Abstract
Human echolocation, in the form of flash sonar, can support spatial awareness and navigation for vision-impaired people. This paper examines the potential of acoustic focusing retroreflectors to support echolocation within an area. Parabolic dihedra and trihedra, along with other variants of focusing retroreflectors, return much stronger reflections to an arbitrarily located source than equivalent flat surfaces. A head-and-torso simulator was used to quantify the oral-binaural reflected energy for various surfaces, including physical focusing retroreflectors. The effect of focusing is most advantageous in relatively close-range scenarios (within a few metres). Suggested designs and application scenarios are presented.
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