Superhuman Hearing Possible?

Check this out.

New experiments suggest that just vibrating the ear bones could create shortcuts for sounds to enter the brain, thus boosting hearing. Most people can hear sounds in the range of about 20 hertz (Hz) at the low end to about 20 kilohertz (kHz) at the high end. Twenty kHz would sound like a very high-pitched mosquito buzz, and 20 Hz would be what you'd hear if "you were at an R&B concert and you just stood next to the bass," explained Michael Qin, a senior research scientist at the Naval Submarine Medical Research Laboratory in Connecticut. "It would be the thing that's moving your pants leg."

Qin and his team are now exploring which bones are most likely to be most sensitive to ultrasonic vibrations. Could such research lead to devices that give us superhuman hearing or improved hearing aids? Qin is mum for now. "That's the great thing about basic science, right? It lets you know how things work, and you can bend it to many applications."

Article

Research is underway, but it's always promising to hear of the possibility for human advances.

There's so many things humans can do that we don't know much about.

reply to post by yamother44
Just hope they don't develop superhuman smell, because it will be murder when someone farts.

Humans are mostly visual animals, so our other senses are not as adept.

I saw this the other day though, this man is blind but he can navigate his way around by clicking his tongue and listening to the echo it makes, sort of like a bat.

The blind man who taught himself to see

reply to post by Griffo


Yes I have read about senses adaptation. It is an incredible phenomenon. Here's a great article about it:

Scientists have discovered that in the brains of the blind, the visual cortex has not become useless, as they once believed. When blind people use another sense -- touch or hearing, for example -- to substitute for sight, the brain's visual cortex becomes active, even though no images reach it from the optic nerve. Echolocation creates its own images.

Article

And by the way, Ministry of Sound avatar? I dig it

I have a ruptured ear drum......woke up one morning to blood on the pillow. The a few weeks later the 'skin' from inside it came away..
Ever since my hearing in that ear has been much much stronger...sometimes to strong and uncomfortable around noise..

Super hearing might make it awfully hard to get to sleep at night. I would also not be able to use the excuse that " I didn't hear you", when my wife asks me to take out the garbage.

It would be useful if you could turn it off and on though.

there is an ulterior motive here IMO.

If the gov is involved with it
then they intend to pursue it
as a weapon. There was already
one incident a week ago where
a sonic device was used as a
means of crowd control.

Don't think the gov is doing you
any favors .... they're not.
It's for their benefit.

This doesnt suprise me. With the advent of micro engineering, nanotechnology, and various biomedical advances, there are ever more options for any enterprising person or organisation to create technological solutions to many of lifes questions. However in considering the possibilities for a short while, I have come upon a point which some may have over looked.

If ,like me, you have read a fair wedge of comic books, then you will know the overwhelming majority of supermen who have extreme hearing , aquired that skill by means of mutated ear to brain connections and ear bones, are from other planets, or had thier heads re built with metal and wiring after some godawful accident, usualy involving cosmic rays, nuclear waste, mutated animal bites, or in some cases what I refer to as the"mystic method" (this phrase is used to describe any causitive factor in a persons attaining super powers, which has not even the most tenuous explanation in scientific terms, and may have been caused by otherworldly intervention of some sort).

However, usualy this means that the person technicaly speaking ought to have this talent turned on at almost all times. Superman for instance, should be constantly obsessed with the sound of people in other countries brushing thier teeth, pneumatic drills operating on the other side of the planet, and that weirdo who spends his days dropping pins in all the quiet places he can find. Of course for plot reasons, generaly speaking super hearing isnt the curse it really ought to be in the comic books, but constant stimulus from previously unheard sound would probably have devastating impacts on the subjects sleep patterns, concentration, ability to FILTER the sound he can hear, and for example, listen to the conversation he is having with his friend, rather than a plane flying a mile in the air and out of regular earshot.

Therefore, if sense adaptation, or augmentation is to work and work WELL for people, it will have to be a form which either can be switched on or off (which in the case of surgical alterations, installation of permanent technological aids, or gene alteration would make an already tricky task quite a bit more of a pain). Otherwise anyone taking advantage of this new idea, would be beseiged by boatloads of unwelcome noise.

reply to post by yamother44


My hearing and sight has only been amazing in my family, i was the only one with ALL if my senses to be "peaked". My cousin was born and was the same, so i was able to help him alot with his senses. Now I'm not saying my hearing or sight is superhuman, but it is pretty good, but if we could increase it 10-20 times in power, that would be perfect for government, or other workers.