PRINCE Edward was the star of the show at a new state-of-the art £6m research centre to revolutionise hearing and test the effects of sound and vibration on the human body in Southampton.
The Earl of Wessex, pictured second right, officially opened the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, ISVR, at the University of Southampton, which includes the South of England Cochlear Implant Centre.
For more than 40 years the Institute has worked on the interface between technology and humans, playing a major part in making aircraft quieter, developing more efficient cochlear implants for people with hearing loss and improving sound systems.
Research completed at the Institute has also been used in the design of every car built after 1987.
Touring the centre the prince, was given a demonstration of how research is undertaken in the centre's Human Factors Research Unit, which houses the world's only six-axis simulator for investigating the effect of motion on people's performance and comfort.
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