Australian Curriculum General Capability: Personal and social capability
Australian Curriculum General Capability: Critical and creative thinking

Cooperative Learning Activity

1. Did you know that your ear can be your password to opening your phone? This is called Biometric Verification. The Ergo App is already in place to do such a thing.

Illustrators have been investigating how your ear could be used in this new technology by looking at the unique properties of each ear. You are going to investigate whether your ears are different enough for this technology to work!

2. In pairs, you are to draw your partner's ear in detail. 

Resources

Printable mm ruler

Take your time. Measure in mm. What have you discovered about the ear?

3. Label your drawing using the following information:

(Source: Ear Anatomy)

4. Take a photo of the ear you were drawing. Compare your drawing with the photo and make adjustments. How accurate was your drawing compared to the photograph?

5. Measure the actual ear or photographs using the following photographs:

Images showing how ear measurements are made:
A-ear height (from the most superior projection of the helix to the most inferior projection of the earlobe)
B-ear width (from crus of the helix anteriorly to the most posterior aspect of the helix )
C-conchal width (from the highest part of the antihelix to the inter-tragic notch)
D-conchal height (from the highest part of the antihelix to the inter-tragic notch)
E-earlobe width (measured at mid-level of the ear lobe from the most anterior aspect to the most posterior aspect)
F-Ear projection at supra-aureale level (most superior part of the medial (inner) surface of the helix to the temporal bone).
G & H - Ear distance from skull at two points
(Source: Research Gate)

a. The ear height (A from image above)

b. Ear width (B)

c. Conchal width (C)

d. Conchal height (D)

Put these measurements into a class table - Excel. Are any of these measurements the same for class members?

If so, what other sections of the ear could differentiate the ears that have these same measurements?

Measure them. Put them into the Excel spreadsheet.

What other areas of the ear could help show each ear is different? How would you measure it?

6. Put all the photos of the class' ears onto a whiteboard. Categorise them by working out which ears similar. You could use a dichotomous key to separate each ear.

6. Besides your phone, what other applications can you think of using your ear as "your password"?

7. What difficulties could you think of using the external ear as your password? Any circumstances that would make this difficult? List them!

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