A few more observations: a person walking into the path of one of the inaudible ultrasonic streams would cancel out the effect and stop the audio. A limitation which would have to be considered. (higher placement of transducers in a room?) Norris insists that the technique could be used to project sound hundreds of yards away in space, perhaps a mile or so. He says they have also been contacted by the Department of Defense. The idea is that very low frequency sound can be projected over the heads of say, a riot mob. This inaudible, extremely low frequency sound will cause nausea and other reactions to hinder the crowd's ability to function. This technique was tried during the Vietnam war but the speakers used on the bottoms of helicopters created intolerable vibrations in the aircraft. With HSS, the sound is created in air, so there are no vibration problems at the point where the ultrasonic frequencies are generated and projected out. So Norris has ideas for lots of diverse applications of his technology.
Norris claims to have already heard from "everyone" in the target industries, and that they are clamoring to license HSS. However, they (ATCO) have not finished writing the licensing agreements. He said that one large manufacturer is so eager they even asked if they could help ATCO write it to get things moving.
I know it's difficult to value a company like this. Clearly, with the stock up about 15 times its initial price in the first quarter of 1994, many people have already gotten rich, including the principals (Norris holds 2,801,475 shares of the company, or 36%). Altogether, the 4 directors and officers hold 41.7% of the ATCO. I still haven't had time to pour over the 10Ks, which have the nitty gritty financials. Is there anyone out there with more experience with this kind of startup who can shed more light on the structuring of the company?
D. Kuspa |
