„Selektiv Hören durch bio-inspirierten Sensor“ – Am Karlsruher Institut für Technologie wird ein künstliches Ohr entwickelt. - Campus-Report am 15.08.2023

The human ear is a biological marvel. Even in the babble of voices at a party with loud background music, we can understand our respective conversation partners well. With selective hearing, we can focus on the voice of a single person and block out distracting noises. The problem with current hearing aids is that they amplify all voices and sounds indiscriminately, making it difficult for their users to hear selectively and spatially. A miniature sensor modeled on the human inner ear should change all that in the future. Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology are working on improving hearing aids by creating a kind of artificial ear in which bars made of silicone mimic the hair cells in the human ear that respond to sound signals.