THIS is not just any ear. It is the official standard for the human pinna, or outer ear. Called IEC TR 60959, its shape was defined in 1990 by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) to allow gadget manufacturers to standardise the acoustic performance of their headphones or cellphones.
There was a flaw in the measuring method used in 1990 to define the official standard for the outer ear
However, there was a flaw in the measuring method used: the IEC defined the ear’s shape using a series of 2D scans, taken at 2-millimetre intervals. That meant individual manufacturers were left the subjective task of filling the gaps between adjacent scans. Consequently, there is unwelcome variation between different models built to the standard.
That could soon change, thanks to researchers at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in Teddington, UK, which develops measurement standards. They have laser scanned a number of ears built to the IEC standard and used these to produce the definitive 3D model (pictured), which will remove any ambiguity.
“We’re trying to move towards an electronic standard where the outer ear is defined by a 3D computer-aided design model,” says Ian Butterworth of the NPL, who hopes the IEC will now take up the new standard.
So whose ear was the original? “It’s not written into the standard that this is person X’s ear,” says Butterworth. It is unlikely that the definitive ear is attached to a specific individual, he says. The standard was probably built from many people.