Ian Reynolds
Projects
Human Echolocation
What is echolocation? Sometimes, the surrounding world is too dark and silent for typical vision and hearing. This is true in deep caves, for example, or in murky water where little light penetrates. Animals living in these environments often have the ability to echolocate: They make sounds and listen for their reflections. Like turning on a flashlight in a dark room, echolocation is a way to illuminate objects and spaces actively using sound.
Sonar for people
Using tongue clicks, cane taps or footfalls, some blind humans have demonstrated an ability to use echolocation (also called sonar, or bi…
Optimizing Echoacoustics: An online perceptual study (Under construction)
An online study of echoacoustic perception
Labs
Teng Lab
We aim to better understand how people perceive, interact with, and move through the world, especially when vision is unavailable. To this end, the lab studies perception and sensory processing in multiple sensory modalities, with particular interests in echolocation and braille reading in blind persons. We are also interested in mobility and navigation, including assistive technology using nonvisual cues. These are wide-ranging topics, which we approach using a combination of psychophysical, neurophysiological, engineering, and computational tools.