It may look unusual, but your ear is a highly specialized piece of equipment on your body. Your cupped outer ear catches sounds waves and directs them into a series of complex sensors. As the sound waves travel through your ear canal, they make your eardrum and tiny bones vibrate. Nerves in your inner ear pick up on these vibrations and turn them into electrical impulses to your brain. Your brain can then identify these sounds as speech, music, noise, and more.