Development of Piezoelectric Artificial Cochlea Inspired by Human Hearing Organ

摘要

Miniaturized artificial hearing organ with excellent sensitivity and wide dynamic frequency range over human hearing range, while requiring small amount of energy, is important step to develop artificial systems interacting in human living space. This paper presents the development of piezoelectric artificial cochlea (PAC) capable of analyzing incoming vibratory signals over human hearing range without external power source. The design, component and function of PAC were inspired by those of human cochlea. The PAC was made of corona-poled piezoelectric thin film with vibrating membrane part of unique shape. The vibration displacement of membrane was measured using laser Doppler vibrometer and analyzed to show the frequency separation of the developed PAC. The experimental results of mechanical vibratory behavior demonstrated successful separation of incoming signals into 13 different frequency bands depending on their frequency over 300 Hz ～ 6,000 Hz.