Calculation Of Human Echolocation Cues By Means Of The Boundary Element Method
Author(s)
Garcia, David Pelegrin
Roozen, Bert
Glorieux, Christ
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Abstract
Some visually impaired people are able to recognize their
surroundings by emitting oral sounds and listening to the sound
that is reflected at objects and walls. This is known as human
echolocation. The present paper reports the calculation of
objective auditory cues present in human echolocation by
means of the boundary element method using a spherical model
of the human head in the presence of a reflecting disc at
different positions. The studied frequency range is 100 Hz to 8
kHz. The results show that frequencies above 2 kHz provide
information for localization of the object, whereas the lower
frequency range might be used for size determination. It is also
shown that stationary sound signals in echolocation can provide
relevant acoustic cues, so as displacements in the proximity of a
reflecting object become frequency-dependent amplitude
modulations. Further calculations in a higher frequency range
and with a realistic model of a human head could bring more
light to the current knowledge in human echolocation
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Date
2013-07
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Text
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Proceedings