OMCOM's Grille

In all of my books, there have been recurring themes, objects and sequences. Some of them are because they amuse me but some of them are because they are indelibly etched into my brain as an integral part of my future history.

One such object is OMCOM's audio interface. It is a bi-directional piezo-electric device that can emit sounds and also pick up sounds so it is both a speaker and a microphone. One day, a long, long time ago, I even tried to sketch out what it looked like. It looked like this:



This drawing was done was I was a wee lad, only 21 years old and I have since come to learn that the grille, while still omnipresent, is much more understated in the 35th century. Going way back to the very first page of Rome's Revolution, this is all I give you in the modern story:

     “Can you hear me?” Rei called out. The woman stared into his eyes for a moment longer then turned and walked away, out of sight.
     “Damn it,” Rei said as he slumped against the door. “Anybody?”
     “As far as I can surmise, you probably speak middle twenty-first century English. Is this correct?” a disembodied voice asked from the right.
     “Where are you?” Rei asked, searching the wall. “Who are you?”
     “You may call me OMCOM. Such is the translation of my designation in your language,” replied the deep, metallic-sounding voice. “With regard to where I am, I am everywhere. However, if I understand the intent of your question, the voice you hear is issuing from a grille built into the wall in front of you.”
     “Are you a computer?” Rei asked.

In my modern vision of the 35th century world, the grille is barely distinguishable from its surroundings, not the gaudy logo-ish device shown above. Plus I now believe that the Vuduri language and alphabet is so radically different from what we have today that even if such a grille was built, we wouldn't know what we were looking at.

Ah, youth.