For humans, echolocation is a good alternative to vision, though it does have drawbacks. It’s much easier to hear echoes bouncing off head-height objects than ground-height objects. It’s more difficult in some conditions than others; the noise of rain or traffic or the muffling effect of snow will all make it harder. Unlike vision, you’re not getting a constant stream of information but something more like a series of snapshots. Though precision of echolocation varies from person to person, it has a far lower precision limit than vision because sound has longer wavelengths than light – so it’s like looking at something out of the corner of your eye rather than focusing on it directly. And, until very recently, there’s been no training available, so most people have had to teach themselves or learn informally from someone else.
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Thought that said ‘eat chocolate’ lol
Would moving in coordination with changes in ambient noise also be considered echolocation? For example stepping aside in a tunnel when you hear someone running behind you to catch a subway train? In that example one uses aural information to guide movement, too.
if not, they’re both grouped under “acoustic wayfinding”
No, it means using sounds you produce yourself, like clicking, to determine the size, shape and position of objects around you by perceiving how the echo bounces back.
Reminds me of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeFRkAYb1uk
It is possible to successfully develop this skill, though it’s very hard.
That was the first thing I thought of as well, so I looked him up. I was mostly curious if it was a an act all along, but it appears to have been, even with years of hindsight, real. He sadly passed away in 2009 however due to his cancer, that cost him his sight in the first place, returning.
