----- Original Message ----- Hi All,
For your information. Appended is today's article on ABC Local about echolocation and Daniel Kish. The original ABC 7 article at the URL http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/health&id=8760169 contains a video. Best wishes, Peter Meijer Seeing with Sound - The vOICe http://www.seeingwithsound.com/winvoice.htm Non-profit training blind to use flash sonar. By Carolyn Johnson. A Southern California non-profit is training blind people to use sound as amethod of seeing. The technique takes practice, but instructors say it can give
blind people a powerful tool to help understand their world.For most people, taking a sunny stroll is relaxing. For Kyra Sweeney it can be
intimidating.The 18-year-old has been blind since birth and relies on a cane to navigate. But
for several months, she's been learning a new system to see. "It's basically seeing with your ears," Sweeney said. Her instructor, Juan Ruiz, is also blind.The technique is called flash sonar. It's a form of echolocation, the same way bats see in the dark, dolphins see in the water and submarines spot other subs.
Ruiz makes a clicking noise with his mouth and then listens for the sound bouncing off objects around him."You're able to determine where the distances are at; how wide, tall or solid
the object is," Ruiz said.Daniel Kish is the president of World Access for the Blind, which provides the
training. "You can tell thedifferent shapes and surface structure of trees, bushes, benches, planter boxes," Kish said.Ruiz demonstrated the technique for ABC7 News. After several seconds of clicking
from different angles, an image appears in his mind. "These are plants here and over here we have something that's more creative, it's not natural," he said. He's the first to admit it's not vision, but for Sweeney, who's going off to college, it's a life changing skill. "I thought, 'Oh god, there's no way I could do this independently,' but ever since I started using echolocation it's going to be no problem," she said. World Access for the Blind is located in Encino. Written and produced by Tim Didion Source URL: http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/health&id=8760169 ---------- To send a message to the list, send any message to blindza@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ---------- To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to blindza-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the subject line --- The 'homepage' for this list is at http://www.blindza.co.za
