Teach Yourself to Echolocate: A beginner’s guide to navigating with sound
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Re: Teach Yourself to Echolocate: A beginner’s guide to navigating with sound
#2My 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.)
Re: Teach Yourself to Echolocate: A beginner’s guide to navigating with sound
#3I’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 have such prominent childhood learning focused around sight (shapes, colors, etc) but barely teach children anything about hearing beyond animal sounds. I’m not advocating golden ears courses for kindergartens, but listening skills can be quite useful in lots of situations, not the least of which is situational awareness.
Re: Teach Yourself to Echolocate: A beginner’s guide to navigating with sound
#4I’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?
Re: Teach Yourself to Echolocate: A beginner’s guide to navigating with sound
#5For anyone wanting to see a master example of echolocation see this short video: https://youtu.be/TeFRkAYb1uk
Re: Teach Yourself to Echolocate: A beginner’s guide to navigating with sound
#6I’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…
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 lot more what is going on (including insects and birds) and it is a very different experience.
Re: Teach Yourself to Echolocate: A beginner’s guide to navigating with sound
#7I’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?
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.
Re: Teach Yourself to Echolocate: A beginner’s guide to navigating with sound
#8I’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…
It's fun to train your sense/brain. Since I started learning music, I try to detect harmonics in mechanics (train, car).
Also I wonder how much of this will come to you naturally if you live in the wild. You rely on so many minute signals ..
Re: Teach Yourself to Echolocate: A beginner’s guide to navigating with sound
#9I’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…
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.
Re: Teach Yourself to Echolocate: A beginner’s guide to navigating with sound
#10My 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.)
In the military, I at some point learned that listening was at least as important as looking. A lot of the senior guys on their 3rd or 4th tour would patrol without a helmet -- it messed with their hearing.