A new technology discovery by University of Texas Austin researchers is expected to set the stage for the next generation of hypersensitive hearing aids and potentially create intelligent microphones which adaptively focus on conversations or sounds the wearer is interested in.

Biomimicry, using nature and natural systems for inspiration, is becoming more predominant with researchers from robotics to medical devices to new electroceuticals. One of the best illustrations of biomimicry we take for granted is velcro which was inspired by the plant known as a burr. Velcro was invented by a Swiss engineer in 1941 after a walk with his dog and when he went to remove the burrs from his dog’s fur, he thought he should take a closer look at how they worked.

In the case of this prototype,  the Ormia ochraceafly’s hearing mechanism was used as the blue print for the tiny hearing device because of the acute hearing of the fly which can pinpoint the location of a chirping cricket.

The device is two milimeters wide and converts the mechanical strain from sounds into electric signals that stimulate sensors in the inner ear – exactly how the Ormia ochraceafly’s hearing works.

Even though Ormia ochraceafly’s ears are less than 2 mm apart it takes four millionths of a second for sound to go in one ear and out the other.  To compensate, nature stepped in and built the fly’s ear like a teeter-totter with vibrations on each opposing end  - remember your time on a  teeter-totter and when you hit the ground it vibrated. That vibration forces a mechanical motion that’s 180 degrees out of sync with the other end and this amplifies the time delay (four millionths of a second) and allows the fly to accurately locate the cricket.

To mimic the fly’s hearing in the same way, the researchers created a miniature pressure-sensitive teeter-totter in silicon using piezoelectric materials. This enabled them to simultaneously measure the flexing and rotation of the teeter-totter beam and replicate the fly’s ability to detect sound direction in the device.

The above story is based on materials by Forbes. 
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