Dolphin Echolocation Sono-Pictorial Language to See and Share Images

Summary: Dolphin echolocation functions as a sono-pictorial language for seeing and sharing images, according to nonprofit research organization Speak Dolphin.

Reconstructed image of Amaya's sono-pictorial feedback of diver Jim McDonough -- Speak Dolphin's 3D CymaScope print of human as dolphin's echolocation, Press Release Handout, via Speak Dolphin -- Jack Kassewitz: “When we discovered that dolphins not exposed to the echolocation experiment could identify objects from recorded dolphin sounds with 92% accuracy, we began to look for a way for to see what was in those sounds.”

Dolphins are able to make and share images from the sounds that the marine mammals emit and receive through dolphin echolocation, according to images from the Miami-based, nonprofit research organization Speak Dolphin.

Researchers base their findings upon images of recorded sounds emitted by Amaya in the female dolphin’s tank at the Dolphin Discovery Center in Puerto Aventuras, Mexico. Researchers in the United Kingdom and in the United States conclude from the interaction that Amaya uses her ears to image divers and objects. Jack Kassewitz of Speak Dolphin describes: “For the first time ever, we may be holding in our hands a glimpse into what cetaceans see with sound.”

Reconstructed images emerge in 2D and 3D.

Dolphins find their way through bright and dim, familiar and unfamiliar waters by their mouths emitting clicks and squeaks whose sound waves return to their ears.

John Stuart Reid, inventor of CymaScope patented imaging processes for three-dimensionalizing two-dimensional images extracted from sounds, gives images of dolphin echolocation supplementing monocular, non-binocular, two-sided vision. He hypothesizes: “When a dolphin scans an object with its high-frequency sound beam, each short click captures a still image, similar to a camera taking photographs.” He indicates that each click and every squeak represent an individualized, single pulse of sound whose altered return identifies the particular shape of the specific object.

Depth joins breadth and length to give three-dimensional and two-dimensional perspectives on objects.

Team members Alex Green, Jack Kassewitz, Jim McDonough and Toni Saul know of Amaya echolocating and seeing a cube, a flowerpot and a plastic “+” symbol. John Reid likens Amaya’s echolocated vision of Jim in diving gear to “what appears to be the fuzzy silhouette of almost a full man. No face.”

Jack Kassewitz mentions the possibility of Amaya sharing the study’s images in subsequent interactions with dolphins: “When we discovered that dolphins not exposed to the echolocation experiment could identify objects from recorded dolphin sounds with 92% accuracy, we began to look for a way for to see what was in those sounds.”

Subsequent research needs to investigate image-sharing through the social encounters which dolphins relish.

Mr. Kassewitz operates from the perspective of a percussionist who finds within dolphin vocalizations complex musical forms that University of Miami music graduate students likewise detect.

The vocalizations prove so complex that a Dolphin Code compact disc of songs is available and that individualized, dolphin-specific modes are being transcribed on a keyboard. Chirps, clicks, pulses, squeaks, whistles and yelps qualify echolocations and vocalizations for social status as form of communication and type of language, according to Mr. Kassewitz. Mr. Kassewitz refers to echolocation as “a ‘sono-pictorial’ form of language, a language of pictures that they share with each other” and may facilitate interspecies communications.

Researchers suggest CymaScope abilities, pictorial language and surface-feature vision descriptions among upcoming projects.

spectrogram of dolphin vocalizations: upside down Vs = whistles, horizontal striations = whines, and vertical lines = clicks: Spyrogumas, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

3D print sono-pictogram, Press Release Handout, via Speak Dolphin @ http://www.speakdolphin.com/pressRelease/Press_Release_what_the_dolphin_saw.pdf

dolphin vocalization spectogram: Spyrogumas, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dolphin1.jpg

For further information:

Bashir, Hira. 8 December 2015. "Image Reveals How Dolphins Actually See People." I4U News.
Available @ http://www.i4u.com/2015/12/100637/image-reveals-how-dolphins-actually-see-people

CymaScope. 8 December 2015. "What the dolphin saw: Cymatic-Holographic Imaging technique." YouTube.
Available @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vWlYteyF7I

Hruska, Joel. 10 December 2015. "New research reveals how dolphins see people via echolocation." Extreme Tech.
Available @ http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/219200-new-research-reveals-how-dolphins-see-people-via-echolocation

Mathewson, Samantha. 9 December 2015. "Images Reveal How Organization Says Dolphins See People Underwater." Nature World News.
Available @ http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/18668/20151209/images-reveal-dolphins-see-people-underwater-using-echolocation.htm

Nature World News @NatureWorldNews. 9 December 2015. "Images Reveal How Organization Says Dolphins See People Underwater." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/NatureWorldNews/status/674693781677977600

Speak Dolphin.
Available @ http://www.speakdolphin.com/home.cfm