Hearing Solutions in a Fly’s Ear

Using the ear of a tiny fly as a model, researchers at Binghamton University in New York have developed a tiny microphone diaphragm that is designed to respond only to sounds coming from in front of the wearer--thus screening out background noise for people using hearing aids.

Most creatures pinpoint sound sources because sound reaches the ears on either side of the head from different angles. But the ears of the parasitic fly Ormia orchracea are just a couple of hundred microns apart. Nonetheless, the fly can detect changes as small as 2 degrees in the direction of incoming sounds.

Ronald Miles and his colleagues at Binghamton reported at the recent Fort Lauderdale, Fla., meeting of the Acoustical Society of America that they built a silicon nitride diaphragm that closely reproduces the characteristics of the fly’s ear. Mass producing it may be difficult, however.

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Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II