Why did Microsoft make the world's quietest room?

The quietest room in the world made by Microsoft

Microsoft has made the quietest room in the world. It is so quiet that one can hear the sound of one's own bones. The electronic devices of the future are designed in this room.

If LeSalle Munroe stood still for a few seconds in his 'office', he could hear his blood coursing through his veins, his eyes playing in their sockets.

Most people's workplaces are filled with keyboard clicking, computer hum, human voices. Munroe, on the other hand, works in a completely silent environment. His office is the quietest place in the world. This room was specially built at Microsoft's headquarters in Washington, where its lab is located. Some of the company's products are developed here. In 2015, it became the quietest place in the world with -20.6 decibels. To better understand this figure, to give an example, the human whisper is 30 decibels and breathing is about 10 decibels. Collision of air molecules at room temperature produces a sound of -24 decibels. The human hearing limit is 0 decibels, but the fact that our ears do not hear does not mean that there is no sound. That's why the negative value exists.

In the silent room, one hears the sounds of his own body exaggeratedly. "It's a very interesting experience to walk into this office and close the door," says Munroe. " Even if you are not breathing, you can hear your heartbeat and blood flowing in your veins, which makes you very uncomfortable. This room is designed to be surrounded by six layers of concrete walls to prevent outside noise. In this building, which we can describe as a 'room within a room', all the walls are 30 cm thick. Thus, 110 decibels of sound is prevented. The silent room is built on a separate foundation inside the building, with 68 vibration-proof springs. "So the room has no direct contact with the building," says Hundraj Gopal, who led the construction process. The sides of the cube-shaped chamber are 6.36 meters long. All surfaces are covered with 1.2 meters of sound absorbing sponge. Thus, the sound is prevented from hitting the walls and echoing. There are also special insulations in the frame of the doors. Everything from ventilation, cable entries to fire extinguishing equipment is custom designed. The result is an incredibly quiet room. Before Gopal's quiet room, the world record was -9.4 decibels, in a lab in Minneapolis. Although Microsoft did not set out to break this record, they managed to make a room much quieter than the 0 decibels they were aiming for.

Microsoft is testing its electronics in the quiet room. You might think that such a quiet place will give you peace of mind. But those who spend time there don't say that. Some want to get out of here after a few seconds. "Someone standing on one side of the room hears the other's breathing or stomach rumbling. Some people get dizzy," Gopal says.

Peter Suedfeld, a psychologist doing research on sensory deprivation at the University of British Columbia in Canada, He likens stepping into a quiet room to entering a dark room. " “We have become so used to every sound that resonates in the world around us that there is an annoying loud noise in this room. Just like when you walk into a dark room, you can't see anything and then your eyes get used to it."

In this environment away from everyday sounds, body sounds become prominent. You hear the sound of bones in your joints or ringing in your ears as you move. Gopal says some people enjoyed the experience in the quiet room. “But the longest remaining on the island lasted an hour. If you stay too long, you'll go crazy. Even swallowing your saliva sounds too loud." But Munroe uses this room for other purposes. Here, he listens to electronic devices, trying to detect vibrations caused by capacitors in the electronic circuit assembly when electric current passes. The hum caused by this vibration disturbs customers. Various experiments are carried out in the quiet room to solve this problem. Other elements that make noise on the computer are also examined and tried to be eliminated.

He even hears the sounds of human bones in the quiet room. In addition, settings are made in this room so that each key on the keyboard gives a certain sound; microphone and speakers are tested here. Technologies such as Microsoft's artificial intelligence assistant Cortana's three-dimensional sound and HoloLens virtual reality display are also tested here.

Others also want to use the quiet room in biomedical research. For example, there is research showing that short-term sensory deprivation leads to transient psychotic seizures and hallucinations. These may contribute to research on schizophrenia.

Gopal doesn't want to get too involved in medical and behavioral research. Experimenting with humans in such an unusual environment requires a lot of legal action. Plus, the lab's testing schedule is already intense enough. But both Munroe and Gopal say they understood his strength better after staying in the quiet room for a while and leaving. "When you open the door and walk out, it's like a waterfall of noise pours into your ears," says Munroe. "It's like you've stepped into another world. You begin to hear things that you might not have noticed at other times. It offers a new perspective."