MIT scientists reverse engineer the ear for ultra-broadband, low power RF chip
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted June 18th 2009 4:09PM
posted June 18th 2009 4:09PM
Researchers at MIT have developed an ultra-broadband radio chip that's faster than any existing RF spectrum analyzer, while consuming 100 times less power. The RF Cochlea mimics the neural signal processing of the human cochlea, which uses fluid mechanics, piezoelectrics and neural signal processing to convert sound waves into electrical signals which travel to the brain. "The more I started to look at the ear," said Rahul Sarpeshkar, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science, "the more I realized it's like a super radio with 3,500 parallel channels." The team has recently filed for a patent to incorporate the chip in a universal or software radio architecture that will process a broad spectrum of signals including cellular phone, wireless Internet, FM, and other signals. Ultimately, this tech could be used to build a universal radio that could receive a broad range of frequencies. Meet Professor Sarpeshkar in the video after the break.
[Via Daily Tech]
[Via Daily Tech]
Good job, blastfromtheass3something. You have successfully disproven God with the most perfect proof ever.
Given that there's animals with both internal and external testes, it makes far more sense for the two to be designed. Why would the two different configurations evolve, and how would one evolve from the other?
I'm gonna go bleach my brain now.
@FNG
Are you implying that you don't believe a single thing?
@ Ed
I sure don't believe there is a god. It boggles my mind that organized religion is still around. You would think the advancement of humans knowledge would have eliminated this hocus pocus crap years ago.
I really love it when pro athletes thank god after a win. What about the loser who was praying too? Did god not like his/her team so god decided who would win? What do you believe? Wanna give me some money? You can "join" my church...
Engadget, I think you mean 'reverse enginEAR'
Do ho ho. Okay... Just don't kill me.
Almost every good invention mimics something found in nature.
You sir, must never have heard of sliced bread!
Oranges and related fruits separate into segments for easy eating. That's kinda similar to sliced bread.
Aside from ear implants, the eye implant also uses a similar but more intricate technology. The problem is the chip situated within the retina of the eye can become too hot and disrupt the retina cells, and the electrodes available within the chip could only produce pixelated human vision. Hopefully the further development in this area will help with the issues involved in the bionic eyes as well.
Good Job Apple
Personally, I wouldn't trust a guy with zombie-like features and a name that looks like a scrambled 'Shakespeare' .
It unscrambles to "Shakesparr."
A pirate Shakespeare perhaps?
Ah, the attack of the play-writing pirate-zombie scientists. I should have known that.
I wonder if anyone has though of transmitting to the human ear? Probably everyone's ear is different and we could transmit audio to the human ear on a personal channel. This is totally possible. Kinda freaky though.
That explains why only I can hear the voices.
Or do you hear them too?
(Disclaimer: this comment was made with purely humourous intent.)
"totally possible"
Okay, I lol'd.
"The more I started to look at the ear," said Rahul Sarpeshkar, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science, "the more I realized it's like a super radio with 3,500 parallel channels."
Dude
What?
dude is wacked out on his own mind.
Funny how SETI are looking for signs of intelligence in 'space static', but many people don't recognise that a well engineered ear points to an ear engineer who must know more than we currently know about how to engineer ears.
Remember:
intelligence -> functioning system
randomness -> woienworurjaonwawecjkfjklasljfnaiosurljanrioagnmaoidnf
Me thinks they will have a fight with Intel over this. Considering Intel already came up with this a while ago.
"The more I started to look at the ear," said Rahul Sarpeshkar, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science, "the more I realized it's like a super radio with 3,500 parallel channels."
should read:
"The more I started to look at what Intel was doing," said Rahul Sarpeshkar, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science, "the more I realized They hadn't patented anything yet"
Hehe ;)
That guy is so clearly full of it!
I wonder if that's the MIT we think it is or some company named 'Masterly Inane Trickery'
To the author:
"Researchers at MIT have developed an ultra-broadband radio chip that's faster than any existing RF spectrum analyzer, while consuming 100 times less power."
This states that the radio chip uses 100 times less power than the spectrum analyzer... which we naturally expect. What you meant to say is that the chip uses less power than any comparable chip and operates at frequencies higher than any spectrum analyzer.
Neat.
This is a rather confusing article. The ear only receives AUDIO in a fairly narrow spectrum. An RF signal is completely different and the ear cannot (fortunately) do anything with it. There are plenty of broadband RF receivers on the market already, but I guess the USP of the MIT chip is its size and low current drain. The really clever bit will come when they can design an antenna that will operate with any degree of efficiency over the whole bandwidth they are tuning. At 100Khz a 1/2 wave dipole would be 500metres in length, whereas at 2.4Ghz, 12.5cm. At the microwave frequencies you need an antenna with a huge amount of gain (like the Yagi shown in the still), and these antennas are highly directional, yet at the LF end you are usually more concerned with attenuating and filtering the huge signals. So I can see the chip having more application in say a spectrum analyzer where the input signal is being measured and has already been matched to 50ohms.
If you ever are in an area of absolute quiet, still your breathing and move not a muscle. After a few seconds, you will notice that the silence has a sort of "sound" of its own, a kind of empty ringing tone. This is nothing unique; everyone will hear this, given the proper setting. An informed person will tell you that your brain is trying to interpret the lack of stimuli to your hearing and so creates a bit of a filler sound. This ringing sound actually serves a more arcane purpose, covering up a noise we are not meant to hear. This noise is not impossible to hear, and if you are persistent you can effectively "break" the cover-up sound.
The next time you are silent and hear the ringing, shout at the top of your lungs for about half a minute, then be abruptly silent. It will be different for everyone. Some will hear nothing different for dozens of tries. Others might pick up soft murmuring. A special few auditory heroes might clearly make it out on the first attempt. What you will hear is a voice that relays an account of events about to happen in the immediate future. It's like a sportscaster relaying the events occurring 10 seconds into the future.
As time goes on, you will be able to make out this voice under increasingly noisy circumstances, to the point that it can be heard at any time by just concentrating. Such ability would doubtlessly be invaluable, no? You will be able react to any immediate danger, relate to people around you with greater ease. No one would ever surprise you. Now, of course you are wondering what sort of horrible catch this ability entails. Perhaps the tone of the voice is so horrible that it will drive you mad, or maybe the voice will only predict your death over and over again.
Of course this isn't the case, though, it’s a normal voice, your ears receive it no matter what, and it’s simply a matter of noticing. But there is a danger. For you see, where there is a voice, there is a body. And just like you will notice new sounds, so shall you notice new sights. More importantly, you will be noticed.
Olol, nice one, yeah it's especially important to do this experiment on a subway platform, after you collected a lot of empty cans, and it's best you don't shave or wash for the full effect of hearing these voices.
There are already "universal radio's' and spectrum receivers and in fact mutli-signal processing, it's heavily used in myriad of devices, even ones in your home.
I wonder what's suppose to be new here, I guess a small designchange based on the ear.
And the video is pretty unbearable, and he's saying he discovered what anybody learns age 2 and up, wow, good job, people can apply knowledge about one thing to other things, yeah buddy that's what happened when we changed from fish into mammals, even freaking squirrels do that.