[Blindtlk] British using sound to assist the blind

Tue Feb 12 06:10:41 CST 2008

I use similar techniques, but think having a cane enhances the information I 
receive.

Anjelina
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.
Albert Einstein
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sherri" <flmom2006 at gmail.com>
To: "Multiple recipients of NFBnet Blind-Talk Mailing List" 
<BlindTlk at nfbnet.org>; <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, February 11, 2008 6:36 AM
Subject: [Blindtlk] British using sound to assist the blind

Does anyone use a similar technique for echolocation as mentioned in the 
below article? I sometimes will quietly snap my fingers if I am trying to 
locate where an object is and that helps. To me, it's interesting that as 
blind people, we have developed techniques that are now being taught by 
people who think they've discovered some great idea that has never been 
tried before.

Sherri

  From The Sunday Times

February 10, 2008

Blind taught to 'see' like a bat

Mark Macaskill

BLIND British children are to be taught a pioneering bat-style echolocation 
technique to visualise their surroundings.

The children are learning how to build up detailed images of the world 
around them by clicking their tongue and interpreting the sound as it echoes 
back.

The technique is used by animals such as bats, dolphins and whales to 
navigate and hunt in the dark.

Bats are able to manoeuvre around caves and catch tiny insects on the wing 
by emitting short bursts of high-pitched noise and reading the sound waves 
as
they bounce back to their highly evolved ears.

There is emerging evidence that blind people can harness their sense of 
hearing - which is often more acute - to interpret reflected sound and 
create detailed
mental images of their surroundings, including the distance, size and 
density of objects.

The technique is being piloted in Glasgow, where 10 children aged five to 17 
are being taught by staff from Visibility, one of the city's oldest 
charities
for the blind. The children are learning how to make the clicking sound and 
how to use the technique even in noisy urban areas, including the 
underground
system.

Blind people in America, where human echolocation was pioneered, have learnt 
to differentiate between people, trees, buildings and parked cars by 
interpreting
the pitch and timbre of the echo they produce. Practitioners say they can 
determine the height, density and shape of objects up to 100ft away.

People using echolocation can determine the distance they are from an object 
by the length of time it takes for the sound to travel back. Its position 
can
be established by whether the echo hits the left or right ear first. The 
size of an object can be determined by the intensity of the echo. A smaller 
object
reflects less of the sound wave. The object's direction of movement can be 
established by the pitch of the echo, which is lower if it is moving away 
from
the source.

Echolocation has been endorsed by Professor Gordon Dutton, one of Britain's 
leading paediatric ophthalmologists, who wants the technique to be taught to
blind and visually impaired people across the country. There are about 
385,000 registered blind and partially sighted people in Britain.

"It's very exciting," said Dutton, of the Royal Hospital for Sick Children 
in Glasgow. "I have seen echolocation being used - it's quite stunning. It 
has
been demonstrated to me that it absolutely works.

"Of course there will be scepticism and doubt but the benefits are without 
question. It will make a massive difference to the lives of blind and 
visually
impaired people."

The project in Glasgow follows a visit last year by Dan Kish, a 41-year-old 
blind man from California, who pioneered the technique. Kish, who runs the 
not-for-profit
organisation World Access for the Blind, has also been commissioned by the 
charity Common Sense to present his method to the families of blind people 
in
Poole, Dorset.

His command of the technique is such that he can ride a bicycle on public 
roads and distinguish between different types of fruit on trees merely by 
clicking
his tongue. A video on the website YouTube shows Kish and a number of his 
friends demonstrating their skills.

Ben Underwood, a teenager who lost his sight when he was three, has also 
become a celebrity in America because of his ability to use echolocation to 
ride
a bike and to go skateboarding.

Although there have been no scientific studies of echolocation, supporters 
say it can hugely improve the lives of blind and partially sighted children.

While using a cane allows blind people to identify obstacles in their path, 
echolocation is said to provide 360-degree "vision" and can give them far 
greater
freedom.

"It's a type of seeing in its own right, which probably uses similar brain 
imaging mechanisms to eyesight," Kish said.

"Students almost invariably become more confident, move faster and 
participate in more activities," he continued. "They show improved posture 
and regard
themselves as more able to direct themselves through their environment with 
less need for others.

"They are freer, and better able to choose the quality of life they wish to 
achieve, rather than have this chosen for them."

Fiona Sandford, chief executive of Visibility, added: "This is a pioneering 
technique that will transform the lives of young blind children.

"We have trained four visually impaired adults and they are now using their 
skills to train children. We hope to roll this out to adults. I have seen it
being used and it works."

Belgium's federal police use a unit of blind officers specifically for their 
acute sense of hearing, in analysing phone taps and bugged conversations in
investigations of terrorism, drug trafficking and organised crime.

The detectives can separate the voices of different speakers and pick up 
sonic clues such as whether a suspect is in a railway station or a 
restaurant or
whether the caller is using a land-line or mobile phone. Some officers have 
even identified the make of car suspects are using.

A detective in Antwerp, Sacha van Loo, 36, who is trained in echolocation, 
correctly identified a drug smuggler as Albanian from his accent when 
sighted
colleagues thought the man was Moroccan.

Hollywood has also depicted the heightened senses of the blind. In the 2003 
film Dare-devil, Ben Affleck plays a New York lawyer, blinded in childhood,
who transforms himself into a masked crime-busting superhero by night, using 
his acute hearing as a "radar sense" to "see" through the dark.

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