Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Teach Yourself to Echolocate: A beginner’s guide to navigating with sound

atlasobscura.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 111 posts

Re: Teach Yourself to Echolocate: A beginner’s guide to navigating with sound

#11

Post by boon »

jfries wrote: post #4
givinguflac wrote: post #3

I’ve been practicing this for years and it’s quite useful. It’s not like seeing of course, but I’m able to get an idea of a room size and material hard/softness. Useful for not walking into walls in the dark or finding something when I don’t want to wake my SO. In general I’ve always been into sound and I think a lot of people have better hearing than they think, but never learned to hear well. I find it odd that we…

What do you consider good hearing skills to practice, except echolocating?

One of my hobbies is birding: specifically going out and trying to count all the birds I can find down to a species level. This requires a good ear to do well. Many times I find myself closing my eyes and pausing all bodily motion to really listen intently for the low chips of a sparrow, or distant drumming of a woodpecker.

Re: Teach Yourself to Echolocate: A beginner’s guide to navigating with sound

#12

Post by praptak »

jfries wrote: post #4
givinguflac wrote: post #3

I’ve been practicing this for years and it’s quite useful. It’s not like seeing of course, but I’m able to get an idea of a room size and material hard/softness. Useful for not walking into walls in the dark or finding something when I don’t want to wake my SO. In general I’ve always been into sound and I think a lot of people have better hearing than they think, but never learned to hear well. I find it odd that we…

What do you consider good hearing skills to practice, except echolocating?

Recognizing intervals. There's a lot of free apps for this.

Re: Teach Yourself to Echolocate: A beginner’s guide to navigating with sound

#13

Post by acjohnson55 »

Rumudiez wrote: post #7
jfries wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you consider good hearing skills to practice, except echolocating?

As one example, I’ve seen kids develop perfect pitch growing up in highly musical environments. I think it’s easier for them to learn it than adults, but it becomes a lifelong skill.

I think relative pitch is much more useful (e.g. identifying harmonies and notes relative to a tonic center).

Re: Teach Yourself to Echolocate: A beginner’s guide to navigating with sound

#15

Post by tw1010 »

This article reminds me of how it felt to be on the internet as a child. It seemed like this magical place where around every corner there was hidden an alchemic recipe to achieve something magical, if only you knew how to search in the right places.

Re: Teach Yourself to Echolocate: A beginner’s guide to navigating with sound

#16

Post by closed »

tw1010 wrote: post #15

This article reminds me of how it felt to be on the internet as a child. It seemed like this magical place where around every corner there was hidden an alchemic recipe to achieve something magical, if only you knew how to search in the right places.

So true! This reminded me of the first time I came upon Conway's Doomsday Algorithm for telling what day of the week a certain date is.

http://rudy.ca/doomsday.html

Re: Teach Yourself to Echolocate: A beginner’s guide to navigating with sound

#17

Post by ves »

Rumudiez wrote: post #7
jfries wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you consider good hearing skills to practice, except echolocating?

As one example, I’ve seen kids develop perfect pitch growing up in highly musical environments. I think it’s easier for them to learn it than adults, but it becomes a lifelong skill.

You cannot develop perfect pitch as an adult (really some time around six - eight years of age seems to be the cutoff). You can develop really good relative pitch at any point though, which is still tremendously valuable.

Re: Teach Yourself to Echolocate: A beginner’s guide to navigating with sound

#18

Post by FigmentEngine »

closed wrote: post #16
tw1010 wrote: post #15

This article reminds me of how it felt to be on the internet as a child. It seemed like this magical place where around every corner there was hidden an alchemic recipe to achieve something magical, if only you knew how to search in the right places.

So true! This reminded me of the first time I came upon Conway's Doomsday Algorithm for telling what day of the week a certain date is. http://rudy.ca/doomsday.html

or Zeller's congruence https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeller%27s_congruence

Re: Teach Yourself to Echolocate: A beginner’s guide to navigating with sound

#19

Post by avhon1 »

njarboe wrote: post #9
bjelkeman-again wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Situational awareness goes way down when people walk around with headphones with loud music. I notice it on a lot of people and how they behave in traffic. Just listening to things around you can be quite interesting as you move around. I never wear headphones for this reason. On interesting thing is to open the windows (and sunroof) in an electric car, whilst driving in built up areas < 20 mph/35 km/h, you hear a lo…

On a motorcycle one is much more connected to the environment and I think that is one reason people like them. Its fun to come down into a hollow and feel the temperature change. Smells are also easily detected. Sound, on the other hand, is mostly the motorcycle noise (which can be fun too). Reading this comment made me think it would be really interesting to try out an electric motorcycle.

An electric motorcycle probably emphasizes the need for a very well-designed helmet. At 60+mph, wind noise from the helmet could still drown out environmental noise.

Re: Teach Yourself to Echolocate: A beginner’s guide to navigating with sound

#20

Post by Wingman4l7 »

pjmorris wrote: post #2

My technique is caveman compared to the article, but I habitually roll down the windows before I back out of a parking spot, so I can listen for as well as look for anything that might be in the way. I think I started this after our son was born, born of an increasing mindfulness of kids and their associates (balls, toys, pets.)

Opening the window a crack is instinctual for me now whenever I first hear a siren on the road, so I can better figure out where it's coming from -- it can give me several extra seconds to plan if and how I need to get out of the way of emergency services. I highly recommend it!
Post reply on HN