Active attenuation system for medical patients

A patient diagnosing apparatus comprising:

• patient accommodating means for holding a patient in a predetermined position;
• diagnosing means, operatively coupled to and surrounding said patient accommodating means, for diagnosing a medical condition of the patient, said diagnosing means generating undesirable acoustic noise in an area of the patient during a diagnosis operation;
• and
• active acoustic noise cancellation means, coupled to said diagnosing means, for canceling the undesirable acoustic noise generated by said diagnosing means in the area of the patient, said active acoustic noise cancellation means comprising
• first non-magnetic, non-metallic flexible sound propagating means adapted to carry undesirable acoustic noise, and
• noise detection means, for detecting the undesirable acoustic noise in the area of the patient, located remotely from said patient accommodating means and coupled to said diagnosing means through said first non-magnetic, non-metallic flexible sound propagating means so that detection of the undesirable acoustic noise does not interfere with the operation of said diagnosing means, and
• second non-magnetic, non-metallic flexible sound propagating means, adapted to carry counternoise waves, and
• counternoise speaker means, for generating and transmitting said counternoise waves to the patient based upon the detected undesirable acoustic noise, to cancel the undesirable acoustic noise in the area of the patient, said counternoise speaker means located remotely from said patient accommodating means and coupled to said diagnosing means through said second non-magnetic, non-metallic flexible sound propagating means so that transmission of the counternoise waves does not interfere with operation of said diagnosing means.

A method of canceling undesirable acoustic noise generated by diagnosing means in the area of a patient's ear during a patient diagnosis operation, comprising the steps of:

• transferring the undesirable noise generated by the diagnosing means from the area of the patient's ear to a remote location via first elongated, flexible non-magnetic sound propagating means;
• detecting the transferred undesirable acoustic noise using noise detection means at the remote location so that said detecting does not interfere with the patient diagnosis operation;
• generating counternoise waves using control means at the remote location based upon the detected undesirable acoustic noise so that said generating does not interfere with the patient diagnosis operation;
• and transferring the counternoise waves generated by the control means from the remote location to the area of the patient's ear via second elongated, flexible non-magnetic, non-metallic sound propagating means to cancel the undesirable acoustic noise in the immediate area of the patient's ear.

A noise cancellation system for a patient diagnosis apparatus comprising:

• active noise cancellation means, located remotely from the patient diagnosis apparatus, for cancelling undesirable acoustic noise generated by the patient diagnosis apparatus in an area of a patient during a diagnosis operation, said active noise cancellation means comprising
• first and second microphones for detecting the undesirable acoustic noise in respective first and second areas immediately near the ears of the patient,
• control means, coupled to said first and second microphones, for generating respective first and second cancellation waves based upon the undesirable acoustic noise of said first and second areas, and
• first and second speakers, coupled to said control means, for respectively transmitting said first and second cancellation waves to said first and second areas to cancel the undesirable acoustic noise, and
• non-magnetic, non-metallic sound propagating means, coupled to said active noise cancellation means, said propagating means adopted to transfer the undesirable acoustic noise from said first and second areas to said first and second microphones and for transferring said first and second cancellation waves from said first and second speakers to said first and second areas.