BEAT THE DOLPHIN – A MULTIMEDIA DEMONSTRATION OF DOLPHIN ECHOLOCATION

Multimedia applications are becoming an increasingly powerful tool that can be used to enhance educational activities and facilitate the dissemination of academic research to young audiences. Our specific area of interest is that of mammalian echolocation. We present an application we have developed that demonstrates how dolphins use sound to detect and discriminate objects underwater. The demonstration is based on an interactive multimedia Graphical User Interface (GUI) that simulates the biological sonar of dolphins and challenges the user to discriminate objects using the echoes they create, in the same way as dolphins do. A competition element is incorporated in the GUI, in which the user can gauge their ability in using echolocation. The impact of noise caused by human activities in the ocean is also demonstrated in an effort to stimulate discussion on the importance of relevant research in developing ecological and sustainable methods of using and harvesting the ocean. Further to the specific functionalities of the application, we discuss our experience from using this tool in a number of outreach events and activities in the UK.