I believe they're anti-loitering devices targeted at young people, who can hear a higher range of frequencies than older people. I've encountered them all over the US (if you're in the Bay, there's one mounted outside the Twin Peaks Tavern in Castro), though usually they pulse rather than emit a constant buzz. They're sporadic but common in Tokyo for sure, I encountered at least a dozen in the combined week or so I spent in various regions there. It was always creepy to me whenever I'd discover one, the sound was slightly nauseating if I ever got too close and left a strong negative impression, as though they were some sort of threat.
If anyone knows more specifics about these things btw, happy to have details. I spent a period of time trying to find the exact device but never could find any pictures of them, and unfortunately neglected to when I was actually in Japan.
Any microphone hooked up to a laptop with a microphone input. Or a phone running some audio spectrogram app.
Getting started is very easy, but then you'll be constantly tempted by better sensors, more sensors, more channels, more analysis...
when it gets bad you start looking at designing your own ribbon elements and considering active pickups. when it gets worse you may find yourself deeply concerned about ADC and clock skew.
see the mics that harmonica players lust after. "You traded the Cadillac for a microphone? ... I can see that."
I believe many sound chips still have ways around any pee-processing they may apply, might check the folks using them for low rate oscilloscope inputs
So the frontend of the sound card might actually be remarkably wide.
this is a likely outcome for any new hobby
Plus, I'd rather not walk around with a laptop. But perhaps smartphone apps are capable of consuming the mic input unfiltered? (Never tried recording APIs for that purpose)
More info here: https://studiosixdigital.com/audio-hardware/generic-audio-ha...
Which is a bummer when I have to cycle around several blocks to avoid hearing the squeaks that are physically painful to my ears.
Those may be covered under loud noise regulations, if the official measuring machinery has the cutoff frequency set high enough (no reason why not).
I'm 40 too but as a kid, I was very bothered by the high pitch wine of the tv turning on, so I'm guessing I've always been rather sensitive.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/mar/17/society.humanrigh...