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The University of Southampton
Engineering

Development of new acoustic systems inspired by Nature Seminar

Time:
16:00
Date:
23 February 2016
Venue:
13/3017

For more information regarding this seminar, please email ISVR@Soton.ac.uk .

Event details

ISVR seminar

Abstract

In Nature many animals have evolved acoustic systems for a variety of tasks. Furthermore, many animals utilise sounds beyond the human audible frequency range. This includes a huge variety of different species of insects whose relatively small ears detect sound in order to communicate, to detect their prey, or to avoid their own predators such as the bat. Over recent years our understanding of the different ear functions in insects, such as directionality, frequency filtering, analysis and tuning, has improved hugely. However, in engineering our existing miniature microphones, and ultrasonic devices, have various limitations. This talk will look at some of the interesting, and potentially useful, attributes discovered in animal hearing systems. It will then discuss some recent work to produce biologically inspired acoustic systems, for example miniature directional microphones inspired by insect hearing.

Speaker information

James Windmill, Strathclyde. Dr James Windmill is a Reader in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, based in the Centre for Ultrasonic Engineering. His Bachelor’s degree and PhD were in Electronic Engineering, however he has been involved with research into biological systems since 2003. Dr Windmill’s postdoctoral years were spent in biological sciences following research into insect auditory systems. He joined Strathclyde in May 2008, taking his first academic appointment as a Lecturer. His research activity in Strathclyde is highly multi-disciplinary, and encompasses both investigations into biological systems, and the conception and development of new transducers and sensor systems. For example Dr Windmill’s team recently demonstrated that moth tympanal ears are sensitive to frequencies up to 300 kHz, one of the highest frequency sensitivities of any animal. One theme of his biologically inspired research takes concepts from insect hearing for the development of miniature microphones. In February 2014 Dr Windmill was awarded a European Research Council Consolidator Grant (5 years, £1.7M) to conduct fundamental research into the biology of insect hearing and new methods to produce biologically inspired acoustic sensors.

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