As you move through the room, you will hear the horrible grinding of bones. Eventually, you’ll lose your balance by its eerie silence.
Some say silence is golden. However, this certainly won’t happen if you find yourself in the quietest room in the world – no one can afford to sit here for more than an hour.
In 2015, Microsoft built a room that is now officially recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the quietest place on Earth. Dubbed the anechoic chamber, it is located at the company’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington, USA.
According to scientists, there will probably be very few people able to survive in this room for a “long” time – an hour at most. Because when you’re in this room, after a few minutes, you’ll start to hear your heartbeat. A few minutes later, you can hear your bones creaking with every movement and blood is circulating throughout your body. In the end, you will lose your balance, because the absolute lack of sound will sabotage human spatial perception.
The silent room in Building 87 at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington, holds the Guinness World Record as the world’s quietest room.
In that room at Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington state (USA), all sounds from the outside world are blocked off and any sounds generated inside are locked out.
It’s called the “anechoic” chamber, because it doesn’t create any echoes at all – making the sound of claps downright eerie.
The background noise in the room reaches the lowest threshold that theoretical mathematicians can approach, called the absolute zero of sound. It’s the quietest place in the world.
The silence came… deafening
The anechoic room provides a very rare sensory experience. Hundraj Gopal, auditory scientist and lead designer of echo chambers at Microsoft, writes: “As soon as one enters the room, one immediately feels a sense of strangeness and uniqueness that is hard to describe. . Most people find that there is no squeaky sound, but it still feels full or as if there is some ringing. Very small sounds become apparent because of the exceptionally low background noise. When you turn your head, you can hear the movement of your neck. You can hear your own breathing and it sounds a bit loud.”
The door to Microsoft’s silent room.
In the real world, our ears are constantly exposed to some level of sound, so there’s always air pressure acting on the ear drum, explains Gopal. But upon entering an anechoic room, this constant air pressure disappears, as there is no sound reflection from the surrounding walls.
Concrete onion
To achieve ultimate tranquility, the Microsoft room was designed with an onion-like structure, isolating it completely from the rest of the building and the outside world.
It is made of six layers of concrete and steel, which is separate from the building because it is placed on top of a series of vibration damping springs. Inside, fiberglass wedges are mounted all around the floor, ceiling and walls to disrupt sound waves before they have a chance to reflect back into the room. The floor itself is simply a sound-absorbing cable car grid. The exterior of the room is luxurious, with a futuristic design, with a perfect view of the desert sky.
“The design, planning and construction of the room took over a year and a half,” Mr. Gopal confirmed. I needed a nice location on the premises where the noise levels measured inside the building were low. I planned in advance for the interior of the building so that I could place the room after 6 layers of soundproofing.”
“We built a special 30cm thick concrete wall around the chamber to block the sound even more thoroughly. We pay attention to every detail that can lead the sound from outside to inside the chamber, such as isolating the spray water supply pipes and fire alarm sensors; or line the air ducts with additional sound-absorbing material,” added expert Gopal.
As a result, the measured noise level inside the quietest room was -20.3dBA. This means that the noise in the chamber is below the human hearing threshold of 20.3dB (decibels). For comparison, one of the quietest sounds that can be heard in a quiet, breathing room, is at 10dB.
Normally, our ears can hear sounds from about 0 decibels (lowest threshold) to 140 decibels (highest threshold), however some people will have the highest threshold at a lower level.
The Chamber of Silence at Orfield Labs, Minneapolis, is open to the public. (Photo: Orfield Laboratory).
A world record
Microsoft’s echo chamber has been recognized in the Guinness Book of World Records as the quietest place in the world. This title was once awarded to a similar silent room at Orfield Laboratory in Minneapolis, USA. But unlike Microsoft’s, that room is open to the public, making it a tourist attraction.
Experts at Orfield Lab claim that just sitting in their room for 45 minutes, you can go “crazy”. British YouTuber Callux decided to take on the challenge, claiming it was a “terrifying” experience.
“We get thousands of requests. The public visits the room from all over the world almost every week and they are always excited about the experience,” said Steve Orfield, who built his own Orfield lab and echo chamber in the Studio building. 80, which is a famous studio, said.
According to Orfield, the experience in a quiet room is somewhat affected by coming from a noisy environment, it will be difficult for you to fully feel the silence. The quality of a person’s hearing is also related: the older we get, the harder it is to adapt to and appreciate silence.
Steve Orfield inside his echo chamber. (Image: Orfield Laboratory)
Meanwhile, expert Gopal recommends turning off the lights when experiencing a silent room.
“Most experiences of sensory deprivation should include turning off all lights so that you are in both audible and visual tranquility, free of sensory noise. At that point, walking around the room will cause most people to lose their balance after a short while.”
Steve Orfield, who has done research on the effects of noise in people with degenerative diseases like dementia, notes that travelers with autism, ADHD and other disabilities have anxiety and Super sensitive, tend to find the room quiet and peaceful.
What is the silent room for?
Echo prevention is commonly used to test noise and acoustics emitted by a wide range of products with high scientific confidence.
Echo prevention is commonly used to test noise and acoustics emitted by a wide range of products with high scientific confidence.
Microsoft uses it for audio devices like microphones, receivers, headphones, and speakers, or to analyze clicks and noises from computing devices like keyboards, mice, fans, and backlit modules on boards. touch and screen.
Some of the products that benefit from this room are Surface tablets, Xbox game consoles and HoloLens VR glasses, or audio software like Skype and Cortana virtual assistant.
Tested in a Microsoft echo chamber. (Photo: Microsoft)
Meanwhile, as the quiet room at Orfield Labs is the only one recognized as an independent echocardiographic laboratory in the US, it attracts even more businesses and products such as medical defibrillators. medical devices, sleep apnea monitors, hearing aids, heart valves, auto parts, computers and hard drives.
Despite the rumors, there is no “world record” for a person’s continuous room time and such challenges are not recommended. Still, Orfield said he received many requests from people who wanted to “break the record”.
Gopal expert at Microsoft confirmed: “The longest continuous time anyone was in the chamber was about 55 minutes. I noticed that some people were able to stay in the chamber for 30 minutes or so, while others asked to leave within the first few seconds.”
