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I first shared this about 5 years ago on my blog, but I decided to share it again, just so a new audience can read about this interesting dog. All warm blooded animals were created by God to have five basic senses. However, when we lose our sight, or are born blind, we find it difficult to deal with a world made for those who see. Blind people cope in a world built for eyes by using trained guide dogs. It has been a partnership that both man and dog have learned to appreciate and love. Well, what I have...

A dog may be man’s best friend, but dolphins can imitate human actions, and even how they solve problems. When a dolphin has one of its senses blocked, it can use other senses to mimic a human’s movements, according to a recent study. … The study, conducted at the Dolphin Research Center in the Florida Keys, expands on previous studies looking at how dolphins are able to imitate other dolphins while blindfolded. To see if a change in sound would affect their imitation, researchers used humans instead of dolphins to make the movements in the water. Dr. Kelly Jaakkola, research...

Daniel Kish has been sightless since he was a year old. Yet he can mountain bike. And navigate the wilderness alone. And recognize a building as far away as 1,000 feet. How? The same way bats can see in the dark... The first thing Daniel Kish does, when I pull up to his tidy gray bungalow in Long Beach, California, is make fun of my driving. “You’re going to leave it that far from the curb?” he asks. He’s standing on his stoop, a good 10 paces from my car. I glance behind me as I walk up to him....

Last week I shared with you a story and a video of Rowan, the German Spitz  that was born no eyes, but used echolocation to see. In the article I explained the nature of echolocation and how Rowan uses it to see the world around him. Today, I have something even more amazing than the blind dog who sees like dolphins and bats. I have a story with an accompanying video of a boy who lost his eyes to cancer at the age of three, but you would never have known it if you had seen him riding his bike....

All warm blooded animals were created by God to have five basic senses. However, when we lose our sight, or are born blind, we find it difficult to deal with a world made for those who see. Blind people cope in a world built for eyes by using trained guide dogs. It has been a partnership that both man and dog have learned to appreciate and love. Well, what I have for you today is a video of a German Spitz dog named Rowan, who was born with no eyes. Except for his owner who takes care of him, he...

WASHINGTON: In a new research, scientists have shown that human beings can develop echolocation, the system of acoustic signals used by dolphins and bats to explore their surroundings. The research was conducted by a team of researchers from the University of Alcala de Henares (UAH) in Spain. "In certain circumstances, we humans could rival bats in our echolocation or biosonar capacity", said Juan Antonio Martínez, lead author of the study and a researcher at the Superior Polytechnic School of the UAH. The team led by this scientist has started a series of tests, the first of their kind in the...

    To be exceptionally honest with you, Ultrasonic Batgoggles don't exactly need any pimping from us. What you see above is a homegrown device that enables humans to discover how bats must feel when using echolocation in order to judge how far away certain objects are. The main components are an Arduino microcontroller clone, Devantech ultrasonic sensor and a set of welding goggles -- oh, and a sick poker face to really round things out. Check out the links below to get a gist of the background as well as a step-by-step guide to concocting your own. EXCERPTED....

In early September, a 14-year-old kid with empty eye sockets strode on stage for a taping of the talk show Ellen. "I'm not blind," he told the host to wild applause, "I just can't see." The story seemed lifted from the pages of a comic book: At the age of 3, Ben Underwood lost his eyes to retinal cancer. Three years later, he discovered that he could sense objects around him by making little clicking noises with his tongue and then listening for the echoes. Now, he uses these clicks to find doorways and locate cars on the street. That's...

Blind since age 3, Ben Underwood skateboards, shoots hoops and plays video games. How does he do it? Just like bats and dolphins"I'm a normal kid," says Ben, who lost his sight at 3. (above, he inspects his prosthetic eyes.) Photo by: Theo RigbyThe Boy Who Sees with Sound There was the time a fifth grader thought it would be funny to punch the blind kid and run. So he snuck up on Ben Underwood and hit him in the face. That's when Ben started his clicking thing. "I chased him, clicking until I got to him, then I...

An excellent compilation of information related to the evolution of echolocation.

A bat echolocation system, adapted for human ears, has been used allow people to locate objects in a virtual reality environment. The researchers behind the project hope that a similar system in the cockpit of fighter planes could allow pilots to track some controls using their hearing, freeing up their eyes for other tasks. "When you drive, you can't look at the speedometer and the road at the same time, but you can listen to the radio at the same time," says Dean Waters, a bat expert at the University of Leeds, UK. Humans cannot generate or hear the high...