Alt-BEAM Archive
Message #08472
To: beam@sgiblab.sgi.com
From: "Peter A. Low" peterlow@fletcherspaght.com
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1999 10:02:16 -0500
Subject: [alt-beam] Re: Lets Hypothesise...
I don't think having two ears helps me estimate distance to a noise
source. I estimate distance based on the volume of the noise and my
expectation of how loud that noise should be at a given distance. I can
do this fairly well even with one ear covered (or congested with an ear
infection).
Having two ears does help, however, in figuring out the DIRECTION of a
noise source.
At 11:37 PM 12/19/99 -0500, you wrote:
>In a message dated 12/19/99 11:30:26 PM Eastern Standard Time,
>richard@cqc.com writes:
>
><< When you hear a noise, you can't make
> an accurate assessment of it's distance from you. You're lucky if you can
> even tell the direction it's really coming from. We make no distance
> measurements when we hear things. I don't really think that we make any
> visual measurements unless we're specifically trying to do so.
>
> The way we navigate through our world is what I call the "Second star to the
> right, and straight on 'till morning" system. We pay little attention to
> distances and such things. We see something interesting, we go that way
> until we see it better. There's no real measurement involved. That's why
> we need maps and such things.
> >>
>
>If any of this was true, then we would all have one eye and one ear. The
>truth is that distance is quite an important factor in navigating our world.
>We have two eyes and two ears so we can triangulate distances.
>
>
>Gary
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