There is a body modification subculture that makes alterations to improve one’s quality of life. Its members are called grinders, and one in particular has modified his senses in a very thought-provoking way. Rich Lee is partially blind and his condition will eventually render him sightless. As a practicing grinder, he had a magnet installed behind his ear that will act as a speaker.

The magnet is connected to a coil that hangs around his neck. It magnifies sound, not only allowing him to enjoy music, but giving him echolocation, a system that greatly increases mobility for the seeing impaired. When the magnet and coil are hooked up to an ultrasonic rangefinder, a hum is produced and the sightless can detect people and objects around them, much like the way bats navigate with their hearing. It may be shady and dangerous, but if it ultimately helps, it may be justified and at least opens doors for ‘grinding’ to increase its legitimacy.

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Echolocation is the amazing ability to “see” based only on sounds that bounce off of objects. Dolphins and bats use it, and plenty of blind people have incredibly mastered this skill as well. Now, researchers at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne’s (EPFL) School of Computer and Communications Sciences have made it simple to map the dimensions of an entire room using a simple sound – maybe a snap of the fingers – and four ordinary microphones.

The computer algorithm developed by the researchers takes the bounced sounds and builds a 3D map of a room with astonishing precision. Although it sounds like a precision operation, the microphones don’t have to be placed in any certain locations – the algorithm simply reads the distance from the surface to the microphone, then determines if it is rebounding for the first or second time.

The technology could be used in an exciting number of applications. It could be used in mobile devices to map the interiors of buildings, which GPS so far hasn’t been able to do well. It could also be used by law enforcement to analyze recordings and identify unknown locations, allowing them to identify where a caller is calling from.

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Some blind people have famously taught themselves to use echolocation to “see” obstacles. But because learning this talent isn’t possible for every visually impaired person, Grathio Labs invented Tacit, a hand-mounted sonar device. The gadget straps on to the back of the hand rather than the palm to allow users to use both of their hands as usual, but with an important enhancement: the device applies pressure to the hand to indicate nearby obstacles.

As explained in the video above, the pressure on the back of the hand increases as the user gets closer to an obstacle. The Tacit device wouldn’t be of much use out in the world at large, but at home or in an unfamiliar building the gadget can help visually impaired people get around safely. Since the response time of the Tacit is very fast, users can rely on it to guide them around in real time without worrying about missing any important information. There might be some room for improvement – such as reducing the gadget’s size, but it’s a great start on an awesome product.

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