Editing Human echolocation (section)

==Notable cases==

===Daniel Kish===
{{main|Daniel Kish}}
Echolocation has been further developed by Daniel Kish, who works with the blind through the non-profit organization [[World Access for the Blind]].<ref>{{cite web |author=World Access for the Blind |url=https://visioneers.org/who-we-are/ |title=Who We Are |website=Visioneers |publisher=Visioneers.org |accessdate=2025-03-05}}</ref> He leads blind teenagers hiking and mountain-biking through the wilderness, and teaches them how to navigate new locations safely, with a technique that he calls "FlashSonar".{{sfn|Kremer|2012}} Kish had his eyes removed at the age of 13 months due to [[retinoblastoma|retinal cancer]]. He learned to make [[palatal click]]s with his tongue when he was still a child, and now trains other blind people in the use of echolocation and in what he calls "Perceptual Mobility".{{sfn|Kish|1995}}  Though at first resistant to using a cane for mobility, seeing it as a "handicapped" device, and considering himself "not handicapped at all", Kish developed a technique using his white cane combined with echolocation to further expand his mobility.{{sfn|Kish|1995}}

Kish reports that "The sense of imagery is very rich for an experienced user. One can get a sense of beauty or starkness or whatever—from sound as well as echo."{{sfn|Kremer|2012}} He is able to distinguish a metal fence from a wooden one by the information returned by the echoes on the arrangement of the fence structures; in extremely quiet conditions, he can also hear the warmer and duller quality of the echoes from wood compared to metal.{{sfn|Kremer|2012}}

===Thomas Tajo===
Thomas Tajo was born in the remote Himalayan village of [[Chayangtajo]] in the state of [[Arunachal Pradesh]] in the north-east India. He became blind around the age of 7 or 8 due to optic nerve atrophy and taught himself to echolocate. Today he lives in Belgium and works with Visioneers or World Access to impart independent navigational skills to blind individuals across the world. Tajo is also an independent  researcher. He researches the cultural and biological evolutionary history of the senses and presents his findings to scientific conferences around the world.<ref>{{Cite web |author=World Access for the Blind |date=2017-11-20 |title=Thomas Tajo |url=https://visioneers.org/thomas-tajo/ |access-date=2023-01-22 |website=Visioneers |publisher=Visioneers.org}}</ref>

===Ben Underwood===
[[File:Ben underwood.jpg|thumb|right|Ben Underwood]]
Ben Underwood was a blind American who was born on January 26, 1992, in [[Riverside, California]]. He was diagnosed with [[retinal cancer]] at the age of two, and had his eyes removed at the age of three.{{sfn|ABC News|2006}}

He taught himself echolocation at the age of five, becoming able to detect the location of objects by making frequent clicking noises with his tongue. This case was explained in ''20/20: Medical Mysteries''.{{sfn|Moorhead|2007}} He used it to accomplish such feats as running, playing basketball, riding a bicycle, rollerblading, playing football, and skateboarding.{{sfn|Schorn|2006}}<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://people.com/archive/the-boy-who-sees-with-sound-vol-66-no-4/ |volume=66 |number=4 |title=The Boy Who Sees with Sound |magazine=People Magazine |first=Alex |last=Tresniowski |date=2006-07-24}}</ref> Underwood's childhood eye doctor claimed that Underwood was one of the most proficient human echolocators.

He inspired other blind people to follow his lead. He died of cancer in 2009.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2009-01-20 |title=Teen Who Used Echolocation Dies Of Cancer |url=https://www.kcra.com/article/teen-who-used-echolocation-dies-of-cancer/6377728 |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=KCRA |language=en}}</ref>

===Lawrence Scadden===

Lawrence Scadden lost his sight as a child due to illness, but learned to use echolocation well enough to ride a bicycle in traffic. (His parents thought that he still had some sight remaining.)<!-- Removed due to self-published article:<ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.amazon.com/Surpassing-Expectations-Life-without-Sight/dp/1425797229/ |title=Surpassing Expectations: Life Without Sight |author=Scadden, Lawrence |date=2008-07-22 |publisher=Xlibris |ISBN=978-1425797225}}</ref>-->  In 1998, he was interviewed at the Auditory Neuroethology Laboratory at the [[University of Maryland]] about his experience with echolocation.<ref name=White70/> The researchers were aware of the ''Wiederorientierung'' phenomenon described by Griffin{{sfn|Griffin|1959}} where bats, despite continuing to emit echolocation calls, use [[path integration]] in familiar acoustic space. Scadden said he did the same, as echolocation required extra effort.

The National Science Teachers Association created the "Lawrence A. Scadden Outstanding Teacher Award of the Year for Students With Disabilities" in his honor.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Recognizing excellence—The Lawrence Scadden Teacher of the Year Award {{!}} NSTA |url=https://www.nsta.org/blog/recognizing-excellence-lawrence-scadden-teacher-year-award |access-date=2023-09-21 |website=nsta |publisher=National Science Teaching Association |first=Howard |last=Wahlberg |date=2010-04-16}}</ref>

===Lucas Murray===
'''Lucas Murray''', from [[Poole, Dorset]], was born blind, and is one of the first British people to have learned human echolocation, having learned it from [[Daniel Kish]].{{sfn|Joseph|2009}} Lucas' parents saw a documentary about Daniel Kish teaching Ben Underwood echolocation.<!-- Inappropriate reference:<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.benunderwood.com/ |title=Ben Underwood &#124; Blind Boy Who Could See |website=benunderwood.com |accessdate=2025-02-22}}</ref>-->{{sfn|BBC News|2009}} Months later, they learned that Daniel would be visiting a Scottish charity called Visibility<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://visibilityscotland.org.uk/|title=Visibility Scotland - Listening and responding to people affected by sight loss across Scotland|website=Visibility Scotland |accessdate=2025-02-22}}</ref> and contacted him. Kish taught the five-year-old Lucas the basics of echolocation over four days. By age seven, Lucas was proficient enough to not only accurately tell the distance of objects, but also their material, and could play with other children in sports such as rock climbing and basketball.{{sfn|Irvine|2009}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rnib.org.uk/who-we-are/action-for-blind-people|title=Action for Blind People merged with RNIB|date=2017-03-23 |website=RNIB - See differently |accessdate=2025-02-22}}</ref> In 2019, he enjoyed a week's [[work experience]] with [[South Western Railway (train operating company)|South Western Railway]].<ref name="cartlidge">{{cite news |last=Cartlidge |first=Sarah |title="The best work experience ever": Blind teenager enjoys "phenomenal" placement |url=https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/17649733.the-best-work-experience-ever-blind-teenager-enjoys-phenomenal-placement/ |access-date=2020-05-28 |work=Bournemouth Echo |date=2019-05-19}}</ref>

===Kevin Warwick===

The scientist [[Kevin Warwick]] experimented with feeding ultrasonic pulses into the brain (via electrical stimulation from a neural implant) as an additional sensory input.  In tests he was able to discern distance to objects accurately and to detect small movements of those objects.{{sfn|Warwick|2005}}

===Juan Ruiz===

Blind from birth, Juan Ruiz lives in Los Angeles, California. He appeared in the first episode of ''[[Stan Lee's Superhumans]]'', titled "Electro Man". The episode showed him capable of riding a bicycle, avoiding parked cars and other obstacles, and identifying nearby objects. He entered and exited a cave, where he determined its length and other features.{{citation needed|date=January 2013}}<!-- The whole section -->