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Daniel Kish: How I use sonar to navigate the world
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Daniel Kish: How I use sonar to navigate the world

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This section introduces the speaker's personal experience with retinoblastoma and the removal of their eyes at a young age.

Personal Experience with Retinoblastoma

  • The speaker was born with bilateral retinoblastoma, a form of retinal cancer.
  • Their right eye was removed at seven months old, and the left eye was removed at 13 months old.

Coping with Blindness

  • After waking up from the last surgery, the speaker immediately started exploring the intensive care nursery without eyes.
  • The speaker humorously mentions that they were probably looking for the person who caused their blindness.
  • The real challenge for blind people is not blindness itself but society's impressions and reactions towards it.

Impressions about Blindness

This section explores society's perceptions and fears surrounding blindness.

Society's Impressions of Blindness

  • Blindness is often associated with ignorance, unawareness, and exposure to unknown dangers.
  • The speaker's parents had a pragmatic approach and believed in treating their blind child like any other person, emphasizing freedom over fear.

Managing Life as a Blind Person

  • The speaker highlights their independence by mentioning that they moved out at 18 years old and pay taxes like everyone else.
  • Fear immobilizes individuals in the face of challenges, but love prioritizes freedom and allows one to overcome obstacles.

Navigating the World as a Blind Person

This section discusses how the speaker manages their daily life as a blind person.

Using a Long Cane and Flash Sonar

  • The speaker uses a longer-than-usual cane, which they refer to as their "freedom staff," to navigate the world.
  • They also utilize flash sonar, where sound reflections provide information similar to how sight works for sighted individuals.

Overcoming Challenges with Flash Sonar

  • The speaker's brain has been trained to interpret sound patterns and create images in their visual cortex, allowing them to "see" through flash sonar.
  • While some may find this ability remarkable, the speaker sees it as a natural adaptation for navigating challenges.

Experiencing Flash Sonar

This section involves an interactive demonstration of flash sonar.

Interactive Demonstration

  • The audience is asked to close their eyes while the speaker makes sounds using a panel. They are encouraged to listen and notice any changes in sound when the panel moves.
  • By experiencing this demonstration, participants gain insight into how blind individuals use flash sonar for navigation.

The Power of Learning to See

In this section, the speaker discusses how blind people learning to see can inspire sighted people to improve their own way of seeing.

Inspiring Others to See Better

  • Blind people learning to see inspires sighted people to want to learn to see their way better.
  • This exemplifies the immense capacity within all of us to navigate challenges and discover unimagined possibilities when we are activated.

Daniel's Inner World

In this section, the speaker is asked about his inner world as a blind person and what he has that sighted people may not have.

A Unique Perspective

  • As a blind person, Daniel has a 360-degree view through sonar, allowing him to perceive his surroundings in all directions.
  • His sonar works equally well behind him as it does in front of him, even working around corners and through surfaces.
  • He describes his perception as a fuzzy three-dimensional geometry.
  • One of his students experienced enhanced hearing after losing his vision, being able to hear conversations and activities throughout his house from several floors away. He compared it to having x-ray vision.

Perceiving the Theater

  • When asked about how he perceives the theater he is currently in, Daniel mentions hearing everything, including sounds like laughter or fidgeting.
  • From a sonar perspective, he perceives the size of the room and the curvature of the audience around the stage.

Timestamps for subsequent sections are not provided in the transcript.

Channel: TED
Video description

Daniel Kish has been blind since he was 13 months old, but has learned to “see” using a form of echolocation. He clicks his tongue and sends out flashes of sound that bounce off surfaces in the environment and return to him, helping him to construct an understanding of the space around him. In a rousing talk, Kish demonstrates how this works and asks us to let go of our fear of the “dark unknown.” TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more. Find closed captions and translated subtitles in many languages at http://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_kish_how_i_use_sonar_to_navigate_the_world Follow TED news on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tednews Like TED on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TED Subscribe to our channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/TEDtalksDirector