Output from Jaime's streaming optical interface on Bledsoe's computer
The streaming optical interface is a standard device implanted into all bionic eye recipients treated by The Berkut Group. Both Sarah Corvus and Jaime Sommers have the interface, because it is a part of the bridge between the bionic eye and the brain. In both these patients, it is located at the base of the cerebral cortex. It is integrated with the GPS tracker, such that their use is indivisible. It can be turned off by the patient by intense concentration. In Jaime, turning the device on or off is currently a difficult process which results in nosebleed. ("Sisterhood")
Capabilities[]
By default, the streaming optical interface uploads images seen by the patient's bionic eye directly to monitors at The Berkut Group. It turns the bionic field agent into a remote camera for the Group. However, because a patient has the ability to turn it off, and the Group apparently has no way to override the patient's will, the device is ultimately of greater assistance to the patient than the Group. It is a means by which the patient can wordlessly communicate her endangerment to the Group, thus acting primarily as a defensive mechanism. It also allows for rapid, shared, recorded reconaissance.
The interface also has the capability to relay real-time audio information ("The Education of Jaime Sommers"), which perhaps explains why Bledsoe has twice clearly differentiated it from the bionic eye. ("Sisterhood")
Issues[]
The fact that the device indiscriminately shares all information seen by the patient's bionic eye creates a conflict between The Group's right to control what it views as its property (the bionic implants) and the privacy rights of the individual patient. Jaime and Sarah have both openly rebelled against the device, albeit in different ways. Sarah appears to have permanently disengaged it, while Jaime has shown a willingness to use the device when she is viewing things that are clearly of professional interest to the Group. Otherwise, she has strongly expressed disapproval of it.
Commonality with original Bionic series[]
This device has no analgoue in the original televised Bionic mythos. However, it does revive the primary usage of the original bionic eye as portrayed in the original source material, Cyborg. The literary Steve Austin's eye did not provide visual information to the brain at all, but was instead a camera, whose main functionality was taking pictures during field operations.