We were sitting at Christmas dinner and my brother-in-law told us something pretty interesting. Whilst in China he’d been watching some program (upon further probing he said it might have been National Geographic) about a man that was 100% visually impaired, but he could see with the help of sounds. He would apparently walk around making different pitched sounds and could then analyze that reverberances and get a mental picture of what was in front of him. That said, the guy could sit on a chair and be able to tell you that there was an umbrella above him, that there was a fence somewhere in front of him and even be able to “see” a tree that was behind the fence (!!!). At some point in the documentary he was apparently mountain biking down a mountain making these clucking sounds and could that way avoid obstacles. Now, do you see what I mean by “batman”? I don’t know whether to believe this in its entirety or just portions of it. Sure, theoretically it’s plausible. Though he isn’t using higher frequency sounds like bats, but it’s still sound waves that would bounce back and he could that way deduce that there was something in front of him. But “seeing” something behind another obstacle? I don’t see how that would work. Biking down a hill? I don’t see how he could analyze anything in time to be able to avoid a huge rock or something along those lines.
So, what do you guys think?
Uh, that would be real life Daredevil.
Not Batman.
Hehhe… yeah, if you’re going for the superhero equivalent… I just wrote batman, thinking Bat (hears and reacts like a bat) man (of the XY persuasion).
But, really? That was your contribution to my story? 
Wikipedia believes it. :eek:
-FrL-
I saw the special too and I’m here in the States. It was at least a year ago.
It wasn’t just one person that could do this, there is someone teaching others how to do this. Like a class blind people can take to help them get around better, it just so happens that there is (at least) one person that is really good at it.
I thought that is how the cane works? I mean surely the blind do not go around poking things with a long stick to figure out where everything is, although I’m sure that’s part of it. They also make “clickers” - small devices that make a clicking noise that you can use in place of a cane. I really don’t think it’s some sort of a magical skill imparted to a single individual or just the blind. With a bit of practice most people can get quite good at it as long as both of your ears work. There’s nothing magical about it. Try it.
Hell, I just closed my eyes, spun around, snapped my fingers several times in different directions and was able to reorient myself in the room without touching anything nor opening my eyes. Each of the four directions of the room sound differently. Of course I then proceeded to lose balance but I knew exactly which direction I was falling. :dubious: I’m glad nobody saw that.
Now that I think about it I think people already do that to a much greater extent than they realize. We ignore things that sound normal, but I’ve definitely been startled before by unexpected acoustics - walking into the wrong floor of a parking structure that just suddenly sounded entirely wrong before I even had a chance to look up and realize it was empty. Just your normal sounds, like footsteps, echoing funny can cause you to stop and examine your surroundings before other senses caught up, especially if you are looking at your cell phone while walking.
You should have been…better prepared. 
I’ve seen the special, also…he’s a kid in California. He’s quite amazing…he can even rollerblade.
CBS News did a Special Report about him.
Here is another video of him on the Ellen show.