A sensor inspired by cricket's hair

LONDON, UK: Miniscule hair on a cricket's underbelly have inspired researchers to create an ultra sensitive sensor.

These hair help a cricket sense approaching enemies and unerringly estimate their distance and direction.

Potential application of synthetic cricket hair include direction sensors used by robots and the study of very specific air flows, the journal Applied Physics Letters reports.

These synthetic hair, an example of bio-mimicry created by Harmen Droogendijk of the University of Twente, the Netherlands, could also be used in hearing aids, according to a Twente statement.