DIY: Make Your Own Ultrasonic Batgoggles

Ever wanted to be a bat boy? Me too, but the local minor league team said I couldn't because of my club foot. So I'm going to have to settle for making my own ultrasonic batgoggles (not to be confused with lobster-vision).

What you see above is a homegrown device that enables humans to discover how bats must feel when using echolocation in order to judge how far away certain objects are. The main components are an Arduino microcontroller clone, Devantech ultrasonic sensor and a set of welding goggles.

Basically you can't see anything because of the welding goggles and the ultrasonic sensor controls audio feedback to let you know how far away something in your line of sight is (fast beeps for something close, slower for further away).

Awesome, I just built a pair and am about to give them a go. Oh wait:

Please do not wear these in hazardous environments or in traffic! These goggles are for educational purposes only and meant for controlled environments since they are intended to block your peripheral vision and regular vision so you are more reliant on auditory cues.

Ha, there's never any traffic on my street -- time to take these suckers for a spin in my girlfriend's car!

UPDATE: In retrospect they would have worked better had I busted out the windshield. Seriously though, I think a Buick is just what the neighbor's kitchen needed.

Video of the goggles in action and a link to the instructables page, after the jump.

Ultrasonic Batgooggles [instructables]
via
DIYer instructs Ultrasonic Batgoggles, doles out instructions [engadget]

Thanks Shawn, you any good at threatening neighbors to not sue?

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