Sensitive, segmented antennae serve as inspiration for developing acoustic sensors with low energy consumption.
PHILADELPHIA, May 11, 2026 — Mosquitoes are generally considered a nuisance, if not a deadly, malaria-carrying pest. Despite their peskiness, their delicate antennae — which can identify other insects using vibrations — have inspired ultrasensitive next-generation sensors.
Researcher Daniel Pastor from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow will present the designs for his antennae-inspired sensor Monday, May 11, at 1:40 p.m. ET as part of the 190th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, running May 11-15.
The inner workings of a mosquito’s antennae and the device inspired by it. Credit: Daniel Pastor and Yu-Chan Chen on flickr (CC0)
“Mosquito antennae are highly sensitive to tiny vibrations in the air, especially those generated by wingbeats,” Pastor said. “These vibrations are processed by specialized sensory organs that enable mosquitoes to detect potential mates, as in the case of Aedes aegypti and Anopheles gambiae. In other species, such as Uranotaenia lowii, these sensory mechanisms are adapted to detect frog calls, allowing females to locate amphibian hosts for blood feeding.”
The specialized organ is called Johnston’s organ, and it sits at the bottom of the antennae. When this organ detects vibrations, it generates its own oscillations, amplifying the signal for the mosquito’s detection.
Beyond the organ, the structure of the antennae is specialized to detect weak signals. They’re segmented, which allows them to be flexible to a wide range of frequencies. They’re also covered with fine, feathery hairs, which increase their surface area and allow them to detect smaller values of viscous drag. This makes them more sensitive to air vibrations.
Using these concepts as inspiration, the researchers developed a mechanical prototype to demonstrate that their sensor could work without amplification circuits or signal processing and filtering. They observed that their sensor was able to enhance vibration signals simply based on the geometry of the device.
“Nature provides efficient solutions that can inspire new technologies, especially in achieving high sensitivity without increasing energy consumption,” Pastor said.
The researchers’ amplification of weak vibrations using a passive, bio-inspired device is a feat that was thought to only be possible with electronics or algorithms. Despite their success, human-made devices still struggle to match the amplification capabilities found in living organisms.
“Our findings could benefit acoustic and vibration sensors that need to detect very weak signals, such as microphones, environmental monitoring devices, or biomedical sensors,” Pastor said. “In particular, applications where low energy consumption is critical could take advantage of passive amplification mechanisms.”
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ABOUT THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA The Acoustical Society of America is the premier international scientific society in acoustics devoted to the science and technology of sound. Its 7,000 members worldwide represent a broad spectrum of the study of acoustics. ASA publications include The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (the world’s leading journal on acoustics), JASA Express Letters, Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, Acoustics Today magazine, books, and standards on acoustics. The society also holds two major scientific meetings each year. See https://acousticalsociety.org/.
–The research described in this Acoustics Lay Language Paper may not have yet been peer reviewed–
Hearing aids help millions of people hear speech more clearly. But they may quietly reshape something else: your sense of where sounds are coming from. A new wave of affordable, over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids is now available and they come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes and styles. Our study aims to understand what characteristics of hearing aids support (or disrupt) sound localization.
The ability to localize sound (knowing whether a car is approaching from the left or right, whether a voice is coming from in front of you or behind) is something most people take for granted. This spatial awareness relies on subtle acoustic cues available at the two ears. These cues can easily be disrupted by devices placed in or around the ear. Listeners with mild hearing loss, the very group that OTC devices are designed for, may be particularly vulnerable to these distortions, since they have relatively good sensitivity to sounds and their detailed characteristics.
To investigate, 14 adults with normal hearing were fitted with four different OTC devices representing a range of styles currently on the market: Lexie B2 Plus (a traditional behind-the-ear style), Eargo (an invisible in-the-canal style) and Apple Air pods Pro 2 (representing the growing category of consumer earbuds that can function as hearing aids).
Each participant completed a set of spatial listening tasks while wearing each device, and also without any device as a baseline. The tasks were designed to probe three distinct aspects of spatial perception: (1) Azimuth identification tests whether a listener can accurately judge the horizontal direction of a sound source; (2) Front-back discrimination asks whether listeners can tell whether a sound is coming from in front of them or behind; (3) Sound externalization refers to whether sounds are perceived as coming from the outside world, or from inside the head like when listening over headphones.
The results were clear: every OTC device tested disrupted spatial perception (Figure 1). However, the specific aspects of spatial perception that were affected, and the extent of the disruption, depended on the device and on the individual. By examining these patterns, we are able to make inferences about which features of OTC hearing aids support spatial perception and which features have a disrupting effect.
Figure 1. Mean absolute externalization ratings across hearing aid conditions, with individual participant data overlaid.
As the market for consumer hearing devices continues to grow, it is important to understand how they affect all aspects of hearing, not just speech clarity. This will be essential for helping people make informed choices about hearing aids and for designing more natural-sounding hearing aids in the future.
–The research described in this Acoustics Lay Language Paper may not have yet been peer reviewed–
“Noise must one day be fought as bitterly as cholera and the plague,” Robert Koch the German bacteriologist famously said at the turn of the 20th century. He was right—today we know that too much noise can harm our well-being and lead to real health problems.
Traditionally, we’ve tried to “combat” noise with after-the-fact abatement measures. But wouldn’t it make more sense to prevent noise before it ever starts? That’s why, decades ago, ISO standards laid out rules for low-noise design across the entire sound-generation chain—from the source, through all the transmission paths, to the listener. Yet in our modern, highly technical, urban world, these low-noise principles alone aren’t enough: noise challenges are still growing.
Take traffic, for example. In cities around the world, countless people are constantly disturbed by the noise of cars, trains and aircraft. We need to step up our efforts with a full paradigm shift toward acoustics-oriented design—a strategy that defines desired sound characteristics right at the start of product development and then uses methods and tools to predict, create, implement, and assess those acoustic properties throughout the entire process.
Figure 1: From noise abatement to acoustics-oriented design in all phases of product development (Image adapted from Rothe[1]) and Langer [2])
That sounds great in theory—but how do you predict what a complex system like an aircraft will sound like before you even build a prototype? The answer is advanced computer modelling, efficient simulation and perceptual-driven assessment. These tools let us forecast how a future aircraft will sound like and let us even listen to it.
Figure 2: Enabler for acoustics-oriented design: Modeling, Simulation, Assessment (Image adapted from Langer [3] )
Implementing acoustics-oriented design, we make sure that tomorrow’s aircraft not only burn less fuel and emit fewer pollutants but also sound pleasant—both inside the cabin and out on the ground.
[1] Rothe, S.: Design and placement of passive acoustic measures in early design phases. Schriften des Instituts für Akustik. 2022
[2] Langer, S.: Paving the path for acoustics-oriented design. ISCV31, 2025
[3] Thoma, J.; Delfs, J.: Proskurov, S.; Langer, S. C.: Cabin acoustics in preliminary aircraft design with propulsion pressure field excitation. DAS-DAGA2025/629, 2025.
Simón Montoya-Bedoya – simonmontoyabedoya@gmail.com
Bluesky: @simontoyabe.bsky.social
Instagram: @simontoyabe
Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, 78712-1591, United States
Prof. Michael R. Haberman (Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin)
Other contributors to the research:
Donal P. Finegan (National Laboratory of the Rockies, Golden, CO, US)
Hadi Khani (Texas Materials Institute, The University of Texas at Austin)
Ofodike Ezekoye (Walker Mechanical Engineering Department, The University of Texas at Austin)
Popular version of 2aPAb4 – Non-destructive ultrasonic monitoring of next-generation lithium-ion batteries
Presented at the 189th ASA Meeting
Read the abstract at https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0040339
–The research described in this Acoustics Lay Language Paper may not have yet been peer reviewed–
Have you noticed how heavily our current society depends on batteries? Batteries are used everywhere, from powering your phone to electrifying mobility, and energy storage to mitigate the intermittent nature of renewable energy sources like wind and sun. This increased demand for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) has led to the exploration of new technologies with improved attributes such as safer operation or improved lifetime. For example, silicon solid-state batteries (Si-SSB) are promising because silicon as an anode material offers a higher specific capacity (~3500 mAh/g) than graphite (~300 mAh/g) used in conventional LIBs. They are also potentially safer to operate due to the use of a solid electrolyte rather than the flammable liquid electrolyte used in conventional LIBs.
However, Si-SSBs come with their own challenges associated with the avoidance of a liquid electrolyte, primarily the requirement to maintain reliable interfacial contact between all the solid layers for lithium-ion movement. Si-SSBs are therefore more brittle and more prone to contact loss and fracture.
Another challenge in studying the intricate mechanical changes that arise from the electrochemical processes in the battery is that we are “blind” to them, in other words, we cannot see inside batteries while they are operating. That’s why, just as a doctor uses ultrasound to monitor a beating heart, we can use ultrasonic waves to monitor batteries without opening them, as represented by the cartoon in Fig. 1. The key to understanding what changes within the batteries is having information about how the movement of lithium ions alters its mechanical properties. When lithium ions migrate during charging and discharging, they cause swelling, internal stresses, and sometimes fracture within the battery structure. These mechanical changes can significantly affect the propagation of ultrasonic waves through the material. This is specifically true for the silicon anode, where silicon forms alloys with the lithium ions, rather than the lithium ions becoming embedded in the molecular structure as occurs in conventional batteries. These electrochemical changes lead to large volumetric and mechanical changes. Thus, SSBs are a compelling technology to explore using ultrasound using ultrasonic signals observables, such as shifts in the time of flight (TOF) of the wave through the battery, or changes in how sound is absorbed or scattered. These “acoustic fingerprints” can potentially help us gain more insights into degradation in these next-generation (“next-gen”) batteries and therefore improve the technology for more widespread use in commercial products.
Figure 1. Analogy of the usage of ultrasonic waves for battery diagnostics, similar to how a doctor would use ultrasonics to monitor heart health. [Image generated with AI using Google NanoBanana Pro]
We aim to extend the use of ultrasonic testing methods for next-gen batteries and investigate opportunities and challenges associated with evaluating this new technology. In this work, we investigated both contact-based and immersion ultrasonic testing to monitor changes in the mechanical properties of Si-SSBs under cycle-induced aging.
In general, our experiments showed an overall stiffness reduction with aging as indicated by the increase in ultrasonic wave TOF (see Fig 2a). Further, we observed an overall reduction of transmitted energy with increased cycling. These two findings may be associated with the accumulation of damage at layer interfaces associated with the creation of solid-gas interfaces and/or debonding between layers. Finally, ultrasonic imaging using immersion testing provided information regarding the distribution and evolution of damage in space as these next-gen batteries are aged (see Fig 2b).
By refining these techniques to evaluate next-gen battery technologies, we will develop more sensitive methods to determine when something is wrong before it’s too late. In a world increasingly dependent on safe and reliable energy storage, the ability to “listen” to batteries might be precisely what we need to power the clean energy revolution.
Figure 2. Evolution of cell stiffness during aging. a) Stiffness of the SSB, normalized to its initial value, plotted against discharge capacity for both charged (blue) and discharged (red) states. With representative ultrasonic images from transmitted signals at two states of the SSB: b.1) pristine before cycling, and b.2) after 40 cycles of aging. We observed a significant reduction in transmission in the middle region of the SSB. Warmer colors indicate higher transmission, and dashed outlines mark the active cell region.
Chiba Institute of Technology, Narashino, Chiba, 275-0016, Japan
Popular version of 1pEA11 – Investigation of the relationship between a circular diaphragm model and measured leaf natural frequency to evaluate leaf water content.
Presented at the 189th ASA Meeting
Read the abstract at https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0040083
–The research described in this Acoustics Lay Language Paper may not have yet been peer reviewed–
Have you ever wanted to listen to the voices of plants when they need water? If you use our method, you can.
We focused on changes in the acoustic frequency characteristics of the leaf after we stopped watering. Currently, we are developing a method to evaluate leaf water content through its acoustic response for plant-human communication.
Figure1. Proposed method for evaluating leaf water content through its acoustic response
In this study, we confirmed that leaf natural frequency showed complex behavior with losing water content. Despite this complexity, we demonstrated the estimation of its frequency change using an equation based on the circular diaphragm theory.
Our research steps were conducted in the following order: I. Measurement of leaf natural frequency, II. Estimation of leaf natural frequency, and III. Comparison of measured and estimated values.
First, in “I. Measurement of leaf natural frequency,” we obtained the acoustic frequency characteristics of the leaf under non-irrigation conditions by vibrating the leaf using a bone-conduction transducer. The results showed that the natural frequency showed non-monotonic and complex changes over time as leaf water content decreased. Based on the leaf Young’s modulus and thickness measured simultaneously as physical parameters, we confirmed that the complex changes in natural frequency were due to independent changes in these physical parameters.
Next, in “II. Estimation of leaf natural frequency,” we derived an estimation equation by applying a first-order approximation to the circular diaphragm theory to clarify the leaf vibration behavior under non-irrigation conditions. The estimated values were calculated by substituting the measured physical parameters into the estimation equation.
Figure 2. Estimation equation to estimate leaf natural frequency
Finally, in “III. Comparison of measured and estimated values,” we compared the measured natural frequency in step I with the estimated natural frequency in step II using correlation coefficients. The results showed that the estimated values showed high correlation coefficients with the measured values (0.66–0.83). We concluded that the estimated equation based on the circular diaphragm theory can be applied to leaf vibration.
Figure 3. Comparison of measured and estimated leaf natural frequency changes under stopped watering
Through this study, we investigated the relationship between the leaf vibration characteristics and water content, and we clarified this relationship as a preliminary step. Based on these findings, we aim to establish a quantitative measurement method for evaluating leaf water content using its acoustic response.
Once this proposed method is established, we will be able to hear the voices of leaves when they are thirsty.
Graduate Program in Acoustics The Pennsylvania State University Stage College, PA, 16802, United States
Popular version of 1pAA7 – Localized sound reproduction based on nonlinearity-crafted audible enclaves Presented at the 189th ASA Meeting Read the abstract at https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0040015
–The research described in this Acoustics Lay Language Paper may not have yet been peer reviewed–
Imagine sitting in a shared office or hospital room and hearing a message clearly while the people beside you hear almost nothing. Our research shows a way to draw a tiny “bubble” of sound in mid-air—what we call an audible enclave—without using headphones and without filling the whole room with noise. The idea is to start with ultrasound, which is far above what humans can hear, and then make ordinary sound appear only where we want it.
At first glance, readers might think this is the well-known parametric array loudspeaker (PAL), often marketed as an “audio spotlight.” A traditional PAL shoots a narrow ultrasonic beam that slowly converts into audible sound along the entire beam path. That gives strong directionality and long reach, but the audible sound exists wherever the beam travels, like a thin, far-reaching flashlight of audio. By contrast, our system keeps the propagation path essentially inaudible and creates audible sound only inside a small spot. We form two carefully shaped ultrasonic beams that bend around obstacles, such as a person’s head, and meet on the far side. Only in that tiny overlap region does the air’s nonlinearity “mix” the ultrasound and produce normal audio—music, speech, or alerts—right where we place it. Step inside the spot and you hear it; step a few centimeters away and it fades.
In experiments, we produced a palm-sized enclave more than a foot from the source and even behind an obstacle, using a compact emitter roughly the size of a dinner plate. Because the audible conversion is confined to the overlap region, the approach is quiet along the curving paths of the beams and practical in everyday spaces. We also showed that the enclave covers key parts of the speech band, so voices sound intelligible and natural in ordinary rooms rather than only in special lab setups.
This capability could potentially enable private voice prompts in cars or airplanes, confidential bedside communication in hospitals, and personal listening zones in open offices or public kiosks—without headphones and without broadcasting to bystanders. The beams can be bent and steered, so the audible spot appears where needed and avoids where it is not. We are actively improving the system‘s demodulation efficiency and refining the audio quality it delivers.
Schematic depicting the remote creation of an audible enclave. Image adapted from author’s original paper.
Demonstration of the remote creation of an audible enclave. Video adapted from author’s original paper.
Figure 1. Mean absolute externalization ratings across hearing aid conditions, with individual participant data overlaid.
Figure 1: From noise abatement to acoustics-oriented design in all phases of product development (Image adapted from Rothe[1]) and Langer [2])
Figure 2: Enabler for acoustics-oriented design: Modeling, Simulation, Assessment (Image adapted from Langer [3] )
Figure 1. Analogy of the usage of ultrasonic waves for battery diagnostics, similar to how a doctor would use ultrasonics to monitor heart health. [Image generated with AI using Google NanoBanana Pro]
Figure 2. Evolution of cell stiffness during aging. a) Stiffness of the SSB, normalized to its initial value, plotted against discharge capacity for both charged (blue) and discharged (red) states. With representative ultrasonic images from transmitted signals at two states of the SSB: b.1) pristine before cycling, and b.2) after 40 cycles of aging. We observed a significant reduction in transmission in the middle region of the SSB. Warmer colors indicate higher transmission, and dashed outlines mark the active cell region.
Figure1. Proposed method for evaluating leaf water content through its acoustic response
Figure 2. Estimation equation to estimate leaf natural frequency
Figure 3. Comparison of measured and estimated leaf natural frequency changes under stopped watering