Blind Boy Uses Sonar to "See"..

Elliemental

Just been watching this boy on the news, its` really quite incredible..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/dorset/8291573.stm

How would even begin to learn a technique like this?:)

The_B_Man

Ye i remember seeing a little kid do that before on the telly. the reporter had him walking around his street and he could identify bins and cars and lamposts n stuff.

I also once seen a blind woman with a guide dog walk straight into a bus stop. THe dog walked around it but she kept going. If only she had these tongue clicking skillz!

CreepingDeath

Elliemental wrote: »

How would even begin to learn a technique like this?:)

The brain is a complex associative pattern matching computer.

If you imagine each noise he heard as a musical note with a distinct pitch, speed and direction then he learnt the sounds for echoes of objects.

It would work for solid audio reflective objects, but sound absorbing material like fabric or a simple washing line across the garden would be invisible to him. Bats can be caught with a thin meshed net as sound travels through the net.

Gone Drinking

That's a bit eerie..

thorbarry

Daredevil...

Fake

PirateShampoo

Ive seen this 3 times now with 3 different people. I don't think its fake. I think its extraordinary.

I don't think people who can c have no way comprehending how this works.

Long Onion

Holy submarines - it's Batman

Daroxtar

So if he listens to loud music he'll go blind.

Lux23

I saw a guy on Derren Brown who knew how to do the same thing, its seems magically but if you have no visual memory then its possible your brain can learn how to adapt. He could ride a bike down a street and everything, it was amazing.

Run_to_da_hills

I wouldn't like to see what this kid catches for his dinner. :eek:

Theta

The_B_Man wrote: »

Ye i remember seeing a little kid do that before on the telly. the reporter had him walking around his street and he could identify bins and cars and lamposts n stuff.

I also once seen a blind woman with a guide dog walk straight into a bus stop. THe dog walked around it but she kept going. If only she had these tongue clicking skillz!

Is that the American kid??? Unfortunatly he died of cancer or so I read I could be wrong.

arybvtcw0eolkf

I wonder is he reading this thread.

I bet not :P

.

ScumLord

Long Onion wrote: »

Holy submarines - it's Batman

Not yet, he's Batboy.. Or possibly daredevilboy? If I was him I'd definitely change my name to Batman when I turn 18.

chilli_pepper

There was a chap on the news a couple of months ago in Belgium who used this technique to cycle a bike , pretty amazing stuff

We dont see with our eyes - We see with our brain!!


http://www.scientificblogging.com/national_eye_institute/brainport_helping_blind_people_see_using_their_tongue

With BrainPort, the tongue ultimately replaces the eyes in transmitting visual input to the brain. But first, a small video camera on the nose bridge of the sunglasses acts as "eyes" to gather visual information. The images are transmitted in black, gray and white to a handheld computer, slightly larger than an iPod, which translates the visual information into electrical signals.

Next, these signals are transformed into gentle electrical impulses that end up on the tongue when BrainPort users place a lollipop-sized electrode array in their mouths. The white portions of images become strong impulses, the gray become medium impulses, and the black result in no impulses. The tongue sends these impulses to the brain, where they are interpreted as sensory information that substitutes for vision.

This process works in much the same way that the optic nerve in the eye transmits visual information to the brain. Thus, this device supports the idea that we may not need our eyes to maintain our "vision." As BrainPort inventor Paul Bach-y-Rita, M.D., was known to say: "We don't see with our eyes, we see with our brain."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKd56D2mvN0

Long Onion

I'd love to put in in a room filled with mirrors ...

Rabies

Long Onion wrote: »

I'd love to put in in a room filled with mirrors ...

but that's pointless

A sound proof room makes sense.

Mirrors? Nope.

Gone Drinking

I'd be more impressed by a boy who uses his bonar to see..

you know, like a feeling cane!

Long Onion

Rabies wrote: »

but that's pointless

A sound proof room makes sense.

Mirrors? Nope.

He's not deaf man ...

ScumLord

Long Onion wrote: »

He's not deaf man ...

But he is blind, If you painted everything in his house black he'd be truly ****ed.

Rabies

Long Onion wrote: »

He's not deaf man ...

/gives up

The Big Red Button

Rabies wrote: »

but that's pointless

A sound proof room makes sense.

Mirrors? Nope.

A sound proof room doesn't let sound travel out of it, but you can still hear sounds while you're inside the room!

So that doesn't make sense either :P

ScumLord wrote: »

But he is blind, If you painted everything in his house black he'd be truly ****ed.

I don't geddit! He can't see anyways, why would it make a difference what colour stuff is!

Gloom

:eek:!



(loved reading these when I was younger!)

dsmythy

Almost inspirational really.

Rabies

chatterpillar wrote: »

A sound proof room doesn't let sound travel out of it, but you can still hear sounds while you're inside the room!

So that doesn't make sense either :P

Yes it does.

Reduced or muffled echo will reduce the boy's ability to 'see'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soundproofing

Soundproofing affects sound in two different ways: noise reduction and noise absorption. Noise reduction simply blocks the passage of sound waves through the use of distance and intervening objects in the sound path. Noise absorption operates by transforming the sound wave. Noise absorption involves suppressing echoes, reverberation, resonance and reflection. The damping characteristics of the materials it is made out of are important in noise absorption.