Seminar by Fabian Lickert

Abstract:

The concept of seeing with sound is already millions of years old. Bats have been using this physical phenomenon for a long time. By emitting an ultrasonic wave and listening where the echo is coming from, they are able to detect prey and other objects. Only much later, at the end of the 19^th century, researchers were able to create ultrasonic waves themselves. Even more recent, in the year 1994, the first capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) was invented. Matthew I. Haller and Butrus T. Khuri-Yakub, two scientist of the Stanford University, published a paper in 1994 on ultrasound transducers, which are actuated through the electrostatic principle. Today, both piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducers (PMUTs) and CMUTs, are broadly used and built into billions of devices, like cars and smartphones. In this seminar we will explore how close modern technology can bring us to the vision of bats.