Patent ID: 8798284

Claim:
A medical instrument, comprising: a medical instrument for patient care, laboratory use, or pharmaceutical use; a computer, the computer forming a part of the medical instrument and configured for controlling and operating the medical instrument; a microphone operably connected to the computer and positioned and arranged to detect at least one of a sound level or a sound frequency residing outside of and resulting from an operation of the medical instrument; a sound capability comprising a sound card within the computer or the sound capability forming a portion of the computer; a speaker for generating sounds from the sound capability; and a control panel for selecting the sounds, wherein the computer, the control panel, the sound capability and the speaker are configured to (i) allow a user or operator of the medical instrument to select the sounds and to generate the selected sounds, (ii) adjust a frequency of the generated sounds, to mask the microphone-detected at least one sound level or sound frequency, so that at least one of (a) the frequency of the generated sounds increases as a sound level output of the generated sounds decreases or (b) the frequency of the generated sounds decreases as the sound level output of the generated sounds increases, and (iii) prevent the generated sounds from producing a siren effect due to a rise and fall of the sound level output or to the frequency of the generated sounds.