One Shell of a Voice

Some pets, like cats and dogs, are very expressive. It does not take long for their owners to pick up on the signals they use to indicate that they are hungry, want attention, or if they are very, very sorry yet not entirely sure how the pillow in the next room was torn to shreds. And then there are the somewhat more exotic pets, such as lizards and reptiles, that, to the casual observer at least, seem to be completely indifferent to our presence.

But those that have these types of pets and have come to know them very well see them differently. YouTuber Bao's Builds has long had a pet turtle named Lightning. The cues may be somewhat subtle, but to Bao's Builds, the little splashes made by Lightning are clear signs that he wants a snack or some affection.

Lightning recently celebrated his eighteenth birthday, and as a gift Bao's Builds designed a new tank for him with a special above-water basking area. Lightning was as excited as a turtle can be about the new tank, but it was soon discovered that the new design made it nearly impossible for him to make the little splashes he uses to communicate. Poor Lightning!

To fix this problem, Bao's Builds came up with a new way for their little friend to communicate. A set of four arcade-style buttons were placed in Lightning’s basking area where he could press them. The buttons were wired to an Arduino Nano development board, which was in turn connected to a sound module. Using this setup, when the buttons are pressed a voice speaks the turtle’s thoughts, like if he wants something to eat or a little play time. And of course the AI-generated voice was created to sound exactly like a turtle, if a turtle could talk. Whatever that means.

After completing the build, a super-scientific procedure was carried out. Basically, Lightning was left alone to explore the buttons, and occasionally a stuffed rat pressed a button for “training” purposes. So after several weeks, it is pretty safe to say that Lightning still has no idea what these buttons are, or what purposes they serve. But when he happens to bump into one, the result is amusing.

Turtles are not exactly needy creatures, so only three of the four buttons were used to express Lightning's needs. So Bao's Builds thought long and hard about what the final button could be used for before landing on the most obvious solution — pizza! As everyone knows, turtles love pizza more than anything else, so one press of this final magic button summons a delivery person with a delicious treat.

This proved to be the most challenging part of the project. But after lots of head scratching, Bao's Builds came up with the idea to simply use the synthetic voice to ask a nearby smart speaker to do the heavy lifting. Now Lightning can order all the pizzas he wants, and Bao's Builds gets surprise knocks at the door (and credit card bills). It’s party time, dudes!