Patent ID: 7181021

Claim:
An electronic sound screening system for regulating sound in an environmental space, comprising: means for receiving acoustic energy representing ambient sound from the environmental space and converting such energy into input electrical signals, means for performing an analysis of said input electrical signals in order to detect frequency and amplitude characteristics of the acoustic energy and for generating corresponding data analysis signals, means for receiving the data analysis signals and for monitoring predetermined frequency and amplitude characteristics of the electrical signals on the basis of the data analysis signals and for generating a real-time sound control output, sound creating means responsive to the sound control output for generating signals representing sound and for regulating the sound signals according to the sound control output, the sound creating means comprising at least one of a masking arrangement for generating masking signals representing masking sounds that have a selected relationship with the predetermined characteristics and a tonal engine for generating tonal sequence signals representing tonal sequences, and output means for converting the sound signals into sound and supplying such sound to the environmental space, whereby to regulate ambient sound characteristics in the environmental space in real-time.