Blind Boy Using Echo Location to Aid his Senses

Blind seven-year-old Lucas Murray is making the headlines today with his supposed ability to "see" using his ears. He is in fact using sound as a location aid.

Lucas, who has become one of the first in the UK to learn the technique and of course, he has been nicknamed 'batboy', by the Press, after learning how to use echoes to picture the world around him.

He clicks his tongue on the roof of his mouth and the sound that comes back tells him the distance, shape, density and position of objects.

Lucas, from Poole in Dorset, who was born blind, can even shoot basketball hoops, rock climb and run around the playground with the technique which is similar to that used by other sound sensitive mammals; bats, dolphins, etc.

He tells distance by timing how long the echo takes to return, the ear the sound reaches first tells him location and he picks up the density and shape of an object by the intensity of the sound bouncing back. An object moving away creates a lower pitch and vice versa.

Lucas was taught by Californian Daniel Kish, 43, who is himself blind and in his efforts to improve the lives of other blind people, he has founded the World Access for the Blind charity.