Echolocation

As a navigation method in immersive games, echolocation visualises how sound constructs the world visually around the player before plunging you back into darkness.

Origins

In the real world, animals use echolocation to navigate the world, even in darkness. Animals emit sounds and listen to the echoes that return from objects near them. The echoes are used to map the world around the animal.

TITLES USING ECHOLOCATION AS NAVIGATION METHOD Are we seeing Echolocation emerge as a major piece of VR narrative grammar?

• First came the poetic "Notes on Blindness" (see Cecilie Levy's Wiki entry on it, here: http://cefima.org/wiki/Notes_on_Blindness )
• Now comes "Blind" (see article below): "A narrative-driven psychological thriller that isn’t designed so much to scare as it is puzzle."
• There's a horror game: "Stifled", https://uploadvr.com/hands-on-stifled-listen/
• And Introversion Software has teased a VR Scanner Sombre https://uploadvr.com/beautiful-adventure-scanner-sombre-wi…/

PS: Echolocation is when noise briefly constructs the world visually around you before plunging you back into darkness.

Traditional video games https://killscreen.com/articles/perception-vows-enhance-your-vision-using-echolocation/ https://killscreen.com/articles/bat-simulator-realizes-echolocation-in-tron-like-neon/