Hi, Could someone enlighten us on the status of usage and knowledge of human echo location in India? Thanks.
On 5/7/15, raaju <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi All, > > For your information. Appended is today's article from the New Scientist, > on echolocation. > > Peter > > > Seeing with Sound - The vOICe > http://www.seeingwithsound.com/winvoice.htm > > > Human bat uses echoes and sounds to see the world . > > By Clare Wilson, May 6, 2015. > > WHAT is it like to be a bat? It's a question philosophers interested in > consciousness like to ponder. Yet a few people already have something of a > bat's > world view. > > Brian Borowski, a 59-year-old Canadian who was born blind, began teaching > himself to echolocate aged 3. He clicks with his tongue or snaps his fingers > as > he moves about, unconsciously decoding the echoes. Although many blind > people > get information from sounds around them, few turn this into a supersense by > making sounds to help themselves get around. > > "When I'm walking down a sidewalk and I pass trees, I can hear the tree: the > vertical trunk of the tree and maybe the branches above me," says Borowski. > "I > can hear a person in front of me and go around them." > > Borowski, who works as a programmer at Western University in London, > Ontario, > suspects he experiences "images" in a similar way to people who can see, > just > with less detail. "I store maps of information in my head and I compare what > I > have in my memory with what I'm hearing around me," he says. "I am matching > images of some sort." This probably isn't too far from the truth – we know > from > brain scans of Borowski and another echolocator that the strategy co-opts > the > same parts of the brain that usually deal with visual information. > > For his latest scientific collaboration, he helped a team of researchers to > explore how well echolocators can determine the relative sizes and distances > of > objects. Sighted people normally have no problem knowing whether objects > appear > small because they are far away or because they are actually small – yet > both > something small and nearby or large and distant would occupy the same area > and > angle in our field of view. "It's not a trivial thing," says team member > Lore > Thaler, at Durham University, UK. "But we don't think about it." So is it > also > easy for echolocators? You might think so, but previous work has suggested > that > echolocating bats sometimes struggle. > > Borowski, however, aced the tests, consistently identifying the true size of > a > range of objects placed at different distances. In contrast, 20 blind or > blindfolded people who had no experience with echolocation floundered when > asked > to give it a try (Neurocase, doi.org/38g). > > As for how he does it, Thaler points out that theoretically, echoes contain > intrinsic information about the source's distance as well as its size, > taking > longer to return from far-away objects. But Borowski feels he's using a > different strategy. "If you're close to something, you hear a higher > resolution. > You get more detail," he says. > > Human echolocation has attracted great interest since the late 2000s, when > Californian Daniel Kish came to wide attention. Yet his organisation, World > Access for the Blind, is still the only one that teaches the skill to > others, > and it is not generally taught to blind children in schools. Tom Pey of the > Royal London Society for Blind People points out that most people who are > blind > or partially sighted lose their sight in later life, when their hearing > might > also be on the wane. > > Thaler admits that echolocation has some drawbacks – it's not very good for > detecting obstacles on the ground – but she is convinced it should be > taught, > and is currently helping Durham County Council to provide workshops. "It > doesn't > solve everything but it definitely gives additional information," she says. > "It's an amazing example of brain plasticity." > > This article appeared in print under the headline "The man who sees with > sound". > > How i learned to echolocate. > > Click here to read a longer version of this interview > http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27474-how-i-learned-to-navigate-using-my-bat-supersense.html > > Once, when my parents were putting metal stakes into the ground, my brother > – > who is also blind – and I noticed that when they were banged with a hammer, > the > echoes bouncing off the house were really strong. We realised we could use > that. > > Playing games like hide-and-seek with our sighted brother honed our skills. > His > idea of hiding from us was standing in the middle of the lawn. At first we > couldn't find where he was, but as we got better at echolocating, he had to > hide > behind trees. We soon learned to find him there too. > > Once we'd mastered the skill, we taught ourselves how to ride bikes. We > didn't > just use echolocation, but other things too to keep track of where we were: > the > slope of the road, whether the gravel was loose or well-packed. But we would > always be clicking, listening for the grass growing at the side of the road, > or > for the turning into our driveway. > > We never had any formal training. Our teachers thought it wasn't a good > thing to > do. They said blind people have enough trouble fitting into society and you > shouldn't do anything that causes you to be more different than you already > are. > But we more or less ignored them. > > When I was younger I could get a lot of detail from echolocation. These days > I > can tell whether objects are large or small but I can't necessarily tell > what > they are. Brian Borowski, as told to Clare Wilson > > > Source URL: > http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22630204.100-human-bat-uses-echoes-and-sounds-to-see-the-world.html > > To unsubscribe, send a blank e-mail to [email protected] > with "unsubscribe" (without the quotes) in the subject line. To subscribe > again, send a blank e-mail to [email protected] with > "subscribe" in the subject line, and next reply to the confirmation message. > > > > > Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of > mobile phones / Tabs on: > http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in > > > Search for old postings at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > > To unsubscribe send a message to > [email protected] > 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.. > -- Warm Regards Bhavya Shah Using NVDA (Non Visual Desktop Access) free and open source screen reader for Microsoft Windows To download a copy of the free screen reader NVDA, please visit http://www.nvaccess.org/ Using Google Talkback on Motorolla G second generation Lollipop 5.0.2 Reach me through the following means: Mobile: +91 7506221750 E-mail id: [email protected] Skype id : bhavya.09 Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] 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..
