Re: Implicit human echolocation

[Harry Erwin <harry.erwin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The phenomenon is known as facial vision. Dr. Lawrence Scadden could  
do it well enough to ride a bicycle in traffic despite his total  
blindness. He was a participant in at least one published study.

Most people who use it use passive echolocation as schools for the  
blind discouraged their students in the past from making echolocation  
sounds. Humans can also use active echolocation, but not with the  
range accuracy of bats. I've used passive echolocation. Sighted  
humans are about as accurate as bats in azimuth and elevation.

It's effortful. Once you've memorised your environment, you prefer to  
operate by dead reckoning, which means you don't notice changes  
unless they're obvious. This phenomenon is also seen in bats and  
rodents, and Don Griffin discussed it in Listening in the Dark.

--
Harry Erwin, PhD, Senior Lecturer of Computing, University of  
Sunderland. Computational neuroethologist:
http://scat-he-g4.sunderland.ac.uk/~harryerw/phpwiki/index.php/ 
AuditoryResearch