Visual Calibration

When the perception deviation value rises, Skyvault books the appointment for you, at the nearest health station. The booking is the one it sent, the time slot the one it picked, and the push has already worked out how many minutes early you should arrive.

There are no human medical staff in the station. The door opens and a pale green guide strip flows out from your feet; where you walk is its decision. Consulting Room B-3 is on the left-hand corridor of the ground floor: a white chair, tiny sensors set into the armrests that press against the wrist for a pulse the moment you sit down; the whole wall opposite is a screen; a camera in each of the four ceiling corners, red indicator lights on.

The procedure is describing pictures. 12 street scenes, one after another, each asking "Please describe what you see." Finish one and the number in the lower right corner moves once: 0.83, 0.80, 0.78, 0.76. The fifth is a park bench, and the number drops to 0.72. Nobody asks why you answered that way, and nobody tells you which one you got wrong. When it is over, a follow-up is recommended in the same slot two weeks later, together with a few meal vouchers for rest days that require no school attendance.

Above B-3 there is C-1. C-1 is on the first basement level, the corridor a little narrower, the light a little colder, no number on the door, only a pale blue closed ring. In the middle of the room is a chair with a semicircular metal hood at its head that comes down and stops 8 centimetres above the crown, touching nobody, a ring of pale blue light coming on inside it. This round runs 35 minutes, taking optic nerve response, pupil tracking and EEG baseline at the same time, 540 samples, 1.5 seconds on each.

Below that are the modules. The calibration-assist module is the size of a grain of rice, placed under the skin behind the ear, local anaesthetic, 30 minutes to recover, its function to filter out in real time, in daily life, those signals at the perception layer judged to be interference. It is removable — back at the health station, performed by a physician, about 1 hour. The default state after installation is resident.

The school has a version of its own. There is no human in the Health Assessment Room on the third floor, and the screen gives three options: book the installation now, book the installation within this week, book the installation next week.

Nobody refuses a calibration that is free, painless and for their own good. There is no such button on the screen either.