 A number of changes to Austin's bionic abilities and his demeanor were made as Caidin's original novel and its concepts were modified.To increase the science-fiction appeal, Austin's bionics were made more powerful, and he had abilities his literary counterpart lacked.Most notably, the first movie revealed that Austin's replacement bionic eye had a telescopic feature (later expanded to include night vision), whereas Caidin originally had Austin's eye be little more than a minicamera, and Austin himself remained blinded in the eye itself.