IUE~~~~~ ~THlE MICUIGAN DAILY 1 EN~l U VFDN*ESDAT, 3171: ospital Remodels Food Service AT FRIEZE BLDG.: S peech Lab Has Anechoic Chamber By CLIARLAINE AUKER I.AN "It's so quiet in here that I can h ar my heart b ating" might be the reac ion of a p rson Isolated in the anechoic, or echol s , chain- be , one of the ma n facilities of the Departm nt of Speech's new Speech Researci La oratory. Lhcated in the basement of the new section of the Frieze Building, the laboratory Is devoted to basic theoretical and applied studies in1 speech, phonetics, linguistics and human communication. These areas encompass research from the physiology of speech pro- duction and the acoustical analysis of speech waves to new technique in recording and the automatic analysis and synthesis of speech. Activities Include The range of the laboratory's activities also includes course in- struction in the analytical and ex- perimental study of speech and language to undergraduate and graduate students In the speech~ department as well as the sponsor- ship of guest lecturers. The facilities of the Speech Re- search Laboratory now include a physiology laboratory, a general acoistics laboratory, a research laboratory, a shop where many re- search instruments are built, andj eequlpment room and seminar and office space,. In addition, the Laboratory has special acoustical chambers. The smaller of the two rooms is a well-isolated recording and lis- tening room. Padded with a six- inch layer ofiberglass blan thne chamber is fui7rher sound- proofed by its construction on a fiber block set apart from the rest of the building, Resembles Radfio Studio The recording room resembles! a, radio studio in appearance and is used for making high quality re- cordings, free from any outside noises,. The larger of the acoustics chaimbers s the anechoic chamber, one of the few of i kind in the country. Not only is the room soundproof, but it is also echo- proof, The chamber is situated within another larger room in order to obtain a high degree of sound iso- lation. The outside room is con- structed of solid concrte blocks, with a special sounlproof door. In this outer room are the controls for the equipment and instruments found in the enclosed chamber, Chamber Separate The anechoic chamber is a completely separate room mounted within the outer room. Measuring approximately 22 feet in length, 15 feet in width and 17 feet in height, and weighing close to 100 tons, the entire room is construct- ed on a heavy slab of reinforced concrete. This slab, in turn, is mounted on a four-inch blanket of dense Prof. Joi r To Give Talk Prof. Charles W. Joiner of the Law School will address the con- ference of the Fourth Judicial Circuit in Hot Springs, Va., today. He will discuss the need for uni- formrules of evidence in federal COut1's. ANEC HOIC CHAMBER-- Speech 222 students Paul Powilson, Grad., and May Morrison, Grad.,calibrate the loud speaker in the anechoic chamber using controls in the outer room. The largest of the acoustical chambers utilized in the University's Speech Research Laboratory, this chamber is one of the few of its kind in the world. fiber-glass, enabling the room to quality of the chamber, Chapma "float" separately from the rest continued, creates a situatki of the building. similar to that found in the uppc On the ceiling, the floor and the atmosphere, where a lack of phy5 walls of the room, the fiber-glass ical objects eliminates the poss blankets are mounted on an array bility of sound-reflecting surface of aluminum pipes. The placement Research Conducted of the pipes gives the ceiling and A more earthly atmosphere t walls an appearance of long, deep clicking instruments is found wedges, in which the sound waves the other laboratories, where rn are trapped, search is currently being conduc Grill Covers Series ed. One of the problems they ai trying to solve is the synthesis .A removable metal grill covers speech from a series of discre the series of wedges on the floor, sounds. permitting people to enter the The Laboratory is also conduc room without being engulfed, like ing basic research on the aute the sound waves, in the deep de- matic analysis of speech, whic pressions- would permit the control of ma The anechoic chamber will be chines by means of spoken instrui used for many types of basic tions. acoustical measurements, such as The ultimate, practical objecti% standardizing and testing the of this work would be an auti range and accuracy of acoustical matic speech typewriter, whi. equipment used in the laboratory. could type out the speech spoke As it is the only chamber of its to it through a microphone. k ind at the University and prob--- -- ably in the state, it is anticipated that it will be used by various groups in the science fields. According to William D. Chap- man, supervising engineer, the chamber will probably prove use- ful in psychological perception tests. JE Silence Absolute He himself noted that some stu- 717 NORTH U dents who toured the Laboratory at the ibeining of the semester WEST OF I :found the absoluite silence in the 4 room quite a disconcerting experi- ence, - ~ ~___________ The complete absence of sound - - - caused them to hear things which they would not ordinarily hear, such as their breathing and heart- beat, which are usually masked by the everyday noises that we continually encounter. The soundproof and echo-proof LONG DISTANCE -MOVING wonderfully whimsical wood block prints OPENING July 2, 8-10 P.M. - continuing thru July 17 Summer hours: 10 A.M. to 5 P.M. Tuesday thru Friday FORSYTHE GALLERY 201 Nickels'Arcade .. . over the Post Office 11 1 I I NOTICE! Do You Know That a Typewriter Can Be Rented By the Half Hour On Each Floor of the Undergraduate Library? MORRI L'S oni____ I ENTERTAINING PROBLEMS? SEE US FOR /erdonc atzel fi.... ,. it I I ! I 11 I