The Radio Frequency Cochlea- an inspiration from human ear

The scientific world has been revolving around discoveries and inventions of things inhabited in this universe. It has introduced us the “micro” world, which not only plays a significant role in our lives but also such things without which now the human life will become miserable. 

One such innovation has come into the existence in “micro” world. The scientists at Masachussets Information Technology (MIT) have introduced a tiny radio antenna whose function is entirely based on human ear. The antenna cum chip is having ultra broadband which makes it unique in fashion and helps in picking up any range of the frequency of electromagnetic waves. 

Rahul Sarpeshkar, the associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science has designed this radio antenna with the help of his graduate student, Saumyajit Mandal. They describe this antenna as “radio frequency (RF) cochlea”, in a paper which is yet to be published in IEEE’s June issue. While revealing the mechanism of this new device Sarpeshkar says, “somebody who works in radio would never think of this and somebody who works in hearing would never think of it but when you put the two together each one provides insight into the other”. 

Sarpeshkar’s innovation depends on the mechanism of the human ear. “We copied some of the tricks ear does, and mapped those onto electronics.” “The cochlea quickly gets the big picture of what’s going on in the sound spectrum. The more I started to look at the ear, the more I realized its like a super radio with 3,500 parallel channels”, tells Sarpeshkar. 

The sound waves that enter the inner ear i.e. cochlea passes through the cochlear membrane where the message is converted into mechanical waves. These mechanical waves when pass through cilia, the hair cells of cochlea, converts these waves in electrical signal and thus sending the message to the brain. Sarpeshkar’s device works on the same mechanism. The entire RF cochlea depends on the working of cilia’s functioning. Cillia, a compelling characteristic of ear, allows it to identify different frequencies, from 100 hertz to 10,000 hertz. The RF cochlea is based on this characteristic and thus, helps the device in detecting over the wide range of sounds. “A simple phone takes 300 mili volts to detect one carrier wave”, Sarpeshkar explains. “We can do all 50 carrier frequencies with 300 mili volts”. 

The tiny device is of 1.5mm by 3mm in size. In place of cilia, the scientists have used circuits so that in place of pressure waves the RF cochlea can detect the electromagnetic waves. The device is full of tiny squares of varying shapes made for responding to different radio waves. 

The scientific world has given us many devices with varying radio frequencies. But for an ideal portable device such chip will be a great boon. It will act as an enhancer to mobile phone’s networks. It will become easy for people to get television and radio programs easily on their cell phones. It will also help for the security purposes if remains in safe hands. 

This micro chip will bring economic boom when the MIT team will plan to commercialize this device. The wireless internet connections will become easily accessible with the introduction of this device. Therefore this device will be acting as more of luxurious item for the consumers.