my Radar Detector making a sound for a GPS User Mark I had put in a few weeks back that I forgot about. Thought it was the A139 Pro, but it was not.

Driving home from a friend’s house, heard two chimes that I think came from the dash cam. Have never heard these before, sounded like someone tipped me on only fans or something (no, I’m not a streamer, but I’d most certainly do it if people would pay me money to do so 😉 ).

Who made your RD? I have a Uniden R8, I hope the A139 Pro does not cause interference to the RD. There were some reports of interference issues from some not all RD users…..

 

[JWT]

Who made your RD? I have a Uniden R8, I hope the A139 Pro does not cause interference to the RD. There were some reports of interference issues from some not all RD users…..

I should clarify, I have not seen any reports of interference issues as of yet with Viofo A139Plus.

 

[SPL15]

It's a Uniden R8. It wasn't interference, just the alert tones for User GPS Mark.
Makes a really chintzy sounding "door bell" tone when you get close to the location, then an even cheesier cash register "cha-ching" like sound when you pass the location.
Both tones sound completely stupid IMO; something you'd find on a cheaply made free gaming app, or a throw-away toy for a kid.