Blind Man Teaches Himself Echolocation

dharocks · Mar 20, 2011

He knew my car was poorly parked because he produced a brief, sharp click with his tongue. The sound waves he created traveled at a speed of more than 1,000 feet per second, bounced off every object around him, and returned to his ears at the same rate, though vastly decreased in volume.

But not silent. Kish has trained himself to hear these slight echoes and to interpret their meaning. Standing on his front stoop, he could visualize, with an extraordinary degree of precision, the two pine trees on his front lawn, the curb at the edge of his street, and finally, a bit too far from that curb, my rental car. Kish has given a name to what he does — he calls it “FlashSonar” — but it’s more commonly known by its scientific term, echolocation.

Bats, of course, use echolocation. Beluga whales too. Dolphins. And Daniel Kish. He is so accomplished at echolocation that he’s able to pedal his mountain bike through streets heavy with traffic and on precipitous dirt trails. He climbs trees. He camps out, by himself, deep in the wilderness. He’s lived for weeks at a time in a tiny cabin a two-mile hike from the nearest road. He travels around the globe. He’s a skilled cook, an avid swimmer, a fluid dance partner. Essentially, though in a way that is unfamiliar to nearly any other human being, Kish can see.
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Kish does not go around clicking like a madman. He uses his click sparingly and, depending on his location, varies the volume. When he’s outside, he’ll throw a loud click. In good conditions, he can hear a building 1,000 feet away, a tree from 30 feet, a person from six feet. Up close, he can echolocate a one-inch diameter pole. He can tell the difference between a pickup truck, a passenger car, and an SUV. He can locate trail signs in the forest, then run his finger across the engraved letters and determine which path to take. Every house, he explains, has its own acoustic signature.

He can hear the variation between a wall and a bush and a chain-link fence. Bounce a tennis ball off a wall, Kish says, then off a bush. Different response. So too with sound. Given a bit of time, he can echolocate something as small as a golf ball. Sometimes, in a parking garage, he can echolocate the exit faster than a sighted person can find it.
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http://www.mensjournal.com/the-blind-man-who-taught-himself-to-see

Fascinating story.

R0ckets03 · Mar 20, 2011

wtf...always amazes me what individuals can accomplish once they put their mind to it.

heypartner · Mar 20, 2011

Kish does not go around clicking like a madman.
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So, I assume this "FlashSonar" doesn't work on visualizing breast size and cleavage; otherwise, he would be going around clicking like a madman.

Sound waves probably don't bounce off breasts too well.

BetterThanI · Mar 20, 2011

Just as long as he doesn't dress like this...

pradaxpimp · Mar 20, 2011

Matt Murdock?

rocketsjudoka · Mar 20, 2011

heypartner said: ↑

So, I assume this "FlashSonar" doesn't work on visualizing breast size and cleavage; otherwise, he would be going around clicking like a madman.

Sound waves probably don't bounce off breasts too well.
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I bet the echo is different between real and fake ones.

Anyway interesting article. It would be cool to learn but I am betting that it would be much harder for a sighted person to learn how to echolocate because we have sight to fall back on.

WhoMikeJames · Mar 20, 2011

What the hell? How do you train yourself to do this?

Jontro · Mar 20, 2011

Damn that's pretty boss!

But how does he do this in a busy street, say time square? He'd be bombarded with noises from all directions.

A_3PO · Mar 20, 2011

Incredible read. Thanks OP.

dharocks · Mar 20, 2011

Jontro said: ↑

Damn that's pretty boss!

But how does he do this in a busy street, say time square? He'd be bombarded with noises from all directions.
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I accompanied Kish on several occasions as he cruised the busy streets of Long Beach. The outside world is an absolute cacophony. Every car, person, dog, stroller, and bicycle makes a sound. So do gusts of wind, bits of blowing garbage, and rustling leaves. Doors open and close. Change jangles. People talk. Then there are the silent obstacles — what Kish calls urban furniture: benches, traffic signs, telephone poles, postal boxes, fire hydrants, light posts, parked vehicles. Kish hears the sonic reflections from his click even in a place teeming with ambient noise. “It’s like recognizing a familiar voice in a crowd,” he says. The load upon his mind is undoubtedly immense. Yet he casually processes everything, constructing and memorizing a mental map of his route, all while maintaining an intricate conversation with me.
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Probably helps that he's been doing it his entire life.

RedRedemption · Mar 20, 2011

Jontro said: ↑

Damn that's pretty boss!

But how does he do this in a busy street, say time square? He'd be bombarded with noises from all directions.
Click to expand...

Have you ever noticed you can focus on a conversation in a busy street with a friend? Well maybe this guy fine tuned it to where he can focus on a specific sound echo thing... you know what? I have no f***** idea.

rocketsjudoka · Mar 20, 2011

RedRedemption said: ↑

Have you ever noticed you can focus on a conversation in a busy street with a friend? Well maybe this guy fine tuned it to where he can focus on a specific sound echo thing... you know what? I have no f***** idea.
Click to expand...

If you read the whole article that is pretty much how he does it. As noted in the article the human brain's auditory complex is larger than the whole brain of a bat so there is likely enough processing power there to train ourselves to be able to discriminate distinct sounds even with a lot of background noise.

Jontro · Mar 20, 2011

So say he goes to a Lincoln Park concert (they misspelled their name) and all there is, is just nonsensical screaming like dude is giving birth for 60 minutes... how would he get his way around?

Wakko67 · Mar 20, 2011

That guys is a true Sonar Tech. Makes me jealous.

Good read OP.

Ismail · Mar 20, 2011

Nice read. If anyone's interested, here's another pretty awesome video series about The Boy Who Sees Without Eyes:

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/qLziFMF4DHA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

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