Until 2015, The anechoic chamber created by Orfield Laboratories, an architectural center in Minnesota (United States) had the world record for being the quietest place in the world: absorbed 95% of sounds. No human being He was able to stay inside for more than 45 minutes because the silence It drives him to madness.
Anechoic means «without echo», and that is what the room is about: it is devoid of echo and is constructed through double steel walls, mesh floors and fiberglass-based walls.
What purpose does that room have?
It is used for experimentation. It is used by everyone from Harley Davidson to NASA. In it they seek to obtain data to improve their products, or to train astronauts. Even companies that manufacture washing machines need these cameras so that new appliances be quieter.
But Orfield Laboratories, and its founder, Stevern Orfield, also use their famous anechoic chamber to challenge the human being. They proposed that anyone sit in it, in the dark, for 45 minutes. No one even came close to that time.. If they did They would go crazy.
Although it may not seem like it It’s almost a torture chamber.
The people who entered there explain their sensations: they begin to hear their own digestive sounds, the beat of your heart, your breathing, blood circulationthe imperceptible crunch of our bones. It is that the human being does everything possible to locate a sound source, which makes your own body becomes the generator of all the sound in the room. And when you start listening to the sounds of your body, the mind loses control and balance is lost.
Each of those sounds that we never hear in our daily lives, They become terrifying. Therefore, no one could spend more than 40 minutes in that camera before starting to show symptoms of madness.
In that chamber you have to be seated because if you do it standing up, In seconds the person feels dizzy and falls.
But There is a company that since 2015 It holds the world record for having the quietest room in the world. And it’s about Microsoft. His room absorbs 99.99% of sounds.
The numbers are relentless. A human whisper produces about 30 decibels, the sound of normal breathing is just 10 decibels. AND the vacuum is estimated at -24 decibels.
The limit of human hearing is around 0 decibels.
Orfield’s camera It has noise levels of -9.4 decibels.
The built chamber in the depths of Building 87, at Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, in the same space where the firm’s hardware laboratories are located it has -20.6 decibels. Crazy. almost nothing. Right “on the edge of physics,” as Microsoft likes to say.
In that place Microsoft engineers test from speakers for your tablets and laptops, to optimizing Skype calls without pollution from outside noise.
The Microsoft camera is located below six layers of concrete and steel that separate it from the outside world, each of them with walls of 30 centimeters thick. To give you an idea: if a huge jumbo jet was taking off next to the building, in the camera barely a whisper would be heard.
If a human thinks that this is not so easy, let him get an idea: if he screams in there no sound is produced.
What does a human being feel inside the Microsoft camera? At first a total relaxation. Then the brain begins to concentrate. The seconds pass and ears can’t stand silence and look for any sound. Those of our body appear. He is on his way to madness.
«As soon as you enter the chamber, you immediately feel a strange and unique sensation that is difficult to describe,» wrote Hundraj Gopal, a speech and hearing scientist, and lead designer of the Microsoft anechoic chamber.
«For most people, the lack of noise is deafening; they experience a feeling of swelling in their ears or ringing. Very faint sounds become audible because the ambient noise is exceptionally low. When you turn your head, you can hear it turning. «You can hear your breathing and it sounds a little loud,» he adds.
Microsoft’s anechoic chamber is secret and not open to the public. Steve Orfield’s is open to the public and this is how he explains it himself: «We receive thousands of applications. Almost every week people come from all over the world and they are almost always excited by the experience.» Orfield built his anechoic chamber in a historic building. There was Studio 80, the famous recording studio where Bob Dylan, Prince and Cat Stevens recorded, inter alia.
That’s why the Orfield chamber welcomes a wide variety of companies and products: medical defibrillators, sleep apnea machines, hearing aids, heart valves, appliances, auto parts, computers and hard drives.
The one who spent the longest time in the anechoic chamber did not reach 45 minutes. AND most ask to leave just seconds after entering.
Microsoft’s is much worse.
Silence is beautiful. But there are sounds that are necessary to live: that of the rain, that of the wind, that of a running river, that of a hello that you needed so much, that of some steps that you thought were lost.
If madness can be achieved with silence, Happiness can be achieved with sounds.
GML
