Echo vision!!!!

S

sargentlard

Save the whales motherfucker
Valued Senior Member
I don't know if this piece was new (likely it wasn't due to Discovery Channels degeneration into another money hungry reality tv channel) but it was quite interesting and I wanted to know if this was being put into practice or being studied further.

Bascially a blind man had incorporated the practices of a bat into his blindness. He studied how bats used high frequency sounds to see in pitch black caves and he developed a technique like such of his own. I don't know how this completely works because the sounds he made didn't sounds high pitch enough to reflect back from far or even nearby objects but amazingly enough he could describe his surroundings with, at times, astute accuracy.

He said he was the only known man at time who practices such a technique along with two other students he was teaching who developed equally amazing ability to navigate their enviorment.

They were even showing biking in streets with traffic and mountain biking. They did this through constantly making a clicking sound adjusting their positions on the road to avoid obstacles.

This fascinates me because if such is possible then why isn't this being practiced more and more among those who lack sight.
 
Originally posted by sargentlard
I don't know how this completely works because the sounds he made didn't sounds high pitch enough to reflect back from far or even nearby objects but amazingly enough he could describe his surroundings with, at times, astute accuracy.
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Its not the frequency of sound which determines 'how much' of the landscape u can see. The reason bats use high frequency sounds is that it gives them a higher resolution of the landscape (such that they are able to detect spider webs using echo-location!). It will work with any frequency though.

I presume the man is still very gifted and has practiced this technique to perfection and I'd say the hours involved in doing this puts medical practitioners off giving this advice to blind people.
 
Re: Re: Echo vision!!!!

Originally posted by John Connellan


I'd say the hours involved in doing this puts medical practitioners off giving this advice to blind people.
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Isn't that wrong then?....This concerns sight. Practicing this could mean difference between life and death. Blind people should be atleast made known of this practice to furhter explore more options.
 
Sarge:
He said he was the only known man at time who practices such a technique along with two other students he was teaching who developed equally amazing ability to navigate their enviorment.
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Those naturally born blind are amazing all on their own without having to train anything.

Never heard of this click tack tacking and going around like bats, but blind people have someting called "facial vision". That's the name they use for lack of a better term- its the only way the blind can describe what it is they're 'seeing' by way of the pilli (small hairs) stimulated on their face. Maybe its echos triggering this but I haven't read anything definite of it being so.

And these folks have been put through labryinths where the goal is to walk through them unscathed. They ride bikes, go out, locate things all without means of artifice.

No sonar. Only facial hair.
 
So this would mean that blind men with beards are better off than those without beard?
So do you think a blind woman would take hormones to grow a beard in order to perceive the world better, or would she have a go at the "echo-vision" first?
How much do blind people care about their appearance compared to seeing people?
 
This is very strange, gendankens example sounds alot like a less established version of the receptive sonar organ of dolphins.
Dolphins don't actually need to make a beep to recieve information, they can just "listen" with their teeth that are attached to a complex inner ear and draw a picture of their surroundings with that. Making the beeps or clicks makes it more accurate and the picture more complex, but they only do that when they have to.
Sonar must be a pretty easy thing to evolve, I mean these people seem to have naturally have warmed up to the idea just from being blind, its telling of how it must have started in other species, and you can imagine if we selectively bred these individuals we could eventually have some pretty fancy dudes. With advanced stiff receptors on their chins and clicking eye-lids with no eyes in them:)
 
Re: Re: Re: Echo vision!!!!

Originally posted by sargentlard
Isn't that wrong then?....This concerns sight. Practicing this could mean difference between life and death. Blind people should be atleast made known of this practice to furhter explore more options.
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Its probably wrong alright but medics would rather u payed the full whack for proper Western treatment then try out some new fancy (not yet proven) technique. Besides, some people would probably be better than others at it.

p.s. When u go blind, this sense automatically gets better whether u practise it or not. Basically with the sight part of your brain now redundant, the brain compensates by using anything it can to try and create an internal picture of the outside world. Sound is the best known alternative method (as we see in the animal kingdom).
 
Well, the blind has to rely on other senses for sure, right? Okay, most of the time, they rely on touch, okay. but what's wrong with sounds?

joke: the only thing that 'bat-man' needs to be aware of is a ventriloquist.
 
Never heard of this click tack tacking and going around like bats, but blind people have someting called "facial vision". That's the name they use for lack of a better term- its the only way the blind can describe what it is they're 'seeing' by way of the pilli (small hairs) stimulated on their face. Maybe its echos triggering this but I haven't read anything definite of it being so.
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Really? Along with what I saw I haven't heard of this technique either. How are these hairs stimulated by the enviorment around them?

So do you think a blind woman would take hormones to grow a beard in order to perceive the world better, or would she have a go at the "echo-vision" first? How much do blind people care about their appearance compared to seeing people?
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No, womens faces are supplied with ample amounts of hair to be able to do what Gendanken is talking about.

I doubt blind people completely stop caring about their looks after they lose there sight but i am not sure of those who were born blind or lost sight at a very early age.


I mean these people seem to have naturally have warmed up to the idea just from being blind, its telling of how it must have started in other species, and you can imagine if we selectively bred these individuals we could eventually have some pretty fancy dudes.
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I tell you it was amazing. These guys navigating through traffic on their bikes all through clicking sounds they made that gave them the relative idea of what was ahead and that along with their hearing was enough to make them competent enough to ride bikes.
 
Really? Along with what I saw I haven't heard of this technique either. How are these hairs stimulated by the enviorment around them
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The idea is that every object gives off its presence via heat waves, or tiny electromagnetic waves invisible to the insensibility of not needing it for survival. That is why the blind would feel it- need.


Now if my leg's not being pulled and you're truly fascinated Sarge, I'll be more than willing to look up the info for you.

I read about this long ago in my hardcore science days- you'd be surpirsed at all the kinds of coping mechanisms known to man when he's lacking. Animals are incredibly adept at this evolution business so imagine how much colorful a thinking animal can get around the same things.
 
Sarge:
I wouldn't have asked if I wasn't intrigued. Thank you.
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Yo.


I've ransacked through all my closets, drawers, and cavitites and can't find the fucking article I read it in. First I thought it was a "Wired" mag where I read it in, went through about 3 of them yadda yadda and then BING a lightbulb went off and suddenly it hit me that it was a National Geographic.

So I took a hammer and broke through the other door I lost the key to, combed throught the archives and lo fucking behold can't fucking find it.

Tell you what. I've got a fantastic memory- it was a Natioanal Geographic year 1992 or 91 (or 81, 82?). On the cover is a picture of a starving Ethiope boy with his goat and on the side bar are short 'clips' of articles inside- one about African elephants born tuskless being on the rise.

The article was called something this same fantastic memory can't for the life of it recall but if you go towards the back you'll find it.

You've kept me up at night Sarge. Screw. You.
 
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