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You, Too, Can Learn Echolocation

Posted by timothy on from the and-you-swear-this-isn't-a-joke dept.

The Narrative Fallacy writes "Wired reports that with just a few weeks of training, you can learn to 'see' objects in the dark using echolocation the same way dolphins and bats do. Acoustic expert Juan Antonio Martinez at the University of Alcalá de Henares in Spain has developed a system to teach people how to use echolocation, a skill that could be particularly useful for the blind and for people who work under dark or smoky conditions, like firefighters — or cat burglars. 'Two hours per day for a couple of weeks are enough to distinguish whether you have an object in front of you,' says Martinez. 'Within another couple weeks you can tell the difference between trees and pavement.' To master the art of echolocation, you can begin by making the typical 'sh' sound used to make someone be quiet. Moving a pen in front of the mouth can be noticed right away similar to the phenomenon when traveling in a car with the windows down, which makes it possible to 'hear' gaps in the verge of the road. The next level is to learn how to master 'palate clicks,' special clicks with your tongue and palate that are better than other sounds because they can be made in a uniform way, work at a lower intensity, and don't get drowned out by ambient noise. With the palate click you can learn to recognize slight changes in the way the clicks sound depending on what objects are nearby. 'For all of us in general, this would be a new way of perceiving the world,' says Martinez."

7 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. No duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    I believe Ripley's Believe It or Not, the TV show, already did a story on people who could do this.

    1. Re:No duh by paleo2002 · · Score: 4, Informative

      I remember seeing a story on Dateline or 20/20 a while back about several blind people who are already using this method of echolocation. One of them, a young boy, taught himself to see with sound by listening to how a desktop fan changed sound when he spoke into it. Now he can ride a bike around his neighborhood, navigate, avoid cars, etc.

    2. Re:No duh by johncadengo · · Score: 2, Informative

      I'm not sure if this is the boy you're referring to, but here is a documentary about a young boy named Ben Underwood who is blind and has taught himself echo location. It is pretty amazing.

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      My page.
    3. Re:No duh by 4D6963 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually an earlier and probably more impressive example would be the case of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Holman who in the early and mid 19th century travelled around the world using echolocation.

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      You just got troll'd!
    4. Re:No duh by Kugrian · · Score: 2, Informative

      Wrote books about whisky and beer.

  2. Re:Done that myself by an+unsound+mind · · Score: 2, Informative

    Doing it for large objects is between easy and effortless.

    Doing it for small objects is hard.

    I keep colliding into small, hard objects I don't know the location of if I try to navigate by sound in the dark.

    And after that I usually swear, so others can locate me in the dark.

  3. And to learn a bit more. . . . by hoarier · · Score: 2, Informative

    There's a rather more informative article about it here.