MIT Forum-Featuring................
Upsidedown Thinking: Elwood G. Norris - Keynote Speaker
Location : Hyatt Regency Bellevue Hotel
900 Bellevue Way NE
Bellevue, WA
Date & Time : September 21, 2005 - 5:30 p.m.
Team Leader : Yuki Yang / Andrei Guschin
Keynote speaker Mr. Woody Norris will present both the excitement and the challenges of being an inventor in the 21st century. Mr. Norris is a prominent self-educated inventor, and a winner of the 2005 $500,000 Lemelson-MIT prize for invention and innovation. His discussion will focus on the pleasures and the obstacles that accompany technology innovation – how to find great ideas and get them commercialized. He will also demonstrate his HyperSonic® Sound technology at the event.
Woody Norris is the holder of 47 U.S. patents with more than 100 pending patents worldwide. He is widely recognized as a prolific inventor and a talented technology integrator. Mr. Norris’ interest in electronics started at a young age with rigorous experimentation, a method of inventing that continues to this day.
Many of Mr. Norris’ inventions are more than single product ideas; they shatter technology barriers creating multiple applications and a lasting impact. Among these technical breakthroughs are:
HyperSonic® Sound (HSS®) – a revolutionary directional loudspeaker that focuses sound to a specific location without disturbing surrounding activities. A side benefit of HSS® is that people can move away from the sound if they don’t want to listen. HSS® has been recognized by Popular Science in 2002 as the “Best of What’s New”.
A hands-free ear-mounted speaker/microphone device operating on the principle that sound travels through the bones in a person’s head. This invention is currently being sold by JABRA Corporation and is the most popular cell phone headset, with $100 million in sales last year.
Flashback®, the first digital recording technology that allowed digital recording of information on non-volatile flash memory rather than tape. Flashback® was also recognized by Popular Science in 1994 as one of the “Best of What’s New”.
Transcutaneous Doppler System. Over time, this product was incorporated into today's sonogram device used by doctors and hospitals in imaging the human body.
The latest invention, the AirScooter® a new kind of safe, single person helicopter designed for recreation. Remarkably, it does not require a pilot’s license, can be mastered in one afternoon of training, and weighs just over 250 pounds. In 2002, AirScooter® was recognized by Popular Science as one of the “Best of What’s New”.
The inventions of Woody Norris have been the keystone for several new companies. In 1980, he founded (and is currently Chairman of) American Technology Corporation as a means to promote certain of his inventions. Today, American Technology Corporation is publicly traded and is marketing HSS® products to customers around the world.
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