Acoustic wall assembly having active noise-disruptive properties, and/or method of making and/or using the same

An acoustic wall assembly, comprising:

• a wall having an outside major surface and an inside major surface;
• an air pump;
• a sound masking circuit configured to:
• detect sound waves in a predetermined frequency range, and
• responsive to detection of sound waves in the predetermined frequency range, control the air pump to pump air to actively mask the detected sound waves as they pass from outside the outside major surface of the wall to inside the inside major surface of the wall;
• and
• at least one opening formed in the wall, the at least one opening having a size, shape, and dimension selected to trigger reverberation at a desired frequency range.

An acoustic wall assembly, comprising:

• a wall having an outside major surface and an inside major surface;
• a receiver sensitive to sound;
• a pump controllable to generate pressure waves;
• and
• a control circuit operably coupled to the receiver and the pump, the control circuit being configured to process a signal received from the receiver and control the pump to dynamically generate pressure waves to disrupt, by making the wall itself reverberate in an on-demand manner, noise in a predetermined frequency range that otherwise would pass through the wall.

A kit for retrofitting a wall to provide an acoustic wall assembly with noise masking properties, the kit comprising:

• a receiver sensitive to sound;
• a pump controllable to generate pressure waves in and/or on the acoustic wall assembly;
• and
• a control circuit operably connectable to the receiver and the pump, the control circuit being configured to process a signal received from the receiver and control the pump to dynamically generate pressure waves to cause the wall itself to reverberate to disrupt noise in a predetermined frequency range that otherwise would pass through the wall.

A method of making a sound-masking wall assembly, the method comprising:

• having a wall;
• providing a receiver sensitive to sound;
• providing a pump controllable to generate pressure waves for the sound-masking wall assembly;
• and
• operably coupling a control circuit to the receiver and the pump, the control circuit being configured to process a signal received from the receiver and control the pump to dynamically generate pressure waves to disrupt, via a reverberative effect, psychoacoustically disruptive noise in a predetermined frequency range that otherwise would pass through the wall,
• wherein the generated pressure waves are generated so as to disrupt, without substantially cancelling and without substantially completely covering over, the psychoacoustically disruptive noise, while also accounting for sound flanking and infra-sound beating.