Taro: The speaking aid

Taro quickly gathered up the scattered parts of the hearing aid from the table and stuffed them in his pocket. Thanks to the pieces forming a random pattern, he suddenly had an idea for a new project he absolutely needed to get started on.

“Ruka, I have to leave.” He rushed over and gave his sister a kiss on the forehead before heading towards the front door.

“Wait, lunch is almost ready, won’t you eat first?”

“I promise to come over for dinner sometime this week. I just need to get a head start on something. I’ll send over grampa’s hearing aid as soon as I’m done fixing it.”

“Alright, drive safe. And tell Kokoro I say hi!”

“I will!”

As soon as Taro stepped out of the house he spoke into his smart watch.

“Babble-on, get the workshop ready.”

He rushed over to his hover-bike and hopped on. He keyed in the ignition and waited as the large machine rose off the ground by a few inches. He locked on his helmet and engaged boosters. Ten minutes later he was back at his house.

He killed the engine, jumped off his bike, and ran inside. The lights, computers, and monitors in his workshop were already turned on. He hurriedly made his way to his work station and sat down next to his floating AI assistant.

“Babble-on, I want you to analyze and isolate the core functions of these pieces.”

Taro reached into his pocket and dumped the disassembled parts of the hearing aid on his table. The AI floated for a closer look then emitted a holographic light as it scanned the pieces.

“Analyses complete.” Babble-on responded.

Taro looked up at one of the larger monitors in front of his work station. As he had suspected, the results matched the theory he had thought of while back at his sister’s place.

The microphone collected noise as information from the environment, which gets converted into electrical signals. The amplifier boosts these signals. And the speaker converts these signals into sounds which gets sent to the receiver.

“Okay Babble-on, humor me for a moment.” Taro said, leaning back into his seat and stroking his chin.

“Alright master.” the AI replied, moving to float beside Taro.

“The components on screen. When placed in this order of function, microphone, amplifier, speaker, what assisted human device do they most represent.”

Babble-on would have replied in an instant, compiling the information he needed in less than a few nano seconds. But thanks to six-year-old Taro wanting to make his AI assistant emulate the behavior of an actual human, Babble-on hummed for a few seconds before finally giving an answer.

“Given the nature of the available components, I would say they most represent the hearing aid, master.” As if to emphasize his answer, Babble-on proceeded to graphically assemble the three parts on the screen in the rough shape of a hearing aid.

“And that would be correct.” Taro replied. “Now, what if we reversed the order of these components while preserving their core functions? We bring the speaker to the front as the output, and take the microphone back as the input. What human device do they most represent now?”

Babble-on hummed to itself again.

“I think they become this.” Babble-on proceeded to reassemble the components on screen in shape of a megaphone.

“Exactly.” Taro replied.

“My apologies master, but it seems like you already have a good grasp of the information you are requesting. Why do you still enquire? What purpose does this information serve?”

Following Babble-on’s questions, a memory from the previous day suddenly flashed in Taro’s mind. It was of the time he spent alone with Kokoro in the gravity lift. After they had floated up to the ceiling and were staring up at the artificial night sky, Kokoro decided to share the reason she was suddenly depressed when they were back at the cafe.

She typed it out on her phone and handed it over to him.

“I’m sorry about earlier in the café when I zoned out on you.” the message read. I didn’t mean to worry you. “The truth is, when you said music was my passion, you were right.

I always loved listening to music as a kid, singing along and dancing to the songs I knew. I couldn’t tell if I was a good singer or a good dancer, but I practiced every day and I could feel myself getting better. I even had this silly bet with my mom where if I graduated from school with good grades, she was going to let me pursue my dream of becoming a professional music icon.

But then, life happened. Both of my parents died in an accident. When I woke up at the hospital, I was unable to speak or stand anymore. That silly dream of mine, it was over.

Anyway, sorry for the sob story ha-ha. And for making you worry back there. I didn’t mean to.”

“Master?”

Taro was suddenly pulled back from the memory.

“Are you feeling well master?”

Taro was quiet for a while, following the recollection of what Kokoro had told him. It was obvious now why Tomomi found Kokoro crying on the bus the day before. Something might have triggered her memories, and reminded her of all the things she had lost and may never get back. Her voice for singing, her legs for dancing. And her parents.

Taro wasn’t sure whether he would be able to help Kokoro achieve her dreams. But there was one thing he was sure of. And that is, he was going to try his hardest.

“Babble-on,” Taro said, lifting his head up to stare at the large monitor in front of him.

“Yes master?”

“There is someone currently in my life that is unable to speak. She lost her voice in an accident she was involved in as a kid. My question is, do you think the proposed solution on screen can help recover her voice? Or do you think there is already a technology currently out in the world we can use instead?”

Babble-on took a moment to process Taro’s request before responding.

“To answer your second question first as it is the simplest, no. There is no technology currently existing in Japan or the rest of the world, that is able to recover your friend’s voice. However, there are text to speech technologies that can help her communicate in an efficient manner to people unable to understand if she chooses to communicate using sign language.”

“I see. And for my first question?” Taro asked.

Before responding, Babble-on first glanced at the large monitor where Taro’s megaphone idea was still displayed on the screen. To Taro, the AI almost looked like it was considering the possibilities of what he had suggested. But Babble-on then turned to stare back at him.

“No.” the AI simply replied. However, Taro was already expecting this.

“And why is that?” Taro asked.

“Master, your proposed solution to combat your friend’s mutism is impractical. Your initial subject of examination, the hearing aid, is able to function by drawing existing information as input from the environment such as sounds and noise. These sounds then get transmitted and transformed into something the wearer can understand. However, when the process is reversed, it doesn’t work. Since your friend is already dealing with mutism, and cannot speak or produce input with her vocal cords, there is no existing information to draw from. Therefore, your speaking aid solution doesn’t work.”

After the AI finished its observation, Taro took a moment to collect his thoughts. Babble-on was right. If Kokoro couldn’t speak even a little, his speaking aid idea was not going to work. But that was also where the AI was wrong.

Just because Kokoro couldn’t speak, didn’t mean Taro wouldn’t be able to extract the necessary input and auditory information his speaking aid was going to need in order to function as intended. And how he was planning to extract said information was pretty straight forward.

His neural link prototype worked by performing a full scan of a person’s brain while it is being used. And since the brain basically stored every bit of information about a person, including things like thoughts, speech patterns, speech production, and what an individual sounds like, Taro was confident he already had all he needed to simulate a perfect rendition of Kokoro’s real voice directly from her mind.

“Alright Babble-on, I need you to copy over the latest changes I made to the neural link algorithm code from my bedroom computer.”

“Yes master.” the AI responded.

Kokoro’s pain, her silent longing to sing again, filled Taro’s thoughts in that moment. He couldn’t bring back her parents, and he couldn’t erase the years of struggle. But he might be able to give her back her voice.

And that would be the start.