Room correction in noisy environment (ARC, Dirac, Minidsp, REW)

I don't understand how a system can offer room correction without using a microphone and sending actual sound waves out into the room, analyzing it, and adjusting for the response.

Good info. I'm interested in this security film.

Also, to be clear, I'm not trying to drown out or compensate for outside noise. I'm just trying to use ARC the way it's intended but afraid my high noise level will botch the measurements completely.

I think this is very often the case with anyone's system.  Think about this, when you put on a set of noise cancelling headphones, it's amazing how much quieter it is!  Most rooms have high ambient noise naturally even though you don't really perceive it.

So I wonder how many peoples' measurements have been botched due to this.

Thank you for all the input. I understand that room correction is not a fix all.  I have a very tough room and using absorbers, traps, and diffusers is not an option.  My aim is to get as close to "better" as possible.  

I simply wanted to know if the ambient noise was a total failure.  You answered my question when you mentioned the test tone noise should be significantly louder than ambient noise.

I tried to run Audyssey in the bedroom and it kept erroring out saying too much ambient noise.

I also tried ARC in my main living room but my wife got up out of bed yelling at me to turn it off so no, I have not successfully completed a room correction process yet unfortunately.

Where are you located around Dallas?  What room corrections have you tried?