You may have seen last week’s startling story that an attack by pirates on a cruise ship was thwarted by blasting them with a directed soundwave.

And who was the genius inventor behind this novel defence system? Step forward, Woody Norris, who demonstrated a (thankfully) much cuter version of his HyperSonic sound technology at TED2004.  I suspect that whatever sound the pirates heard, it wasn’t the relaxing waterfall that was directed selectively at individual members of the TED audience.

He warned us back then that there might be military applications of his technology. And there I was hoping he’d come out first with the TV that only its intended viewer could hear.