[blindza] Fw: Blind children taught to see the world like bats
- From: "Jacob Kruger" <jacobk@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "BlindZA" <blindza@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2008 11:21:28 +0200
Weird stuff considering it sounds like they just make the sounds themselves.
Jacob Kruger
Blind Biker
Skype: BlindZA
'...Fate had broken his body, but not his spirit...'
----- Original Message -----
Blind children taught to see the world like bats.
By Gareth Rose.
BLIND children from Scotland are to be taught a pioneering
echo-location technique copied from bats in an effort to help
them visualise their surroundings.
The youngsters will be able to build up a mental library of
images of the world around them by clicking their tongue and
interpreting the sound as it echoes back. The technique, which
is used by bats, dolphins and whales to navigate and hunt in
the dark, is being piloted in Glasgow, where 10 children aged
five to 17 are being taught by staff from the charity
Visibility.
There is growing evidence that blind people can use their
advanced hearing to interpret reflected sound as the distance,
size and density of objects around them.
Leading paediatric ophthalmologist Professor Gordon Dutton has
backed the technique and wants it to be taught to the 385,000
blind and partially sighted people in Britain.
"It's very exciting," said Dutton, of the Royal Hospital for
Sick Children in Glasgow. "I have seen echo-location being
used – it's quite stunning.
"Of course there will be scepticism and doubt, but the
benefits are without question. It will make a massive
difference to the lives of blind and visually impaired
people."
Echo-location was pioneered in the US, where people have been
able to differentiate between people, trees, buildings and
parked cars by the pitch and timbre of the echo they produce.
They have even been able to determine the height, density and
shape of objects up to 100ft away.
Distance can be calculated by how long it takes for the echo
to travel back, position by whether it hits the left or right
ear first, and size by the intensity of the echo, as a smaller
object reflects less of the sound wave.
The direction a moving object, such as a car, is travelling
can be calculated by the pitch of the noise, which is lower
if it is moving away from the person.
The project in Glasgow was launched following a year-long
visit by Dan Kish, a 41-year-old man from California who
pioneered the technique and uses it to ride a bike and even
distinguish different types of fruit on trees.
Another practitioner of echo-location, teenager Ben Underwood,
who lost his sight when he was three, has become a celebrity
in America because of his ability to use it to ride a bike and
go skateboarding.
Source URL:
http://news.scotsman.com/scitech/Blind-children-taught-to-see.3762761.jp
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