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>Flies inspire hearing aid technology
>Flies with extra strong hearing could be used to help develop hearing
>aids for humans, say scientists.
>The parasitic Ormia ochracea fly is less than one centimetre in
>length, but its hearing is so acute it can determine the direction of
>a sound within two degrees. Scientists used to think that only
>keen-eared owls, cats and humans possessed this special directional
>hearing, but the research published in Nature has found the fly's
>hearing is particularly good. Most flies have no sense of hearing at
>all but the Ormia specialises in detecting singing crickets. They
>deposit their tiny larvae on them and when they grow into maggots they
>eat the crickets from the inside out.
>These flies possess one of the most accurate and efficient auditory
>systems in the animal kingdom which is critical to their survival. The
>fly's ears act as an extremely small, simple and sensitive directional
>microphone.
>Now a new generation of hearing aid technology and nanoscale
>microscopes, based on the flies ears', are being developed. And
>scientists hope the new technology will help them make special
>directional hearing aids that are smaller and cheaper than hearing
>aids currently available.
>This would enable the hearing impaired to tune into specific things
>and filter out background noise - making it easier for them to
>decipher what one person was saying in a crowd of people.
>Zoology professor Andrew Mason in the Division of Life Sciences at
>the University of Toronto and the lead author of the study said their
>research showed the flies had remarkable hearing. He said: "Their
>sense of hearing is remarkable because their ears are so close
>together that directional hearing would be impossible in any other
>animal. "Our results demonstrate that in terms of directional hearing,
>the flies are as good as any system known. "These flies possess one of
>the most accurate and efficient auditory systems in the animal kingdom
>which is critical to their survival."
>
>The Ormia fly has directional hearing. To work out how the Ormia fly
>was able to pinpoint sound, Professor Mason and his colleagues
>tethered the flies on a spherical treadmill made from a ping pong
>ball. They then floated the ball on an air stream to reduce friction
>and to ensure the flies' walking movements were translated into the
>rotations of the ball. The scientists then used a portable speaker to
>play artificial cricket sounds from different parts of the room. They
>found that the flies then walked towards the sound and discovered they
>could detect changes in a sound-source location of smaller than two
>degrees.
>
>Filter noise
>Professor Mason said: "Even humans trying to detect who is speaking
>in a crowded room can't do better than that." Dr John Low, director of
>technology at the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID),
>said the research would benefit the hard of hearing. "A major problem
>faced by people with a hearing loss, of which there are almost nine
>million in the UK, is the ability to pick out individual sounds
>against a background of noise. "RNID therefore welcomes any new
>technologies that will improve hearing aid performance in this area.
>"There are many challenges in translating research into practical
>technologies that will benefit deaf and hard of hearing people. "RNID
>is actively monitoring progress in the transfer of this research to
>new hearing aid development."
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Justin........
My hindsight is 20/20.........



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