# What's the straight dope on human echolocation?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-human-echolocation/740759>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 18, 2015, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-human-echolocation/740759 "2015-12-18T07:42:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2015, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-human-echolocation/740759/21 "2015-12-19T03:22:08Z")

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Regarding the TED talk, he’s speaking into a microphone and getting echo’s from all the loudspeakers, same with his clicks. That would mess up his echo-location so yeah the cane makes sense.

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**Author:** ![callander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ed655f/32.png) [@callander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/callander)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2015, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-human-echolocation/740759/22 "2015-12-19T03:22:57Z")

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> [@Senegoid](#):
>
> Poorly, it is thought.
> 
> Googling for the words deaf dolphins we find a number of hits, a few of which actually seem to talk about deaf dolphins or whales.
> 
> Two examples:  
> [More Than Half of Stranded Bottlenose Dolphins May Be Deaf](http://m.livescience.com/38539-many-stranded-dolphins-deaf.html).
> 
> [‘A Deaf Whale Is a Dead Whale’: Sound Blasting for Oil Threatens Marine Life](http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/04/15/deaf-whale-dead-whale-sound-blasting-oil-threatens-marine-life-159997)

Yes I figure the survival of the big bad world would play out as such in the wild.

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**Author:** ![callander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ed655f/32.png) [@callander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/callander)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2015, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-human-echolocation/740759/23 "2015-12-19T03:24:36Z")

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> [@coremelt](#):
>
> Regarding the TED talk, he’s speaking into a microphone and getting echo’s from all the loudspeakers, same with his clicks. That would mess up his echo-location so yeah the cane makes sense.

Also clicking all day may be exhausting, could be the cane is a welcome interlude. 🙂  
Any echo locator dopes out there? We need real knowledge.

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**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2015, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-straight-dope-on-human-echolocation/740759/24 "2015-12-19T13:01:06Z")

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I remember a study where they showed that even sighted humans naturally use audio cues to navigate. They were blindfolded and asked to walk until they thought they were next to a barrier. And they were rather close.

I can’t remember if they used anything other than the sound of their own footsteps, but I specifically remember the study mentioning the differences in reverberation being the key–in other word, a form of echolocation.

Unfortunately, I can’t think clearly enough right now to think of what I should search for to find it. Maybe someone else can.

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