MIT Researchers Develop Acoustic Fabric that Converts Sound into Electrical Signals
A new “acoustic fabric” has been developed by engineers at MIT and collaborators at Rhode Island School of Design. The fabric works like a microphone, converting sound first into mechanical vibrations, then into electrical signals, similarly to how our ears hear. Hearing Through… Our Clothes? All fabrics vibrate in response to audible sounds,…
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MIT Research on Pitch Perception Could Lead to Better Cochlear Implants
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSSETTS — New research from MIT neuroscientists suggests that natural soundscapes have shaped our sense of hearing, optimizing it for the kinds of sounds we most often encounter. In a study reported Dec. 14 in the journal Nature Communications, researchers led by McGovern Institute for Brain Research associate investigator Josh McDermott used computational modeling to explore factors…
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Harvard, MIT sued for not captioning online videos; plaintiffs claim ADA violation
BOSTON–The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) has sued Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for allegedly violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 by failing to provide adequate captioning for the vast array of online content they make available to the general public, including…
Read MoreHumans’ biological battery may someday power implantable hearing devices
CAMBRIDGE, MA—As long as people have been using hearing aids, replacing the batteries has been part of the drill. However, someday—though no time soon—people may power their own hearing devices, at least implantable ones. How can that be? Well, people and other mammals have a natural battery located inside the cochlea. It’s a chamber filled…
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