"You want 20:1 zoom lense capability and infrared vision?" Dr. Wilcox looked at Rudy incredulously. "Are you nuts, Rudy? There's no way we are going to fit all of that in a prosthetic eyeball!"

"That's why I asked Dr. Johnson, our resident neurosurgeon, to sit in on this meeting," Rudy replied. "Now here is what I'm proposing."

Rudy drew a rough sketch of a human head. Then he drew a round circle where the eyeball would be located. "Now we can put a miniaturized thermal infrared detector in the eyeball. That's not a problem. The problem is getting enough length for zoom capability, right? So what if we did this?"

Rudy drew a tube extending from the eyeball to the back of the head. Then he drew a small circle at the back of the head. "The tube gives us the length for zoom capability and this miniaturized computer in the back of the head will control everything and interface with the brain."

Dr. Johnson stared at the drawing for a few moments. "So you're suggesting that we put the tube right through the temporal lobe?"

"Yes," replied Rudy. "But we keep it below the Wernicke area."

"Well, that will help, but we're still risking the area of the brain that deals with memory, hearing, sequencing, and organization."

"Can it be done?" Rudy asked.

"Yes, depending on the size of the tube. But there are risks. The smaller the tube, the better," replied Dr. Johnson.

"Well, with our miniaturization techniques, I think we can get the size down to six to ten millimeters," Rudy replied.

"Six would be better." Dr. Johnson pointed to the circle at the back of head drawing. "Now you're suggesting that the miniaturized computer be placed in the area of the occipital lobe?"

"Yes," Rudy replied. "That's the area of the brain that interprets vision, so it would need to be located there."

"How big do you estimate the computer to be?"

"About 25 millimeters," replied Rudy.

"That's tricky, because I'll have to remove some of the occipital lobe to make room. Now with the one eye already gone, some of the lobe is already useless. But the challenge will be to not remove any sections that will affect his real eye."

"What do you suggest?"

"The only way I will do it is if I can do awake brain mapping. It's the only way I'll be able to test which parts of the lobe affect his real eye and which parts don't. Otherwise, I'm just cutting blind and I won't do that."

"That's an excellent idea," replied Rudy. "Gentlemen, this is going to work. I can feel it in my bones."


"How is it going, Dr. Staton?"

Dr. Staton looked up from his microscope at Rudy. "Not so good. I've been practicing my techniques with your plastiskin and cadaver skin. Take a look."

Rudy bent down and peered into the microscope.

"As you can see," explained Dr. Staton. "The plastiskin just doesn't respond the same way human skin does."

"Hmm." Rudy thought for a moment. "Let me show you something. Follow me."

Rudy walked over to a table where the frame of the bionic arm was resting. It was hollow as there was nothing inside the arm yet, but the lower portion, up to the elbow, was covered in plastiskin.

"Now I've been testing how we will be able to repair the plastiskin if it is damaged or if we need to do maintenance or repair to the arm." Rudy picked up a scalpel off of the table and made an incision on the forearm. "Now watch this." Rudy rubbed a special adhesive on the incision with a small spatula. Then he took a small laser pen, plugged it into an outlet, and turned it on. Moving a lighted magnifying mirror over the incision, Rudy looked through it as he used the laser pen on the incision.

"That's amazing. You can't even tell where the incision was!" exclaimed Dr. Staton. "But how do you think this will help me?"

"Well, you have a technique that works on human skin and I have a technique that works on plastiskin. What if you combined the two techniques?"

"Fascinating idea," replied Dr. Staton. "You know, if I can come up with a technique that won't damage the human skin, it just might work."

Rudy patted him on the back. "I know you'll figure it out, Doctor."


This was an exciting time for Rudy and also a hectic one. His lab was fully staffed and buzzing with doctors, engineers, and technicians busy working on their assigned tasks. Rudy was constantly checking on their progress, answering questions, and brainstorming with his team. When he wasn't doing that, he was trying out new techniques and ideas or checking on Steve.

It had been four weeks since Steve's rib surgery and Steve was healing nicely. He was off the ventilator and breathing on his own now. The chest tube had been removed a week ago. There was just one more major surgery left, repairing Steve's fractured pelvis, and Rudy had that surgery scheduled for the morning.