Human echolocation using click trains and continuous noise
| Document type: | Conference Papers |
|---|---|
| Peer reviewed: | Yes |
| Full text: | |
| Author(s): | Bo Schenkman, Mats E. Nilsson, Nedelko Grbic |
| Title: | Human echolocation using click trains and continuous noise |
| Conference name: | Annual Meeting of the International Society for Psychophysics |
| Year: | 2011 |
| Publisher: | International Society for Psychophysics |
| City: | Herzliya, Israel |
| Organization: | Blekinge Institute of Technology |
| Department: | School of Engineering - Dept. of Electrical Engineering, School of Management (Sektionen för ingenjörsvetenskap - Avd. för elektroteknik, Sektionen för management) School of Engineering S-371 79 Karlskrona, School of Management S- 371 79 Karlskrona +46 455 38 50 00 http://www.bth.se/ing/; http://www.bth.se/mam/ |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | Blind people may detect objects from the information in reflected sounds, echolocation. Detection as a function of the number of clicks compared to a continuous noise was tested by presenting clicks of 5 ms with rates from 1 to 64 clicks during a 500 ms period and a 500-ms continuous white noise. The sounds were recorded in an ordinary room through an artificial binaural head. The reflecting object was an aluminum disk, diameter 0.5 m, at distances of 1 and 1.5 m. These sounds were later presented to 3 blind and 16 sighted participants in a laboratory using a 2AFC methodology. The task was to detect which of the two sounds that contained a reflecting object. Feedback was provided. The blind participants had a higher detection than the sighted, but there were also differences among the blind. These results are put in relation to physical features such as the autocorrelation function and spectral variations. |
