A team of researchers at the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) has developed a tiny, low-power device that mimics a fly’s hearing mechanisms. The new device could be used to build the next generation of hypersensitive hearing aids with intelligent microphones that adaptively focus only on those conversations or sounds that are of interest to the wearer.  fly-hearing-device-300x177

The researchers drew inspiration for the device from the yellow-colored Ormia ochracea fly, which can pinpoint the location of a chirping cricket with remarkable accuracy because of its ultra-sensitive acute hearing. The fly relies upon a sophisticated sound-processing mechanism that resembles a teeter-totter to determine direction of sound within two degrees.

Using the fly’s ear structure as a model, Neal Hall, PhD, an assistant professor in the Cockrell School’s department of electrical and computer engineering and his graduate students built a miniature pressure-sensitive device out of silicon that replicates the fly’s super-evolved hearing structure. The 2mm wide device is nearly identical in size to the fly’s hearing organ.

Humans and other mammals have the ability to pinpoint sound sources because of the time separation of sound between our ears. Insects generally lack this ability because their bodies are so small that sound waves essentially hit both sides simultaneously. O. ochracea is a notable exception. It can locate the direction of a cricket’s chirp even though its ears are less than 2mm apart. In the four millionths of a second between the sound entering one ear and the other, the sound phase shifts slightly. The teeter-totter-style structure in the fly’s ear effectively amplifies the time delay and allows the fly to locate its cricket prey with remarkable accuracy.

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