This is amazing!!!

It seems too amazing to be true. I'm tempted to believe there's some kind of a hoax going on. I can just barely imagine how human echolocation could reveal a fallen trashcan, but the video game could not possibly provide sound clues to the precise location of someone firing at you. The foosball table also seems like an unlikely spot for sound or smell or touch to provide sufficient information to beat any sighted person.

I have seen this before....he is incredible!

He's unbelievable!He can see better with no eyes than I can with two!------jlawler32

It may be hard to believe, but it could def. be true. As to the videogame, it all depends on what game you're playing, obviously some games won't work. In college though I watched my roommate beat people left and right in Tekken while sitting BESIDE the TV, facing away from it.

Did I hear correctly that Ben's mother's name was "Aquanetta"?

*holds up paper*

Hey Ben, what colour is this paper?

Yeah, that's what I thought. You're blind to the whole EM spectrum and I'm not. I win =D

that's a little harsh. he may not be able to see the colors, but he can see everything else. you don't win, he wins.

Echolocation is actually pretty easy to do--so long as you're in a quiet environment and get a week of practice--although identifying a 'soft' object might take a while.. I mean lets see this kid walk around in downtown NY and if he can navigate without a stick or a dog then yeah, he's the real deal.

he "sees" better than you do in a pitch black room, or out in the wilderness at midnight with no moon+overcast.

On the other hand, I can tell the difference from a car and a trashcan way better than he can, and given a flashlight, and with even adim light source my vision can match his echolocation.

Bats still do it better

For those of you saying that you are better than him, you're not. And for the person that said bats are better, they are able to do this naturally where as he had to teach himself how to do it.

Sad how many of you are threatened by a blind kid...

I saw the documentary on tv. It was really really cool. I never thought that people could do something like that.

For the videogame, it all depends on what videogame you're playing. He's playing a fighting game, Dragonball Z it looks like. The characters probably autofocus on one another, so learning what attacks to use is simple enough. I seriously doubt he could play something like God of War, however. That truly is amazing. Marvelous indeed.

I disagree with the idea that foosball cannot be played without sight. Foosballs make very clear noises when moving on a table, and aside from that you can feel the vibration of the ball moving around the table with your hands on the rods. Surely the best sighted foosball player in the world would beat a blind person, but I can easily see a lousy sighted foosball player losing to someone obviously as advanced as Ben in echolocation.

Video games is another matter, he is certainly not using echolocation to play those games, he is using the sound generated by the games to play, which is not echolocation. The thing is many video games these days actually use very advanced stereo spatial sound location when programming the sound in games to give more realistic game ambience and experience. The question is if those are good enough to play the game alone? Maybe and maybe not, really depends on how well the sound was programmed and how unique every sound is made when an action is done. Ben would never beat someone at pong, the sound being mono and gives no indication the differences in any movement of where the ball or paddle is on screen. Today's advanced 3D shooters or fighting games, there are probably tons of auditory clues we never knew or cared to know about, but he obviously has picked up on. Could he outplay the best of the best sighted players, probably not, but he still has fun and that's just amazing.

I have watched the documentary on Ben, on the TV. It is just incredible what he is capable of doing. I really salute Ben for his determination to be like anyone of us, 'seeing' people.