Apparatus for acoustically improving an environment and related method

A method of manufacturing an apparatus for acoustically improving an environmental space, the apparatus comprising:

• passive means for at least one of absorbing and reflecting sound within an environmental space and active means for transforming said sound by building harmonic elements on said sound adjusted to provide masking sound;
• the passive means comprising a partitioning screen for producing a discontinuity in a sound conducting medium in the environmental space;
• the active means comprising:
• means for receiving acoustic energy representing sound from the environmental space and for converting the acoustic energy into an electrical input signal;
• means for receiving and analyzing the input signal into a plurality of frequency bands to derive control parameters;
• a series of bandpass filters for receiving and filtering the input signal for generating an output, said bandpass filters corresponding in number to the plurality of frequency bands having a harmonic relation to one another;
• wherein the control parameters from the analyzing means are arranged to set automatically in real tome the gain and the steepness of each said filter in the series of filters in order to adjust the filtering of each said filter and control the output according to the level and quality of sound within the environmental space, and wherein the thus controlled series of filters are arranged to transform the frequency characteristics of the input signal by building harmonic elements on the received acoustic energy to provide masking sound;
• means responsive to the output from the series of filters for generating an electrical output signal;
• and
• output means for converting the output signal into masking sound for modifying sound within the environmental space;
• the method of manufacturing comprising the step of:
• providing electrically conductive pathways in or on a flexible material, the electrical pathways being adapted to connect to means for receiving audio energy and for converting such audio energy into an electrical signal for processing and being adapted also to provide a pathway for the processed electrical signal to an audio output means.

A system for acoustically improving a sound environment comprising:

• passive means for at least one of absorbing and reflecting sound within an environmental space and active means for transforming said sound by building harmonic elements on said sound adjusted to provide masking sound;
• the passive means comprising a partitioning screen for producing a discontinuity in a sound conducting medium in the environmental space;
• the active means comprising:
• means for receiving acoustic energy representing sound from the environmental space and for converting the acoustic energy into an electrical input signal;
• means for receiving and analyzing the input signal to derive control parameters;
• a series of bandpass filters for receiving and filtering the input signal for generating an output, said bandpass filters corresponding in number to the plurality of frequency bands and having center frequencies in a harmonic relation to one another;
• wherein the control parameters from the analyzing means are arranged to set automatically in real time the gain and steepness of each said filter in the series of filters in order to adjust the filtering of each filter and control the output according to the level and quality of sound within the environmental space, and where the thus controlled series of filters are arranged to transform the frequency characteristics of the input signal by building harmonic elements on the received acoustic energy to provide masking sound;
• means responsive to the output from the series of filters for generating an electrical output signal;
• and
• output means for converting the output signal into masking sound for modifying sound within the environmental space;
• a number of microphones for sensing environmental sound and for generating at least one said electrical input signal;
• and
• a number of speakers comprising the output means for outputting sound back into the environmental space.

A sound curtain comprising:

• a sound partitioning screen for producing a discontinuity in a sound conducting medium in an environmental space;
• a number of exciters affixed to said sound partitioning screen;
• and
• active means for transforming sensed sound from said environmental space into an output sound by building harmonic elements on said sound adjusted to provide masking sound, said active means comprising
• means for receiving acoustic energy representing sound from the environmental space and for converting the acoustic energy into an electrical input signal;
• means for receiving and analyzing the input signal into a plurality of frequency bands to derive control parameters;
• a series of bandpass filters for receiving and filtering the input signal for generating an output, said bandpass filters corresponding in number to the plurality of frequency bands and having center frequencies in a harmonic relation to one another,
• wherein the control parameters from the analyzing means are arranged to set automatically in real time the gain and the steepness of each said filter in the series of filters in order to adjust the filtering of each said filter and control the output according to the level and quality of sound within the environmental space, and wherein the thus controlled series of filters are arranged to transform the frequency characteristics of the input signal by building harmonic elements on the received acoustic energy to provide masking sound;
• means responsive to the output from the series of filters for generating an electrical signal;
• and
• output means for converting the output signal into masking sound for modifying sound within the environmental space;
• and wherein said masking sound drives said exciters;
• whereby the sensed sound of the environment is transformed into a musical sound output.