The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 13, 2001
Filed:
Mar. 10, 1999
Thomas R. Horrall, Harvard, MA (US);
Acentech, Inc., Cambridge, MA (US);
Abstract
A personal sound masking system for use in an individual workspace provides an optimized acoustic background environment by delivering a sound masking signal that is specifically matched to the individual user's location and physical relationship to other nearby offices. The sound masking system employs multiple loudspeakers and multiple mutually incoherent channels in order to obtain a desired degree of diffuseness. A control module includes an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM) that stores data representing a number of samples of a masking signal segment, addressing logic that accesses the samples in the memory sequentially and repetitively to generate different series of data values each representing a different masking signal, digital to analog converters that convert the series of samples into analog masking signals, and power amplification circuitry that amplifies the analog masking signals to levels suitable for driving the loudspeakers. The sound masking system also includes a user-accessible volume control to enable the user to adjust the sound level to achieve optimum sound masking in his or her individual workspace.