This is often used by audio mixing engineers and taught in a roundabout way at schools and studios. We think a lot about where thins “sit” in the mix. Proximity wise, and even height wise in a stereo mix. Eventually you learn how to locate things in headphones and it’s a really weird sensation when you realize you can do it. The kicker is we start out by simulating real environments in mixes, but then end up having to simulate what people expect from the medium as opposed to real life. For example something I learned doing video audio, if someone is writing something on a train, viewers expect to hear the pen on paper. But irl, there’s not a chance it’s audible. Explosions are always distorted because microphones end up clipping due to the volume, etc.

A great book on spatial simulation is The Art of Mixing by David Gibson. Older but forever relevant

There is a wonderful book about the blind man who was probably one of the earliest innovators in using a cane for echolocation. "A Sense of the World" by Jason Roberts is the story of James Holman, who traveled the world in the early 19th century despite being blind, often being in a great deal of pain, and having limited mobility.

I noticed when I was younger that I can "hear" when I'm near a wall, or just generally get a sense of the size of space I'm in solely via sound, but it never occurred to me to make a "ping" to sense the resulting sound reflections! Super interesting - I will have to try this. Probably my prior spatial sense from hearing was based on really subtle background noise of either my own footsteps or just environmental sounds reflecting around, I guess? I always felt like I am "hearing the room I'm in" but never quite knew how else to describe the sensation, but knowing people quite literally make a clicking noise to echolocate suddenly makes it much more clear!

Here's an idea, use a (portable) ultrasound emitter device that sends a pulse every set second and use an earpiece receiver that produces equivalent acoustics in audible range. The setup may reduce "tongue-fatigue' and the ultrasound will travel farther and can reflect off smaller objects. Would be an interesting experiment if nothing else.

relevant video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD3Y1l8XyUw

It appears that the hardest part of echolocation for humans is the "produce a directed, crisp click" part. The "process the sound" part is readily handled by our brains with a relatively mild learning curve.