I think this is pretty cool

http://news.com.com/Physicists+re-create+natures+best+sound+system/2100-7337_3-5758325.html?tag=nefd.top
Scientists have re-created the highly sensory hairs of crickets, a
development that could lead to next-generation implants for the
hearing-impaired.

Physicists at the Netherlands-based University of Twente have built
artificial hairs like those found on the chirping insects, whose
highly evolved sound detection helps avoid predators like spiders or
wasps, according to research published this week in the Journal of
Micromechanics and Microengineering.

"These sensors are the first step towards a variety of exciting
applications as well as further scientific exploration," Marcel
Dijkstra, a member of the Twente team, said in a statement. "We could
use them to visualize airflow on surfaces, such as an aircraft
fuselage."

Cricket hairs are fine-tuned to detect airflow with energies as small
as--or even below--thermal noise levels, according to the research.
With the natural defense, grounded crickets like the wood cricket
Nemobius sylvestris can perceive changes in the air current caused by
the beating of another insect's wing, for example.

Each tiny hair sits in a socket on a cricket's appendages, called
cerci, and can be directed independently of others. Airflow causes the
hair to rotate in its socket, which in turn fires a neuron. This
allows the cricket to detect low-level sound in any direction and use
the collective information of sensors to act, according to the
research.

Scientists have managed to produce a few hundred mechanical hairs that
are longer than normal cricket hairs, which can measure 1 millimeter.
The sensors are composed of thin layers of electrically insulating and
conducting materials to form structured electrodes on a suspended
membrane. The hairs, made of a photo-structurable polymer, are placed
on the membrane.

Previous Next The goal of the experiment is to create comparable
sensory systems using Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS)
technology--which is the integration of mechanical elements, sensors,
actuators and electronics on a common chip. These chips could
ultimately be used in hearing aids.

Dijkstra said that because the sensors are small and consume little
energy, they can also be applied to large sensor networks.

The research is part of the European Union project CICADA (Cricket
Inspired perCeption and Autonomous Decision Automata), a project to
study and mimic biological concepts through technology.