The Mosquito Tone Test: What a Browser Test Cannot Tell You

Sensitivity to high frequencies declines with age in most people. ISO 7029 formalises this as a statistical description of threshold shift by age and sex across an otologically normal population — a distribution, not a prediction for an individual.

That is the important distinction. The standard can say how a population's thresholds tend to shift; it cannot tell any particular person what theirs are, and it was never intended to be run backwards to estimate someone's age from what they can hear.

A threshold measurement needs a known sound pressure level at the eardrum. That requires a calibrated audiometer and calibrated transducers, specified by ANSI/ASA S3.6, and it requires the test room to be quiet enough that ambient noise does not mask the tone — a condition covered by its own standard.

A web page knows none of this. Your system volume, your device's output response, your headphones' response above 15 kHz, background noise in your room and the browser's own audio path all sit between the intended tone and your ear, and several of them vary by tens of decibels.

Device response is the sharpest limitation. Many laptop and phone speakers roll off steeply in exactly the frequency region a mosquito-tone test is asking about, so failing to hear a tone may be a fact about your hardware rather than your ears.

The commercial Mosquito deterrent is a real product, and at least one unit has been characterised in a laboratory setting: a measurement referenced by the UK's National Physical Laboratory reported a fundamental near 16.8 kHz at a specific supply voltage, with levels reported at stated distances.

That is a measurement of one unit under stated conditions. It is not a universal specification, and it is certainly not the frequency or level a web page reproduces on your device.

The World Health Organization publishes hearing-screening tools, and it labels them clearly: a screening test flags people who should seek assessment. It does not measure thresholds or diagnose hearing loss.

A browser tone test sits below even that bar, because it has no control over calibration. Treating a failed tone as evidence of hearing loss — or a passed tone as evidence of healthy hearing — is not supported.

It is a decent demonstration. Comparing frequencies on the same device shows you your own hearing's shape in relative terms, and comparing devices shows how much hardware matters — often the more surprising result.

If you have a real concern about your hearing, the route is an audiologist and an audiogram. That takes minutes, uses calibrated equipment, and produces something a browser tone never can: a measurement.