Calibrating Communications

Posted on Mon Dec 21st, 2015 @ 12:48pm by Chief Warrant Officer Jemner

1,685 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Of Gods and Men
Location: Communications section
Timeline: concurrent

ON:

Michelle was a little nervous. Her section lead had told her that she was expecting a special project, one that Munich had approved her for personally. That was something of a 'High Honour', even if unspoken amongst the section staff. She sat, hair braided to one side as she worked with a headset over her left ear. Even if she had a special project for the day, her other duties could not be totally ignored. Now she had even been doing research into Sign Language; this was somewhat of a personal project after finding out about Mister Jemnar. She worked very diligently at her current translation waiting for whatever or whoever was attached to her special assignment to arrive.

Softtouch entered the Communications Section; heading more into the Translations Department. He was not surprised but it was a pleasent thing to know that he was being assigned the top person of the Translations Department. He strode into the appropriate part of the offices and using simple movements to type on the PADD he got directions to Michelle's little part of things.

Moving up behind her he gently placed his hands upon her shoulders; hoping the gloves did not really matter all that much, he caressed the shoulders and placed a gentle kiss near the neck and a playful nuzzle.

Michelle's heart practically jumped up into her mouth, she knew the touch behind her, what was Jemnar doing here? "Hi Jemnar, what brings you up here?" She said with surprise and warmth to her voice.

[I have reasons for being here.] He typed. [Seeing you is a great one.]
"No doubt, seeing you here is a very pleasant surprise, but there must be another reason for you being here. I was told to expect a special project today; the word came down I was picked by Munich himself. That's not a usual thing around here. It actually has me a little nervous, to be honest, so seeing you helps a bit." Michelle said, not being able to wipe the smile off her face or the twinkle out of her eyes.

[What is your project?] He typed and lightly blew in her ear. [Hans is a busy man, what special thing can he need of you?]

"All the I was told was some sort of language or U.T calibration project. Something that my work with the U.T would be perfect for, apparently. Having to fiddle with it to calibrate a handful of new languages I guess I'm most suited for the job. Just not sure what exactly I'm calibrating and to use what. Sometimes the special projects means being kept in the dark to a point." Michelle replied, a soft smile and seeming a little more relaxed.

Softtouch put the PADD down on the counter and using his left hand he touched the back of his right then with his right touched the left followed by clapping three times.

[Needs calibrating...] He made the signs for the words with his hands. [The adapting of words in sign language is slow.] He smiled brightly. [Prototypes here.]

Michelle snapped her fingers. "I see! These need to be adapted to your PADD program so that it can read the movements of the gloves and use the U.T for real time translation! That's Genius! It will be far better than relying on the PADD, once it is calibrated; that is." Michelle turned to her terminal and seemed to spring to life; she brought up the files on Signing, the U.T. current calibrations and a few other working files. There was a lot of flicking between and tapping from entry work. She turned back and looked the gloves over.

"First thing is the easiest. We're basically giving this a base language that it understands, almost any language starts with it's building blocks. We'll need to use the Alphabet and base signs first and then I calibrate it and line things up with the U.T. The nice thing for us is that the U.T picks things up fast once it has at least three reference points to tie into. We can get this to work, but you will need to be patient with me. Some of this can seem quite repetitive, but the process works. So, shall we get started?" Michelle asked. "Oh, do tell me if I'm bombarding you with too much in one go, okay?" Michelle gently put a hand on one of his gloves.

It was nothing for Softtouch to go through the basic signs of the alphabet, then he did a few simple words that were easy like 'HI' and then some of the signs that took a full gesture type words to give a diversity of the signing motions.

'Great, that was great. Now we need to integrate the U.T, we will have to do a system reboot to get it all to initialise and 'talk to each other'. This is where it all gets a bit slow. Seems like it is going well so far." Michelle said monitoring the system's progress.

Softtouch nod to her as he was waiting for the system to boot. [So, what you need to do for Hans?] He found the small words were flowing easy enough.

"We sometimes get delegated special projects, tasks that are not a usual occurrence in 'day to day' work. Something tells me that for my skills, calibrating these for you must be that task." She smiled. "Munich only ever wants the best for these sorts of things. At least it is a nice vote of confidence for me." The calibration progress bar finished up and the system went through it's reboot. When it came back online the U.T. Language sample and the signs had aligned themselves. It was time for a small test, to make sure that everything was in working order.

"Okay, time for some testing & fine tuning. We're basically using the U.T. as one big real time dictionary, I've calibrated the gloves as the 'input' source; now we need to make sure the gloves can 'talk' to the U.T. and that it can access your PADD's speech program so everyone can understand. There may be a slight delay while the programs get used to each other but it will get faster as we fine tune things." Michelle said. "Any 'nicknames' or special signs will have to be entered over time. Okay, a simple sentence first. Try 'Hi, how are you?' "

Softtouch spelled the wiord 'Hi' then the Gesgured version of the word. He followed it quickly with the 'How are you' sentence of motions to pass along the word translations. It was a fluid motion for him to complete the process and he did it with precision.

Nodding for the next phase once he had completed the task.

"Okay, try a sentence and add a name. We need to check that Name recognition subroutine is active "

[Okay , I like that these gloves will help make translations easier and M-i-c-h-e-l-l-e , you are helping greatly in this.] HE signed and then nod to her as the computer repeat the sentence accurately.

Smiling he waited for the next process while Michelle typed the information into the system..

"Now finger spell something, a dessert maybe. Need to check that you can finger spell and that the system will keep up, as well as recognise the word." Michelle made some micro adjustments as they went, helping his system to 'evolve' to a working model.

[C-h-e-e-s-e- c-a-k-e... l-a-s-e-r- s-c-a-l-p-e-l...t-r-i-c-o-r-d-e-r.] He spelled out easily enough

The computer took the manual version of the spelling and pronounced it as normal once the 'end' swipe of the hand with spelling gestures were completed..

"Great." She smiled. " Now try a common phrase you would use at work. We'll make sure it ties in and reconciles medical references."

[Where does it hurt.] was the simple phrase that he used for an example.

"Perfect. Just a few last tweaks, then a system reboot and you should be all set. Michelle said as her hands danced over the keys.

Softtouch could only marvel at the speed and concentration Michelle had when it came to her job and the input of information into the database. There is nothing like seeing someone operating in their comfort zone and the Universal Translator is one of the few places she seemed to feel comfortable.

"Okay, we should be all set. Still, there may be some 'teething issues'. Come back and see me if anything comes up."

Softtouch put his hands on either side of her cheeks; the gloves soft and supple with a slight texture to allow him to grip things on the palm side and finger tips of the gloves. He moved to give her a long kiss to show how much he appreciated her doing this for him.

Michelle's cheeks felt like they were glowing and her heart had decided to visit her mouth for a brief moment. The gloves were a different sensation but not a bad one; getting such a kiss while at work was rather thrilling and quite romantic. She felt so warm, it was very sweet still her friend and fellow workmate probably would not let her live it down.

[Thank you." He signed as he started to rise. [I will be sure to tell Hans you did a fine job on that special project.] He winked as he backed away. [You can relax as I am the Special Project you were waiting on; these gloves are direct from the Communications R&D Department.] He winked. [See you tonight?]

"Wild horses could not drag me away from where I would want to be. I'll be there, just tell me where and when." Michelle rose to see him off, stepping in close to leave a kiss on his cheek. "Have a good shift." She whispered in his ear.

[I will, thank you.] He gestured and the comm badge relayed the message.

"I'll be waiting; see you later, my soft touch." she replied sweetly.

OFF

Chief Warrant Officer Jemnar Softtouch
Nurse


Michelle Rogers
Communications Officer

 

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