While the average hearing-impaired American may seem to have little in common with a small yellow parasitic fly, one researcher at Binghamton University is modeling a new hearing aid after the tiny insect’s ears.

Dr. Ron Miles, a professor in the mechanical engineering department at BU, is part of a team which hopes to drastically improve the quality and usefulness of hearing aids available to the public.

‘Current hearing aids have a lot of problems associated with them,’ said Dr. Miles. ‘They’re large and uncomfortable, and the small ones don’t pick up signals well enough. There are a lot of complaints about not being able to understand language in a crowded room with a lot of background noise.’

The Ormia Ochracea (O. Orchracea) fly has an incredible ability to track sound. The insect is able to hone in on the direction of an incoming sound within two degrees of deviation. It uses this ability in the wild to find crickets, on which females of the species deposit their live larvae.

‘By using a microphone based on how the ear of this fly works, someone using the hearing aid would be able to focus in on just one person’s speech,’ said Miles.

According to Miles, the idea for the project came about rather unintentionally.

‘I was at a party with my wife, who is a biologist, and we were approached by a group from Cornell who happened to bring up the subject of the flies,’ he said.

From there, research for the project took off. Researchers from BU, the University of Illinois and Georgia Tech, among others, are working with Miles on the project, which is funded by a $6.5 million-grant from the National Institute of Health.

The research has received significant attention from companies and organizations interested in the outcome.

‘These businesses are wary of their competitors finding out what they are looking into, so they like to keep things secret,’ he said.

Miles said that great progress has already been made because of the research.

‘We already have several patents. Hopefully it will be picked up by a company and enter mass production, but that most likely won’t happen for several years.’

Miles had a long research career elsewhere before he began this project at BU.

After receiving his Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, he worked for Boeing, an aerospace company and jet liner manufacturer, in Seattle for eight years. He then returned to Berkeley as a lecturer, after completing his master’s and doctorate in mechanical engineering at the University of Washington.

‘I’ve always been interested in acoustics, but I never really planned on teaching,’ said Miles. ‘It sort of just happened, but I really enjoy it.’

In the end, his need for a new job led Miles to accept a position here at Binghamton.

The research is now in its fourth year and Miles has received a great deal of positive feedback from the public about his work.

‘People don’t like hearing aids. They are expensive, uncomfortable, and they expect them to work like glasses ‘ completely fixing the problem just by putting them on,’ he said. ‘But that’s not how they work, so people are clamoring for anything that will make their situation better. This technology can help improve it dramatically.’