Researchers in Massachusetts have found a way to extract power from the ear.

Credit: P. P. MERCIER

Konstantina Stankovic of the Massachusetts Ear and Eye Infirmary in Boston, Anantha Chandrakasan at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and their colleagues developed a chip (pictured) that can exploit the inner ear's electrical potential, which is generated to convert sound into neural impulses. The team inserted electrodes from the chip through a natural opening into the inner ear of an anaesthetized guinea pig. The chip extracted around 1 nanowatt of power for up to five hours — enough to power a small radio transmitter.

The system could eventually be used to harvest power for devices that diagnose and treat hearing loss in humans, the authors suggest.

Nature Biotechnol. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nbt.2394 (2012)