The Aquatic Ape might have been more sophisticated than we first thought

[DeepThought]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpBm4KoWsrY]YouTube - Blind guy listens to echos to navigate[/ame]

 

[wet]

My computer doesn't have soundcard, I couldn't hear the video! :head

I guess he could hear the dolphin clicking.

I strongly suspect that he could with practice, become nearly as good as dolphins at close distant range, though dolphins have more powerful long distant sonar transmission and reception which we lack, due to their high-speed fish-chasing habits.

Yes, AFAICT our "aquatic ape" seashore ancestors of long ago used sound while underwater dive-foraging, developing language, song, monogamy and more complex brains as a result.

More here (but still a work in progress, not completed yet)...
the-arc » Dive Song

DDeden
David Deden, Director-Naturalist-Author, THE-ARC
The Humboldt Estuarboreal - Aquamarine Research Center, Eureka, California

 

[joe123321]

Wow thats amazing

 

[josedesucre]

I guess he could hear the dolphin clicking.

No, he had his own clicking device on his hand. He was able to distinguish between a parked car and a plastic trash can, and he avoided one trash can that was in the middle of the sidewalk. It is really amazing, and a great hope for thousands of people suffering loss of sight.

 

[wet]

No, he had his own clicking device on his hand. He was able to distinguish between a parked car and a plastic trash can, and he avoided one trash can that was in the middle of the sidewalk. It is really amazing, and a great hope for thousands of people suffering loss of sight.

I didn't know he had a hand clicker, that makes a lot of sense, to wave it near possible objects, transmitting clicks and receiving the echoes at ear level.

Is the hand clicker electric or finger-powered?

Did he hear the dolphins clicking and whistling at the marina? Did he try clicking then?

It's weird that I could see him but not hear him, and wasn't able to understand it, while he could hear but not see, yet knew his environment by click echoing.
In both cases, sound is a critical sense.

DDeden

 

[Waterysmile]

There was a programme on the telly a few days ago here in the UK which featured a blind young American man who echo-located with clicks he produced himself with his tongue. Quite amazing.

 

[DeepThought]

I thought he was using his mouth, I didn't notice a clicker.
They didn't really say in this clip anything of importance about the dolphins.
"Percieving" the fire hydrant was cool, but he might have been walking in his familier neighbourhood, so this news item might not be the best way to demonstrate how good his abilities are.
Still pretty cool.

 

[fcallagy]

My brother has a machine russian i think that transmits sounds at a higher frequency so you hear them at a alpha wave level you plug your musice player into it and then attach the two earmuff type things to your forehead holding them in place with a sweatband you hear the music through your skin via the vibrations.

 

[wet]

There was a programme on the telly a few days ago here in the UK which featured a blind young American man who echo-located with clicks he produced himself with his tongue. Quite amazing.

Yeah, that's how I thought it was done, tongue clicking. (Maybe underwater, teeth clicking?)

I guess any kind of fast clicking would work. Clicking produces discrete echoes, while humming/talking/singing produces continuous sound, good for a reference position, as long as it doesn't overlap frequency with the clicking "channel".

I know that echolocating bats have a wide range of channel frequencies to select from when in swarms, they chirp-click at non-overlapping frequencies. I guess cave swifts do this too.

The idea of a moving person (diver at dark depth) using clicks,
while a non-moving person (buoy/beacon floater) using humming (light-house foghorn), provides simultaneously dual channels of inter-active information flow. Same principle, different situations.

I'd guess the guy's mother talks a lot, this helps him establish relative positions.
DDeden

 

[wet]

My brother has a machine russian i think that transmits sounds at a higher frequency so you hear them at a alpha wave level you plug your musice player into it and then attach the two earmuff type things to your forehead holding them in place with a sweatband you hear the music through your skin via the vibrations.

Yeah, I've heard of this but not familiar with it. Is there something called a "bone phone" that transmits using bone conduction?

The problem with hearing is usually not lack of sound detection, but rather too much sound dissonance, similar sounds together make "muddy" reception, like too many radio stations at almost the same position on the tuner dial in big cities.
DDeden

 

[wet]

Yahoo! Groups

Yes, AFAICT our "aquatic ape" seashore ancestors of long ago used sound while underwater dive-foraging, developing language, song, monogamy and more complex brains as a result.

More here (but still a work in progress, not completed yet)...
the-arc » Dive Song

DDeden
David Deden, Director-Naturalist-Author, THE-ARC
The Humboldt Estuarboreal - Aquamarine Research Center, Eureka, California[/QUOTE]

 

[shoutatthesky]

It is not uncommon at all for sight impaired people to use sound to sense their surroundings. Ray Charles wore hard soled shoes so he could get information about what was around by the way the tapping of his shoes sounded.

 

[wet]

Beach Party 125,000 years ago at the Red Sea!

Geotimes - July 2000: News Notes - Paleoanthropology

 

[trux]

This article may be worth of looking at for those interested in the Aquatic Ape theory (i.e. Wet/David):

Verhaegen Human Evolution

And also this one:
The Aquatic Ape: Fact or Fiction

 

[wet]

[Dive Song (hum/click/speech) & FOXP2 gene]

Re: Bat sonar: nose transmitter, ears receptor dish

Bat noses inspire robotic sonar : Nature News

Perhaps related to recent studies on Foxp2 in human speech, dolphins and bat sonar:

Bats add their voice to the FOXP2 story

(FOXP2 in neandertals, bats, dolphins & whales, humans)
John Hawks Anthropology Weblog


DDeden