This paper describes an Electronic Travel Aid device, that may enable blind individuals to "see the world with their ears". A wearable prototype will be assembled using low-cost hardware: earphones, sunglasses fitted with two micro cameras, and a palmtop computer. The system, which currently runs on a desktop computer, is able to detect the light spot produced by a laser pointer, compute its angular position and depth, and generate a corresponding sound providing the auditory cues for the perception of the position and distance of the pointed surface patch. It permits different sonification modes that can be chosen by drawing, with the laser pointer, a predefined stroke which will be recognized by a Hidden Markov Model. In this way the blind person can use a common pointer as a replacement of the cane and will interact with the device by using a flexible and natural sketch based interface.