Document Detail


Ear deformations give bats a physical mechanism for fast adaptation of ultrasonic beam patterns.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  22181884     Owner:  NLM     Status:  In-Data-Review    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
A large number of mammals, including humans, have intricate outer ear shapes that diffract incoming sound in a direction- and frequency-specific manner. Through this physical process, the outer ear shapes encode sound-source information into the sensory signals from each ear. Our results show that horseshoe bats could dynamically control these diffraction processes through fast nonrigid ear deformations. The bats' ear shapes can alter between extreme configurations in about 100 ms and thereby change their acoustic properties in ways that would suit different acoustic sensing tasks.
Authors:
Li Gao; Sreenath Balakrishnan; Weikai He; Zhen Yan; Rolf Müller
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Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article     Date:  2011-11-14
Journal Detail:
Title:  Physical review letters     Volume:  107     ISSN:  1079-7114     ISO Abbreviation:  Phys. Rev. Lett.     Publication Date:  2011 Nov 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2011-12-20     Completed Date:  -     Revised Date:  -    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  0401141     Medline TA:  Phys Rev Lett     Country:  United States    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  214301     Citation Subset:  IM    
Affiliation:
School of Physics, Shandong University, 27 Shanda South Road, Jinan, Shandong 250100, China and Department of Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech, Institute for Advanced Learning and Research, 150 Slayton Avenue, Danville, Virginia 24540, USA.
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