Before revision: Arrays of subwavelength resonators can mimic the biomechanical properties of the cochlea, at the same scale.
After revision: Biomimicry is a powerful science that aims to take advantage of nature's remarkable ability to devise innovative solutions to challenging problems. In the setting of hearing, mimicking how humans hear is the foremost strategy in designing effective artificial hearing approaches. In this work, we explore the mathematical foundations for the exchange of design inspiration and features between biological hearing systems, artificial sound-filtering devices, and signal processing algorithms. Our starting point is a concise asymptotic analysis of subwavelength acoustic metamaterials. We are able to fine tune this structure to mimic the biomechanical properties of the cochlea, at the same scale.