A local man has been measured speaking over five times louder on his mobile phone than he does in person, confirming the long-held suspicions of his family, friends, and work colleagues. To confirm the expectedly pronounced difference in volume, noise experts from a local university were commissioned to test Tim Graham’s voice, which they did by secretly installing an app in on his phone to record his voice in a variety of circumstances throughout an average week.

In what is believed to be the first use of technology of this kind to compare the volume of a person’s voice, the results of the week-long tracking were astounding. Lead researcher Professor Brendon Clancy said, “His family members had predicted that the phone speaking volume would be twice as loud as his normal voice, so for it to be five times louder was quite surprising to them. We also tested a number of different people in a control group, and while they all recorded increases for their phone voice, none got close to being five times louder.”

While Professor Clancy suggested that Graham may need to now amend his vocal pitch in the future, he did also concede that an increase in volume was almost unavoidable. Professor Clancy said, “As annoying as it can be for people stuck in the same room as the person on the phone, an increase in volume and pitch is incredibly common. Advances in telephone technology have been substantial in the last two decades, but people still seem compelled to yell into their phones in order to be heard clearly.”

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