Echolocation for Humans

anoopsinha writes "An article in New Scientist reports that bat echos can be used as virtual reality guide. People wearing headphones could easily hunt down a 'virtual insect', using only the echolocation sounds. The report says that it is a 'very intuitive process.' The researchers behind the project hope that a similar system in the cockpit of fighter planes could allow pilots to track some controls using their hearing, freeing up their eyes for other tasks."

Comments

Re:Applications for the blind?

[qbwiz]

It's been done.

Used in Babylon 5

[Mick D.]

This was actually used in the show Babylon 5. If I am remembering the posts online by the exec. producer and main writer, JMS, he said that they wanted to use sound effects for space battles but also wanted to be accurate to the reality of space where there shouldn't be any sound.

So the technique they used was to describe the sound effects as assistive to the pilots like full surround sound in video games to give a viceral sense the position of the other things around. They maybe explained that a total of once of twice on the series itself, but the idea stuck with me as a very good idea even in the relatively normal environment of todays fighter jets or even for situational awareness in cars on the highway.

Re:Give it a try!

[blakestah]

Of course you did. Blind people use this all the time, it is referred to properly as the "obstacle sense".

At one time this amazed scientists - blind people could walk through a room without hitting objects. So, they covered their bodies in thick felt, and the blind still had their obstacle sense. Then, they filled their ears with wax, and the blind bumped into things.

Sighted people lack the obstacle sense, but can learn it in a few hours. No clicking or other extra noise generation is necessary.

Used it all my life...

[decipher_saint]

...well, for sports at any rate.

Now, first things first, I'm not totally blind but I am legally blind. I have Achromatopsia, so I don't see a whole heck of a lot outside yet I can still play soccer, baseball, basketball (especially), Disc Golf and Ultimate Frisbee because I can hear what's going on around me at all times. I don't have to see where my disc lands I listen for the "thunk", with soccer and baseball there have been "beeper" balls for a long time and in basketball there are always sounds to let you know where the ball is (dribbling, passing, team mates, etc).

Now, this technology couldn't be used en masse as another post pointed out because there would be too much interferance from others and using headphones would block out other important sounds like traffic and other pedestrians.

Anywho, my $0.02

BINCAS

[Thagg]

There were a series of article written back in the early 80's in Sport Aviation, the house organ of the Experimental Aviation Association, about a radar system for light planes that worked in a similar way. The guy had built extremely cheap, short range (two miles, say) radars out of coffee cans. He mounted two of them in an airplane, pointed 45 degrees to the left and right of the centerline, and rigged stereo headphones to them. The idea would be that you could hear other traffic in the air, and then locate them with your eyes to see and avoid them.

It's surprisingly hard to pick up light planes visually, they are tiny specks right up until the time that they fill the windshield. The response of the FAA has been the TCAS systems -- which are extremely complex and eyewateringly expensive (about $1M per system) This makes sense for jetliners, but is out of the question for light planes.

As near as I can tell, nobody did anything with the BINCAS system after the articles came out. It was a cool idea, though.

thad