Human Echolocation Not as Batty as it Sounds

Bats are able to navigate in the dark through a process called echolocation: Sounds made by the bat are reflected back at slightly different times and from different directions. This differential reflection of sound waves allows the bat to construct a moving 3-D image of its environment.

Hard to believe as it may be, a team of medical professionals working with the blind has determined that humans already possess basis echolocation capacities. Work is underway to explore the development and further enhancement of this ability to detect nearby objects without actually seeing them.

One of the peculiarities of this remarkable process is that the sound waves are not exclusively heard. Vibrations are perceived physically, though subtly, in other bone and soft tissue parts of the head.

One man, in fact, has become so adept at echolocation that he is the only person to have been certified as a guide for the blind, though sightless himself.

While this and one other individual recognized as superb echolocators discovered and developed the skill independently, researchers aim to better understand the range of our abilities and the settings in which we might use them.