Understanding and mimicking the dual optimality of the fly ear

The fly Ormia ochracea has the remarkable ability, given an eardrum separation of only 520 μm, to pinpoint the 5 kHz chirp of its cricket host. Previous research showed that the two eardrums are mechanically coupled, which amplifies the directional cues. We have now performed a mechanics and optimization analysis which reveals that the right coupling strength is key: it results in simultaneously optimized directional sensitivity and directional cue linearity at 5 kHz. We next demonstrated that this dual optimality is replicable in a synthetic device and can be tailored for a desired frequency. Finally, we demonstrated a miniature sensor endowed with this dual-optimality at 8 kHz with unparalleled sound localization. This work provides a quantitative and mechanistic explanation for the fly's sound-localization ability from a new perspective, and it provides a framework for the development of fly-ear inspired sensors to overcoming a previously-insurmountable size constraint in engineered sound-localization systems.