Chapter 37, Scene 37: Behind the camera, the girl in his arms is smiling…
Around 2 p.m., the sunlight was blindingly bright, and New York City felt like a giant sauna.
Pushing open the glass door, a blast of cool air hit him, and Cohen let out a long, comfortable sigh, inhaling a refreshing scent of grass.
He carried a black hard plastic protective case in his left hand, tugged at his sweat-soaked T-shirt with his right hand, slouched slightly, and strode quickly toward the front desk.
Melinda, the receptionist, greeted me with a business-like smile: "Good afternoon! Do you have an appointment?"
“Hello,” the boy forced a friendly but tired smile. “I’m Cohen, from JHU, Ned’s colleague.”
“Cohen, of course,” Melinda’s smile deepened. “Welcome! Ned and Ada are in the VIP room on the fourth floor. I’ll take you up.”
She took out a work card with a lanyard from the drawer. "Here, this is your temporary work permit. It will make it much easier for you to come and go in the future."
The elevator ascended smoothly, soft music playing in the background. Melinda chatted about the sweltering heat of New York, and Cohen casually agreed, but in his heart he was thinking, "It's all those two workaholics' fault."
If they hadn't suddenly rushed to meet the deadline, he should have been leisurely vacationing at the beach for two weeks three days later before coming to work in New York.
Unfortunately, life doesn't offer "what ifs." Ada actually completed the new algorithm ahead of schedule, hoping to test it internally first.
Without hesitation, Professor Brooke immediately instructed him to send over Developer Number 3 ahead of time to be responsible for hardware debugging and maintenance.
Melinda was shocked to see the previously gentle and polite boy push the door open and enter, complaining loudly, "Ada, you ruined my vacation! I'm warning you, this time bringing me wine won't help."
Ned came up and took the box from her, giving her a smile to express his gratitude.
With dark circles under her eyes, Ada, who was nestled on the sofa, immediately jumped up, her eyes shining: "Oh, Iron Hand is here! Hurry up and get it set up, maybe we can still make it for the experiment at three o'clock this afternoon."
Melinda smiled, closed the door for them, and turned to go downstairs.
I could faintly hear the sounds of young people playing around behind me. It was a hot summer day, but it didn't seem so bad.
That evening, during dinner, Xu Aida couldn't help but complain again: "It's all your fault. Why couldn't we have left half an hour earlier? Then we could have seen the algorithm's effects today."
Cohen sipped his ice-cold beer and rolled his eyes: "It sounds like some people are losing confidence in their algorithms, and their anxiety is about to flare up."
Liang Siyu nudged him lightly with her elbow; this guy really didn't hold back with his words.
"I don't have confidence in the algorithm?" Xu Aida raised his voice a little. "You'd better sit tight tomorrow and not fall off your chair."
Cohen retorted, "I hope you haven't gone crazy from staying up all night, and that you don't mess up the control commands and make Iron Hand fall down."
Liang Siyu looked to both sides, then simply lowered his head and ate his steak.
These two have gone mad, one for algorithms, the other for a vacation, both of them are on full display of their sharp tongues.
He couldn't control his good friends, and he couldn't afford to offend his girlfriend, so he could only silently resort to violence without saying a word.
The next morning, the VIP visitor room was used as a monitoring room, with the computer fans humming.
To the left of the desk, the desktop computer screen displays the live surveillance footage from next door.
In the middle, on Xu Aida's Alienware laptop, the screen is split in two, one side showing the real-time waveform of the SEM number, and the other side showing the algorithm execution results—currently still blank.
Next to her computer, there was developer tool number 3, with the signal output cable already connected and debugged.
Cohen crossed his arms, adopting a judge's posture.
Xu Aida, who had been so aggressive last night, was now quiet and focused on the screen.
In the live video feed, in the next conference room, Liang Siyu was explaining the experimental procedure to the participant.
Okay, we're attaching the electrodes. Alright, signal testing time, let's move on to the formal experiment.
The speaker played standard instructions: "Please relax. Action one, for the first time, imagine you are about to pick up an apple from the table."
They've arrived.
Cohen's breathing became lighter.
The waveform fluctuations in sEMG are the first step in generating intent. Typically, there is a delay of half a second to one second before the neuroprosthetic moves.
However, almost at the same time the waveform changed, the robotic arm on the desk also made a grasping motion.
Although it wasn't as fluid as human movements, it completed a clear, steady-speed grasp.
He suddenly turned his head to look at Xu Aida.
“280 milliseconds,” she announced the delay, turning her head to give Cohen a big smile.
His Adam's apple moved slightly. 280 milliseconds, less than 0.3 seconds. This number means that, in human perception, the robotic arm's movements were almost synchronous.
"...Only once." His voice was a little hoarse, and he knew how weak his stubbornness was.
Hsu Ai-ta raised an eyebrow and said, "Keep watching. True gold fears no fire."
The next set is wrist flexion and extension exercises. "Imagine you are fanning your face with your hand."
The robotic arm showed some noticeable delay on the first attempt, but in the subsequent attempts, it achieved near-synchronous replication.
The silence in the monitoring room was deafening as the robotic arm performed each movement.
Cohen could say nothing more. He turned slightly to the side and raised his arm.
Xu Aida smiled and raised his hand as well. They clapped their hands, the sound crisp and loud.
"You're amazing," Cohen said, his admiration barely concealed. "Ada, you're turning lead into gold."
The girl with dark circles under her eyes tilted her head: "Another ancient magic from the Chinese community? Sorry, this is the latest technology."
Cohen laughed out loud: "To us, your algorithm and magic seem almost the same—the principle is unclear, but it works very well."
As she mentioned yesterday, this is a special algorithm for recurrent neural networks (RNNs) that incorporates long short-term memory for training.
"Alright, thank you, great god of mathematics!"
Hsu Ai-ta squinted, a hint of delight in her eyes. Replicating her past life's success wasn't really anything special; what made her truly happy was admiring her colleagues' shocked expressions.
Although this happiness is somewhat superficial, aren't humans just such superficial creatures?
When it came to the pinching motion, the prediction success rate dropped, and it was occasionally identified as wrist rotation. She quickly labeled it and waited to upload the new data tonight so that the algorithm could continue to improve.
Cohen, looking at the overall success rate and latency data, began to wonder what Ned's expression would be when he returned, and whether his jaw would drop.
"Are you kidding me? There's no need to play such an obvious prank, is there?" Liang Siyu looked at the data on the screen and shook his head.
“Whose idea was this? Let me guess.” He drawled. “That’s kind of like you, brother.”
Cohen waved his hand, his eyes practically disappearing from his smile: "Brother, you're overthinking it."
Liang Siyu looked at him suspiciously: "Are you going to continue acting?"
Xu Aida suppressed a laugh and explained, "Ned, this is real data."
Liang Siyu was even more skeptical: "What bet did you make? Whoever can fool me wins two bottles of tequila?"
Cohen laughed so hard he fell onto the sofa.
Xu Aida couldn't help but burst into laughter, throwing himself into Liang Siyu's arms: "I'll say it again, it's true! I did it, Ned. We made it."
Liang Siyu instinctively hugged her first, then stared blankly at the data on the monitor screen.
Cohen quickly came over and snapped a picture of his silly, open-mouthed expression. Of course, the girl in his arms was also laughing a bit too much, not elegant at all.
The next day, Liang Siyu repeatedly emphasized that they should film a video, his official explanation being that such special moments should be recorded.
Of course, the truth is that he handed his phone to Danny during lunch and then enjoyed watching him make a fool of himself.
Human sadness may be difficult to empathize with, but superficial happiness always follows the same principles.
The fourth floor was filled with happy bubbles for the past few days, until the algorithm suffered two major setbacks.
The first time, Xu Aida merely frowned slightly; the participant had a lot of scar tissue, resulting in very low signal strength. Given the poor data quality, it's normal for the algorithm's predictions to be inaccurate.
The second time, she found it hard to accept. A young participant had a good signal strength and seemed to have no problems, but the algorithm was still inaccurate.
Therefore, the four of them got together and briefly reviewed the situation.
“Hey, Ada, relax.” Danny tried to ease the tension. “Eight participants a week, six of them had pretty good accuracy rates. Believe me, in the field of rehabilitation, an 80% success rate is definitely headline news.”
"Besides, as the old saying goes, every patient is different."
Liang Siyu understood his good intentions, but he also understood Ada's mindset.
He smiled and said, "Don't worry, Ada isn't a perfectionist or a fanatic. She just wants to figure out why."
Xu Aida nodded: "Did you notice anything unusual while you were there? Any details will do."
Danny opened and closed his fingers, beginning to recall participant number 17.
“He was in great shape and very focused,” Danny frowned, “but he said that when he imagined opening his palm, it felt like trying to pry open a clenched ‘phantom fist’.”
"You mean, his neural signals didn't go from 'stillness' to 'movement,' but from 'resisting the phantom limb' to 'movement'?" Liang Siyu immediately understood what he meant.
Xu Aida asked, "So, his intention signals were mixed with hallucinations and resistance?"
Liang Siyu nodded: "It's very likely that we need more data."
“Yes, but this is quite common in patients with long-term phantom limb sensations. In fact, two previous participants, such as number 13, also expressed similar symptoms,” Danny added.
Liang Siyu immediately retrieved the questionnaires for numbers 13 and 17 and marked them. So why did the algorithm predict the correct number for number 13?
He suddenly noticed a detail: "Wait, he was taking trazodone on the 17th. Is this drug frequently used?"
Danny leaned over to look: "It's not a first-line drug, but quite a few people use it. It's usually used as an adjunct treatment for neuralgia and also has a sedative effect. You can consult a doctor for specific situations in which this drug would be prescribed."
Cohen casually added, "Wasn't that asking you... oh, your advisor, Professor Brooke?"
He almost said "your father," but luckily he corrected himself in time.
Liang Siyu glanced at Cohen and decided to end the discussion early.
“We have some initial guesses, why don’t we go have dinner first?” He looked at Xu Aida. “Only by taking a step back can we see the problem clearly, right?”
Cohen nodded: "Yes, I'm hungry. How about we go to that place next door? I want to try their roasted lamb chops this time."
Danny also thought the restaurant was good, and they discussed the restaurant's wine list and which craft beer was better. The two chatted enthusiastically.
Liang Siyu walked behind Xu Aida.
While looking at the medical resource database on his phone, he quietly analyzed the situation with her and concluded, "I'm just talking theory. I should call Dad tonight and ask him. After all, medicine is about accumulating experience."
"Hmm, no rush, let's talk about it when we get back." She took his arm. "Don't bring this up during dinner. I don't want to change the on-site consultant halfway through and have to write supplementary materials."
She looked up with a smile, implying that if it involved an IRB supplementary report, he would have to write it himself.
Why should he conceal his identity from the on-site consultants when he is the source of the problem? As the son of the chairman of Kangfu Hospital, conducting research would put potential pressure on the hospital staff involved in the project.
Liang Siyu shook his head helplessly. She never liked to write these kinds of materials; he was the one who always did it.
He suddenly realized something important: "Oh no, I can't let Cohen drink tonight."
He hurriedly caught up with the two people in front of him, trying to steer the conversation towards craft beer, but of course, he wasn't very successful.
As Xu Aida watched their shadows, a smile unconsciously crept onto his lips.
That evening, Liang Siyu hung up the phone and smiled at her: "How about we go to Long Island this weekend? Dad said we can have dinner together and chat about the participants on the 17th."
Xu Aida nodded. She had been there once before, so she was perfectly fine.
Besides, it's too hot in New York City to go out, and staying home for the weekend would be too boring.
She's been working on a project all semester, and now that the algorithm is nearing completion, she wants to relax and catch her breath.
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Author's note: Could you leave a comment and tell me if you prefer sweet or angsty stories?
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