We used to have one at HP. I hated going in there, supremely disorienting and creepy, especially with the weird panels on the walls.
A room so quiet, no one can spend more than 45 minutes in it
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Re: A room so quiet, no one can spend more than 45 minutes in it
#12I'm sure many people could, starting with the Deaf. I'd certainly enjoy a break from the incessant yammering of humanity.
You're sure? I don't understand deafness to mean not sensing any vibrations whatsoever.
Re: A room so quiet, no one can spend more than 45 minutes in it
#13Being completely deaf in one ear, I'm sure I could last 90 minutest at least. A cool article, but a bit sensationalist.
I like that your process for calculating how long you could last appears to consist of multiplying the amount of time others can last by their ratio of working ears to yours. Science!
Re: A room so quiet, no one can spend more than 45 minutes in it
#14I was hoping for more science-y details. Any HN folks care to give a better explanation of what's going on here?
I've been in a few before. They are used a lot for testing the RF properties of wireless products. They basically let nothing from the outside in, and allow for no reflection on the inside. Thus you can isolate the characteristics of your device from any other possible surrounding noise. I usually get a headache after being in one for awhile, but I always assumed that's because the pointy foam shit smells like fresh…
The term is used for both RF and Audio wave absorbing rooms, but in this case they are talking explicitly about a room that doesn't reflect Sound.
Re: A room so quiet, no one can spend more than 45 minutes in it
#15I'm sure many people could, starting with the Deaf. I'd certainly enjoy a break from the incessant yammering of humanity.
I've been in an anechoic chamber and it's not so much the lack of sound but the intense visual shock. You're usually in a room with incredible depth levels, sharp angles and so on. It can induce a feeling of sea-sickness.
The absolute silence exacerbates the issue but it's not the only factor at play.
Re: A room so quiet, no one can spend more than 45 minutes in it
#16He mentioned that people generally can't be in there longer than 45 minutes. I would love to test that theory. Give me a desk, a laptop, and let me get to work.
The most interesting thing would be whether or not my tinnitus is going to drive me insane or not :P
Re: A room so quiet, no one can spend more than 45 minutes in it
#17I've worked in one of these for a happy summer making measurements of acoustic diffuser panels. I quite enjoyed it. However, it looks that that room actually has a regular floor; mine didn't. You lowered your own suspended floor (metal grill tiles) onto scaffold poles to get into the room, then tore it all up as you left. Falling off the "floor" was a Really Bad Idea; those foam pyramids have got a steel spike up the middle for rigidity, and you'd be in deep trouble if you fell onto them from 6 feet up (especially as no-one was going to hear you scream).
There was a safety microphone wired to the door switch for this reason (which also meant it wasn't QUITE such a good idea to say rude things about people in there :-)
Re: A room so quiet, no one can spend more than 45 minutes in it
#18The reverb room actually sounds cooler:
> ...a reverberation chamber with bowed aluminum panels in which he sounds the same from 300 feet away as 3 feet away.
Re: A room so quiet, no one can spend more than 45 minutes in it
#19I've worked in one of these for a happy summer making measurements of acoustic diffuser panels. I quite enjoyed it. However, it looks that that room actually has a regular floor; mine didn't. You lowered your own suspended floor (metal grill tiles) onto scaffold poles to get into the room, then tore it all up as you left. Falling off the "floor" was a Really Bad Idea; those foam pyramids have got a steel spike up the…
However, it looks that that room actually has a regular floor
Look carefully at the picture, he's not standing on a solid floor, he's standing on a wire frame over more absorbers. Their website has a better pic: http://www.orfieldlabs.com/Researchtour4.html
IOW, their chamber is (fully) anechoic, not just hemi-anechoic.
Re: A room so quiet, no one can spend more than 45 minutes in it
#20The reverb room actually sounds cooler: > ...a reverberation chamber with bowed aluminum panels in which he sounds the same from 300 feet away as 3 feet away.
Reverb rooms are much easier to build (and more common) than very-quiet anechoic chambers.