Human echolocation

Human echolocation is a technique used by some blind people to navigate within their environment. It is similar in principle to active sonar and the animal echolocation employed by some animals, including bats and dolphins.

By interpreting the sound waves reflected by nearby objects, a person trained to navigate by echolocation can identify the location and sometimes size of nearby objects, and use this information to steer around obstacles and travel from place to place.

The technique was developed and popularized by Daniel Kish. He is completely blind and taught himself to derive information about his surroundings by clicking his tongue and listening to the echo; using this technique, he is able to ride a bike and hike in unknown wilderness. He has developed a little click-emitting device and trains other blind people in the use of echolocation.

Some blind people have described the phenomenon not as a learned method of navigation, but as an inherent and intuitive extra sense. For example, a blind person could walk past a line of trees and feel a "pressure" at their side as they passed each tree. The cause of this would be the echo of the sound of their footsteps, however they may not be consciously aware of this mechanism, only that the phenomenon exists and can often be relied upon to detect obstacles.

Background

Vision and hearing are close cousins in that they both can process reflected waves of energy. Vision processes photons (waves of light) as they travel from their source, bounce off surfaces throughout the environment and enter the eyes. Similarly, the auditory system can process phonons (waves of sound) as they travel from their source, bounce off surfaces and enter the ears. Both systems can extract a great deal of information about the environment by interpreting the complex patterns of reflected energy that they receive. In the case of sound, these waves of reflected energy are called "echoes."

Echoes and other sounds can convey spatial information that is comparable in many respects to that conveyed by light. With echoes a blind traveler can perceive very complex, detailed, and specific information from distances far beyond the reach of the longest cane or arm. Echoes make information available about the nature and arrangement of objects and environmental features such as overhangs, walls, doorways and recesses, poles, ascending curbs and steps, planter boxes, pedestrians, fire hydrants, parked or moving vehicles, trees and other foliage, and much more. Echoes can give detailed information about location (where objects are), dimension (how big they are and their general shape), and density (how solid it is). Location is generally broken down into distance from the observer, and direction (left/right, front/back, high/low). Dimension refers to the object's height (tall or short) and breadth (wide or narrow). Just by understanding the interrelationships of these qualities, much can be perceived about the nature of an object or multiple objects. For example, an object that is tall and narrow may be recognized quickly as a pole. An object that is tall and narrow near the bottom while broad near the top would be a tree. Something that is tall and very broad registers as a wall or building. While something that is broad and tall in the middle, while being shorter at either end may be identified as a parked car. Whereas an object that is low and broad may be a planter, retaining wall, or curb. And finally, something that starts out close and very low, but recedes into the distance as it gets higher is a set of steps. Density refers to the solidity of the object (solid/sparse, hard/soft). Awareness of density adds richness and complexity to one's available information. For instance, an object that is low and solid may be recognized as a table, while something low and sparse sounds like a bush; but an object that is tall and broad, and very sparse is probably a fence.

External link

• World Access for the Blind (http://www.worldaccessfortheblind.org)