human echolocation human echolocation human echolocation is the ability of humans to detect objects in their environment by sensing echoes from those objects, by actively creating sounds: for example, by tapping their canes, lightly stomping their foot, snapping their fingers, or making clicking noises with their mouths. people trained to orient by echolocation can interpret the sound waves reflected by nearby objects, accurately identifying their location and size. background the term "echolocation" was coined by zoologist donald griffin in 1944; however, reports of blind humans being able to locate silent objects date back to 1749. human echolocation has been known and formally studied since at least the 1950s. in earlier times, human echolocation was sometimes described as "facial vision" or "obstacle sense," as it was believed that the proximity of nearby objects caused pressure changes on the skin. only in the 1940s did a series of experiments performed in the cornell psychological laboratory show that sound and hearing, rather than pressure changes on the skin, were the mechanisms driving this ability. the field of human and animal echolocation was surveyed in book form as early as 1959.