When I started reading the article, I thought it is another steriotype presentation of blind having the gift of hearing. But towards the end, realised its a rare gift. But wonder whether there are any sighted persons having this gift. Is there any difference in the abilities of blind and sighted amongst those having this gift?
On 3/16/18, Raghavendra Janivarada <raghavendrakarnat...@gmail.com> wrote: > Wonderful achievement. Extraordinary. > > Sent from Mail for Windows 10 > > From: avinash shahi > Sent: Friday, March 16, 2018 3:33 PM > To: accessindia > Subject: [AI] from the HimalayanTimes Archive 2016 Uruguay's blind 'bird > man'can identify 3, 000 bird sounds > > Juan Pablo Culasso holds a microphone in a natural reserve on the > outskirts of Montevideo, Uruguay, on June 1, 2016. Photo: AP > > MONTEVIDEO: Born blind, Juan Pablo Culasso has never seen a bird. But > through his gifted sense of hearing, he can identify more than 3,000 > different bird > sounds and differentiate more than 720 species. > > The 29-year-old said he realised he had perfect, or absolute pitch, > when he was a boy. Tossing stones in a river, he was able to tell his > father exactly > the note each one made when it hit the water. > empty document > Absolute pitch, the rare ability to hear a tone and immediately know > it’s a C-sharp, for example, is so unusual that only one of every > 10,000 people has > it, Culasso said, adding that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was among them. > > Culasso said his dad later read to him about birds from an > encyclopedia that came with an audio cassette of their calls. > > “That’s when I realized that I could memorise birds by their sounds,” he > said. > > He said he discovered his calling as a teenager, when he joined an > ornithologist on a 2003 field visit, inspired by his love of birds. > The bird expert > gave him a recorder, and he was hooked. > > “At that moment, I felt as if I had been doing this forever without > knowing it. I fell in love with that task,” he said. > > Culasso’s passion now is to record and learn from the sounds of > nature. He recently completed a two-month journey to Antarctica, where > he recorded sounds > from the Earth’s coldest, wildest and most mysterious continent. > > “I keep adding sounds to my list,” he said. “In Antarctica, I recorded > sea lions, seals and a melting iceberg.” > > Although Culasso can distinguish light, allowing him to differentiate > night from day, he cannot register shapes, forms, and even less so the > colors of > birds. His ears have always been his way to connect more profoundly > with the world. > > His ability to recognise and record nature’s sounds has landed him > jobs working for documentary soundtracks. Culasso currently lives in > his native Montevideo > after more than a decade in Brazil, where he studied bioacoustics and > nature sounds. > > In 2014, Culasso’s ability to recognize birds through their sounds > landed him a top prize of $45,000 on a Nat Geo TV program. He invested > most of the money > in audio equipment. In the final test, he had to identify the sounds > of 15 birds picked at random from a group of 250 birds and recognized > every one. > > The achievement was possible thanks to early music training and his > perfect pitch. > > Carrying a professional audio recorder and a microphone with a furry > windscreen, Culasso recently visited the shores of the Santa Lucia > river on Montevideo’s > outskirts. As he walked and listened, he cried out the names of birds > before anyone else saw them. > > Alicia Munyo, who heads the phonology department at Uruguay’s > Republica University, says that perfect pitch has more to do with the > brain than the ear. > > “It’s not that these people hear more, they hear the same as anyone > else,” said Munyo. “It’s that their brain has a great capacity to > interpret sounds > and their nuances, much more than normal people do.” > > Culasso has always pushed boundaries. As a young boy, he rode his > bicycle with friends, following the sounds of the other kids. He > didn’t mind falling > occasionally then and he doesn’t mind risking it now as he recently > rode a horse at an equestrian center. > > “Most blind people move within the confines of the blind world, and > never leave that comfort zone, but I was never that way,” he said. > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > -- > Avinash Shahi > Doctoral student at Centre for Law and Governance JNU > > > > > Search for old postings at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ > > To unsubscribe send a message to > accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in > with the subject unsubscribe. > > To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please > visit the list home page at > http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in > > > Disclaimer: > 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the > person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; > > 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails > sent through this mailing list.. > > > > > Search for old postings at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ > > To unsubscribe send a message to > accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in > with the subject unsubscribe. > > To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please > visit the list home page at > http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in > > > Disclaimer: > 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the > person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; > > 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails > sent through this mailing list.. > -- G. Vamshi Mobile: +91 9949349497 Skype: gvamshi81 WWW.VIBEWA.ORG EQUALITY AND DIGNITY Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
