Exploring the Potential of Human Echolocation
From: R&D Magazine - 06/26/2017

People who are visually impaired will often use a cane to feel out their
surroundings. With training and practice, people can learn to use the pitch,
loudness and timbre of echoes from the cane or other sounds to navigate
safely through the environment using echolocation.

A better understanding of echolocation may improve methods for teaching the
technique to people who have lost their sight later in life, and yield
additional insights into human hearing.

Many individuals who were born blind or who lost their sight early in life
are highly skilled at using echoes that bounce off objects, walls, hallways
and buildings to find their way around. The majority of people use the
tapping of their canes to echolocate - the action calls less attention to
themselves. But others add their own sounds like clicking, shushing or
snapping noises to detect objects around them.

Research into echolocation can inform Orientation and Mobility training,
which helps people who are blind or visually impaired to navigate their
environment. People who become blind early in life often learn to use their
hearing, including echolocation, more efficiently. But for individuals who
became impaired later in life, echolocation training can help them to move
through the world with greater independence and safety.

Read the entire article at:
https://www.rdmag.com/news/2017/06/exploring-potential-human-echolocation

Links:
Bo Schenkman
http://www.speech.kth.se/staff/homepage/index.html?id=bosch

Human echolocation: pitch versus loudness information
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22128556