"The tumor is spreading fast. I'm sorry Mr. Raghav, the only option we have is to amputate the arm"
"No. Please. What will I be able to do without my right arm? Please. Is there any alternative? At any cost? I will arrange any amount you ask"
"I'm sorry, but this is the only way. If you delay, the tumor will spread further. If it crosses the elbow, the entire arm below the shoulder will have to be amputated"
"I can't do this. I can't..."
"I understand, Mr. Raghav. Please take some time to think about it. But don't delay too much. At best, we can wait for a week"
***
What other option did Raghav have? He sat on the bench, with tears almost about to leave his eyes.
"You have to think about the future. Your life matters more. I can't lose you", Preeti, his wife, said.
"But what future will I have without an arm? I'll lose my job, I won't be able to do basic tasks, I won't be able to show my face to -"
"You really think all the physically challenged people out there have no life? I've seen blind people working in software companies"
"I'll not be able to do it, Preeti. I'll become a useless person after this"
"If you really think so, then do something about it right now"
"What do you mean?"
"Aren't you a researcher? Use your skills to do something so that you can live a normal life even without your right arm"
Raghav thought for a while. Then he stopped crying.
"Preeti. Thank you so much! What would I be without you?"
He immediately went back home with his wife.
Raghav's room was more like a lab. There were wires, sensors, displays, electronic components, and other stuff scattered everywhere. The entire room was painted white with multiple cool white lights on the ceiling for good visibility. He had a high-spec desktop on the desk and a laptop on his bed. He did all the soldering work in the kitchen so that the chimney would work as a fume extractor. He could do a lot of work from home thanks to his supportive wife.
He also worked as a part-time researcher at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. One of his colleagues, Joseph, had been working on bionic support devices for physically challenged patients. Joseph had been asking him to partner with him on his bionic arm project, but Raghav had been too busy with his own work. Now was the time to accept the offer.
He immediately dialed Joseph's number.
"Hello Joseph, got time for a coffee?"
***
Raghav managed to get two weeks of time before the amputation by consulting his doctors. He immediately got to work with Joseph.
Within 5 days, the two created Bionic Arm v1.0. It was a basic design that could theoretically lift anything below 1.5 kilograms.
"Let's cover the palm and fingers with some sponge and put a glove on it so that it doesn't damage anything it grabs"
"Let's see if we can find someone to test it"
"No, Joseph. I want to try it on myself"
"But you still have your real arm. You won't be able to control the bionic arm"
"I know. That's why I'm going paralyze my arm temporarily"
"What?"
Raghav injected an anesthetic into his right arm. Then he attached the bionic arm to his elbow. Six electrodes from the bionic arm were stuck to various points around his upper arm. Five of them were to control each finger and the sixth one controlled the wrist angle. The exact movement of the fingers was to be determined by an artificial intelligence program built into the arm.
But when Raghav tried to use the arm, it could barely grab an apple, let alone lift it. Everything he tried to grab slipped off the robotic fingers the moment he tried lifting them.
"Damn it! I can barely move those fingers at will. I think I know what the problem is. I don't get any feedback from the bionic arm. Unlike my real arm, I don't feel what I am touching or if I've made the right movement of the arm"
"That's something I get from all the patients I've tried it with. It doesn't feel 'Natural' is what they say"
"Well then let's fix that"
"And how do you plan on doing it?"
"We will add tactile sensors around the fingers and the palm. Then we will connect the electrodes directly to the brain"
"Raghav! Are you crazy?"
"I'm gonna do it"
***
Raghav and Joseph managed to build their next prototype - Bionic Arm v2.0 in ten days. This time, the arm was covered with a resistive touch-sensing fabric all around the fingers and the palm. The fabric used changes in resistance over its surface to determine which point of the arm was touched. It is similar to the resistive touch screens that old smartphones like the Nokia 7710 used. Underneath the resistive fabric, the fingers had a pressure-sensitive layer. This layer could detect 5,032 levels of pressure. The pressure and touch layers sent their digital data to a microprocessor on the arm that processed the data and outputted a single analog signal. This signal could be transmitted via an electrode to the brain.
"Raghav, we gotta test it on something else before you hook up an untested electrode to your brain"
"I don't have that much time. I got to take the risk"
"You can try it out after your surgery"
"No, Joseph. After my surgery, I won't have an arm to fix things if something goes wrong"
"I am here, right? I will work with you on this"
"No... No. I..."
Raghav started feeling dizzy.
"I... I want to..."
"Raghav, what's wrong?"
Raghav could see his surroundings moving. His hearing was getting muffled.
"Raghav?"
Raghav could not control his body. He immediately let go and fell to the ground. When he opened his eyes, he was in the hospital.
"Mr. Raghav, we can't delay your surgery anymore"
***