Natural Studies


Crittervision: Enter the bat's world of sound

New Scientist - August 24, 2011
Caroline Williams

Discusses the role of human active echolocators in helping scientists to understand bat perception.

How Human Echolocation Allows People to See Without Using Their Eyes

Smithsonian Magazine - August 27, 2013
Joseph Stromberg

Discusses and compares studies of bat and human echolocation, with directed attention to studies of our work.

Sensitive as a Bat: Navigating the World by Echoes

Physics Central

Explores the simple physics of echolocation in bats and humans, with reference to FlashSonar.

Whale & Dolphin Meets Daniel Kish

Wale & Dolphin Magazine (WDC) - Winter, 2013
Malcolm Tait

An interview with Daniel Kish about human sonar, and his insights into the world of whale and dolphin perception.

Dolphins and Children Using Sonar

BBC - June, 2008

As part of a scientific experiment, Daniel is unwittingly pitted in a sonar contest against Milo the Dolphin, who subsequently died in captivity. Features Professor Magnus Wahlberg from University of Southern Denmark. Includes a most touching and heart warming segment with one of our blind students - a very engaging and adorably charming 7 year old Samuel, now deceased, who shows us how it's all done. Here are two short edits from this piece on BBC Earth

"Zen" Bats Hit Their Target by Not Aiming at It!

Journal of Science and Technology - February 4, 2010
Cynthia Moss and Nachum Ulanovsky

"People without sight use echolocation, in some cases also generating sound by tongue clicking," said Moss. One such person, she noted, is Daniel Kish, ... Totally blind from birth, Kish uses tongue clicking for sonar that allows him to "see" his environment at a very high level, even allowing him to safely ride a bike in a city street. ... "There are no measurements of the directionality of the sound beams used by blind echolocators like Kish," Moss said. "But looking at head movements in echo locating blind individuals, it seems that some may show a similar strategy [to that of fruit bats]."

California Blind Man Uses Echolocation to Navigate Around on His Bike

Inhabitat - Sustainable Design Innovation - March 14, 2011
by Ami Cholia

Featuring our work as an innovative example of green transportation. "Kish, who usually takes a stock of the most important structures in a new area before he starts riding, says that the differences in the aural reflections from the buildings around him allow him to tell what angles they're standing at, or whether they have columns or balconies."