# Daredevil shadow vision? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 7, 2003, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daredevil-shadow-vision/153359 "2003-02-07T01:39:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jb\_007clone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/91b2a8/32.png) [@jb\_007clone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jb_007clone)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daredevil-shadow-vision/153359/1 "2003-02-07T01:39:41Z")
Is there anything in reality that is the equivalent of Daredevil’s “Shadow Vision”? ---
**Author:** ![Thaumaturge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@Thaumaturge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thaumaturge)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daredevil-shadow-vision/153359/2 "2003-02-07T01:45:11Z")
Perhaps you could elaborate?.. ---
**Author:** ![jb\_007clone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/91b2a8/32.png) [@jb\_007clone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jb_007clone)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daredevil-shadow-vision/153359/3 "2003-02-07T01:49:32Z")
Daredevil is blind but his sense of sound and heat and movement give him a sort of crude “shadow world”-like vision. It’s difficult to explain but if you’ve read the comics or see that movie, when it comes out, you will understand. ---
**Author:** ![Sock\_Munkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Sock\_Munkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sock_Munkey)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daredevil-shadow-vision/153359/4 "2003-02-07T02:11:09Z")
The lateral lines on many fish can sense minute pressure changes in the water around them allowing them to avoid obstacles and sense motion. ---
**Author:** ![TVS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b782af/32.png) [@TVS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVS)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daredevil-shadow-vision/153359/5 "2003-02-07T03:43:51Z")
Ah. The term is not ‘shadow vision’, it’s ‘radar sense’. Nothing of the like for humans that I am aware of, but it would be something like the sonar that bats and other nocturnal creatures use. ---
**Author:** ![sciguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@sciguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciguy)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daredevil-shadow-vision/153359/6 "2003-02-07T04:59:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sock Munkey \* > \*\*The lateral lines on many fish can sense minute pressure changes in the water around them allowing them to avoid obstacles and sense motion. \*\* I’ve heard an even weirder one: Some (maybe most) electric eels don’t shock. The electric field generated is constant (but weak), and anything moving into it disturbs the field lines, allowing the fish to sense prey and/or predators. ---
**Author:** ![jb\_007clone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/91b2a8/32.png) [@jb\_007clone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jb_007clone)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daredevil-shadow-vision/153359/7 "2003-02-07T05:03:04Z")
very cool ---
**Author:** ![bruntilda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8dc957/32.png) [@bruntilda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bruntilda)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daredevil-shadow-vision/153359/8 "2003-02-07T05:56:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jb\_007clone \* > \*\*Daredevil is blind but his sense of sound and heat and movement give him a sort of crude “shadow world”-like vision. \*\* People can actually learn a “radar sense” by listening to the echoes around them. Not quite as good as Daredevil though. ---
**Author:** ![Urban\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Urban\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urban_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daredevil-shadow-vision/153359/9 "2003-02-07T07:05:50Z")
Hearing is non-directional for the most part. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daredevil-shadow-vision/153359/10 "2003-02-07T08:54:38Z")
To get the geeky part out of the way, in the comics at least Daredevil’s sonar wasn’t two dimensional or crude except very early in the piece. It was basically a full analogue to sight with no colour perception. And yeah, as has been mentioned bats and some birds use sonar or to navigate. Cetaceans use the equivalent system. It’s not a shadow sense by any stretch. Bats and dolphins use this ability to catch fast moving prey and to avoid obstacles at high speed. It clearly has very good range finding and directional capabilities, presumable as good as or better than vision. > [@](#): > > Hearing is non-directional for the most part. How do you figure? Any human an immediately pinpoint the source of most sounds. Even with only one ear we’re remarkably good at locating sound direction. As with vision it’s only the rangfinding that suffers greatly with mono hearing. It’s all down to the way the sound echos off the convolutions in the outer ear coupled with the sound moving through the skull itself. There’s quite a sophistaicated directional sense built in. And of course humans aren’t very good at this because we don’t rely on hearing. Cats, foxes and owls are quite capable of pouncing on moving prey in complete darkness just using sound to judge direction and distance. Try it for yourself. Close you eyes and see if you can locate the direction from which a sound is coming. ---
**Author:** ![Sock\_Munkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Sock\_Munkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sock_Munkey)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daredevil-shadow-vision/153359/11 "2003-02-08T03:39:13Z")
Daredevil’s radar sense in the comics was also supposed to work a full 360 degrees around him and could even penetrate objects of very low density.