Acoustic Imaging For The Blind

Via KurzweilAI:

University of Bristol and University of Laguna researchers have developed a system using video from portable cameras that calculates the distance of obstacles, predicts the movements of people and cars, and generates three-dimensional acoustic maps, compensating for head positioning using a gyroscopic sensor. This information is then transformed and relayed to a blind person as a three-dimensional ‘picture’ of sound.

This would appear to be very similar in principle to echolocation used by whales, dolphins and bats.