Anti-noise window: Subjective perception of active noise reduction and effect of informational masking

Reviving natural ventilation (NV) for urban sustainability presents challenges indoor acoustic comfort. Active control and interference-based noise mitigation strategies, such as the use of loudspeakers, offer potential solutions to achieve comfort while maintaining NV. However, these approaches are not commonly integrated or evaluated from a perceptual standpoint. This study examines objective aspects an active-noise-control (ANC)-based "anti-noise" window (ANW) its integration with informational masking (IM) in model bedroom. Forty participants assessed ANW three-way interaction involving types (traffic, train, aircraft), maskers (bird, water), ANC (on, off). The evaluation focused on perceived annoyance (PAY; ISO/TS 15666), affective quality (ISO/TS 12913-2), loudness (PLN), included open-ended qualitative assessment. Despite minimal reduction decibel-based indicators slight increase psychoacoustic sharpness, alone demonstrated significant reductions PAY PLN, well improvement ISO pleasantness across all types. addition generally enhanced overall comfort, although water led increased PLN. Furthermore, combination showed effects, both significantly reducing compared alone.