A couple of years ago I saw a news article on a blind school kid who walked a mile or so to school, without a white cane, relying solely on mouth clicks and the echolocation returns from those clicks. He easily avoided utility poles, benches, trees in the sidewalk, parked cars, people, and other objects over several routes which, of course, he'd eventually learned and committed to memory--except for transient objects, which he could also identify. The TV program took him to unfamiliar sites and had him navigate his way through the streets or park paths and he did just fine--with the exception that he couldn't identify ditches and ravines (they had no echo returns so weren't objects in his 'vision') and nearly walked/fell into a couple of them.
Personally, when I was building houses back in the '80s I vividly recall the transition that occurred when, or after, the sheet rock was installed on the bare framing. Suddenly the space was defined and noises were reflected off the flat, bare walls. I don't remember clicking but I do recall that many times I would close my eyes and talk or hoot or clap my hands and be able to sense the shape and dimension of the room/space even if it was fairly eccentric. Echolocation was not so much of a mystery after that. Now then, after seeing that TV show I've been running my own experiment--closing my eyes and clicking my tongue around objects. It works. I have mentioned to several people that I would like to set up some objects in a large room--say like a gym or banquet hall. The objects would be squares or rectangles or round tubes a foot or two or three in size, sitting on the floor or suspended from the ceiling, or metal folding chairs or a square wall panel, or furniture (tables, couches) out in the middle of the room. Cavers would be blindfolded and set off clicking their tongues and navigating through the space amongst the obstacles and other people. TSA Convention might be a good place to try this out. I'd be glad to work on such a project if the site were compatible. --Ediger On Sun, Feb 7, 2010 at 4:15 AM, <jerryat...@aol.com> wrote: > For more information on human echolocation and Daniel Kish, see the > following article in NewScientist : > > > http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227031.400-how-to-see-with-sound.html?full=true >
