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Associated Press Inventor Creates Soundless Sound System Thursday April 21, 9:48 pm ET By Typh Tucker, Associated Press Writer Man Astounds Crowd in Oregon With His Soundless Sound Invention PORTLAND, Ore. The emitter -- an aluminum square -- was hooked up by a wire to a CD player .
click here "There's no speaker, but when I point this pad at you, you will hear the waterfall," said the 63-year-old Californian. And one by one, each person in the audience did, and smiled widely. Norris' HyperSonic Sound system has won him an award coveted by inventors -- the $500,000 annual Lemelson-MIT Prize. It works by sending a focuse d beam of sound above the range of human hearing. When it lands on you, it seems like sound is coming from inside your head. Norris said the uses for the technology could come in handy -- in cars, i n the airport or at home. "Imagine your wife wants to watch television and you want to read a book, like the intellectual you are," he said to the crowd. "Imagine you are a lifeguard or a coach and you want to yell at someone, he'll be the onl y one to hear you." Norris holds 47 US patents, including one for a digital handheld record er and another for a handsfree headset. He said the digital recorder mad e him an inventor for life. He demonstrated the sound system at the Oregon Museum of Science and Indu stry, also called OMSI, on Thursday. Norris began tinkering as an inventor at a young age -- taking apart the family radio and putting it back together again. He said ideas come to h im when he's driving around or talking with friends. "I don't know how I got to be an inventor, but I guess some kids can play the piano, and I can invent." Norris will receive the Lemelson-MIT Prize at a ceremony here on Friday. One of his most recent patents is for the AirScooter, a personal flying m achine designed for commuting. It reaches speeds up to 55 mph and is lig ht enough -- under 300 pounds -- to not require a license to fly. The AirScooter was also on display at OMSI, although Norris didn't fly it . The machine has a single seat, a four-stroke engine and is barely 10 feet tall. The machine's fiberglass and aluminum construction keeps its weight down. Bike-style handle bars move two helicopter blades, which spin in opposite directions. Norris' AirScooter was shown on "60 Minutes" last Sunday. He said since t he airing of the show, more than 7 million people have visited the AirSc ooter's Web site. Norris said he and his crew have tested the AirScooter for four years, an d he couldn't have created the machine without a skilled group of aerona utics engineers around him.
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