Woody’s World

A Q&A with the inventor of a pirate-scaring noisemaker, a helicopter for every garage, and a way to hack gravity itself.

IN TERVIEW BY WILLIAM LIDWELL PHOTOGRAPH Y BY JENN Y PFEIFFER

Woody Norris is standing 50 feet away from me, pointing
a menacing-looking sci-fi contraption at my head. We’re
in the back lot of his American Technology Corporation in
San Diego, Calif. Woody’s device is called the LRAD (for
Long Range Acoustic Device). It looks something like a big
spotlight, the main difference being that it projects sound
^{instead of light. Woody yells to me,} “^{We are} going to start with some music. This is really cool!” >>