National Forensic Doctor-Chapter 1205 - 1135 Image Recognition and Analysis

Buzz...

A squadron of drones lined up, returning from the mountain ravine, continuously taking in returning drones along the way until they reached the open space before the mountain pass, where they hovered mid-air and then descended one by one.

At the same time, the drones that were fully charged launched and flew into the sky as planned.

The commander responsible for these small drone operations checked the returning drones with his subordinates. Once confirming there were no issues, he ran to the command vehicle in front, shouted "Report," and said, "The target area has been fully searched, nothing found."

"Continue searching," the captain inside the command vehicle responded, then turned to Jiang Yuan and Xu Taining, saying, "In that case, the search of D3 is also completed."

"Then please advance the troops and continue searching forward," Xu Taining replied calmly.

"Yes." After confirming with his superior, the captain began giving orders.

Nearby, the Lieutenant Colonel coughed twice and said, "Director Xu, have you really decided not to search the mountain pass first? Based on our experience, once inside the mountains, the paths that people can take are actually limited. I’ve been to Liangming Mountain three times, and the mountain trails mostly run along the mountain pass. Only when reaching the main peak do you climb the ridge, and climbing the ridge is the easiest way to be spotted by drones..."

Xu Taining smiled and said, "Searching the mountain pass first is indeed a plan; it should be said it is a relatively efficient plan. But out of caution, I believe taking a step-by-step approach is better. I’m mainly worried about two issues. The first is that following the mountain pass makes it easy for us to thin out the line of troops, allowing the fugitive to slip through. The second is to guard against the fugitive hiding in caves or deep mountains and forests."

The Lieutenant Colonel furrowed his brow and said, "Aren’t you overthinking it? With this level of infiltration and wilderness survival capability, let alone these criminals, even the special forces in the army may not manage it—it would take some kind of top-tier soldier. Don’t be fooled by how many heroes in war history seem to accomplish these feats easily; those were all achieved over piles of dead bodies."

Xu Taining also became a bit more serious: "The problem is, if these two escape, or even if only one gets out, they could kill a lot of people. By then, what use is saving our efforts now?"

The Lieutenant Colonel was momentarily stunned.

Xu Taining smiled, softened his tone, and said, "Lieutenant Colonel Zhang, we consider the problems from different angles. You might be thinking about how to accomplish the task faster, better, and more economically, considering cost-effectiveness most of the time. For us... at least for me, that’s not how we calculate. Actually, just think about it, the number of drones you command, plus the large drones flying overhead—what’s the cost-effectiveness in catching just two people here?"

Lieutenant Colonel Zhang’s command vehicle also controlled several large drones, which were now flying over Liangming Mountain. These big machines, with wingspans over 10 meters, required specific take-off and landing sites, so they didn’t land here, but the amount of information they gathered was immense, and their effectiveness was incomparable to small drones.

Lieutenant Colonel Zhang chuckled bitterly, "It seems I’ve overthought it. I initially thought that catching them faster would at least give you an easier time explaining."

"Of course, faster is better. But speaking privately, what’s it to me if the leaders are anxious?" Xu Taining laughed and said, "Leaders are supposed to bear the pressure. If they can’t, why are they leaders, right? It’s easier for me to work faster, but fast work only makes the leaders a little happier—so what if they’re happy? Whether they’re happy early or late, perhaps being happy two days later might make them even happier. But at what cost?"

Lieutenant Colonel Zhang was at a loss for words. What could he say when others could handle the leaders?

Xu Taining, enjoying the discussion, continued talking to himself, "I haven’t seen much of fast and good. When the higher-ups want to speed at 120 on the roads, the middle level has to increase to 144, and at the execution level, you have to drive 180. Why? Because you will always encounter congested sections, times when you need to slow down and give way. To guarantee an average speed of 120 that the bosses want, one must reach 180. Isn’t that asking for trouble?"

"You criminal investigators are always so shrewd." Lieutenant Colonel Zhang commented ambiguously.

Xu Taining also chuckled. Over the years, not many flowers were thrown his way; complaints were plenty, yet people still sought him for cases. He didn’t plan to change.

For someone in his line of work, being amiable was not only useless but harmful. Actually, most criminal investigators were similar, especially veteran ones. After handling serious cases, they often looked at their own families with a probing gaze, not generally welcome.

"Let’s eat." Xu Taining laughed and said, "We’ll advance after lunch; as long as they’re in the mountains, there’s nothing to fear."

"The wild game in the mountains is in for a tough time." Lieutenant Colonel Zhang also laughed heartily.

"You say they’re game. Besides, they’ve only hunted a few." Xu Taining winked.

Lunch was prepared using the army’s Type 97A field kitchen vehicle. Four cooks could prepare meals for 150 people in an hour. The surrounding troops, organized by company (platoon), ate in shifts, one every hour, and one kitchen vehicle could supply a battalion’s logistics.

Circumscribing Liangming Mountain—even without physically enclosing it—isn’t something a brigade of over 1,000 men can manage alone. Considering rotation needs, you’d need a dozen kitchen vehicles just for meal preparations.

On missions, the ration standards were naturally raised as high as possible, especially with generous meat portions.

Less wouldn’t cut it either. They were all twenty-something youngsters, having trekked all day. Whether running back for meals or delivering them uphill, everyone’s appetite was massive, and the 97A could only steam 25 kilograms of rice at a time. Even with added buns and dumplings, it still required large protein supplements.

Xu Taining, Liu Jinghui, and other middle-aged men’s appetites noticeably decreased, three liang (150 grams) of rice were more than enough per person, and they dared to pick only one type between braised pork and steamed pork with rice flour, lest their belts wouldn’t buckle.

Jiang Yuan had a lunchbox full of rice, smothered with potato-braised beef. Mixing in a bit of crispy pork, he devoured it clean, then grabbed another box of rice, poured over the sauce from the braised pork, then tomato scrambled eggs, covering half with steamed pork with rice flour and half with streaky pork. Finally, he added a bit of green vegetables—what they were called wasn’t important; just garlic stir-fried ones.

"Whew..." Finishing his second box of rice, Jiang Yuan exhaled a long breath, popped open a can of cola with a slap, took a big gulp, and felt invigorated all over.

"I envy you young people." Xu Taining also let out a long sigh. He mainly ate green vegetables, which tasted quite average, and the young men in the cooking class obviously lacked enthusiasm for this type of food.

Jiang Yuan couldn’t quite empathize with Xu Taining, just like ordinary Jiang Village People couldn’t quite empathize with ordinary Ningtai People.

Jiang Yuan wiped his mouth and said, "The young people have eaten their fill, time to get to work."

"You work hard. Ah, I also envy your brain." Xu Taining was drooling over the many technologies mastered by Jiang Yuan. Forensic doctors who know trace inspection are everywhere, but those who understand satellite remote sensing and can read and create images are rare.

Being the Jiang Village People that he was, growing up surrounded by envy was a norm for Jiang Yuan, who naturally smiled, waved his hand, and went to look at the images. free𝑤ebnovel.com

Lieutenant Colonel Zhang eagerly followed and handed over a specially prepared three-proof laptop to Jiang Yuan, then connected the data cable to update the data brought back by the UAV.

Jiang Yuan first opened Pix4d for a rough scan. The data brought back by the UAV was too enormous, turning data processing into a real bottleneck.

To address this, after weighing pros and cons, Jiang Yuan exchanged one of his accumulated two first-class merits for Image Recognition and Analysis (Level 5).

It was because of the accumulated two first-class merits that Jiang Yuan could make such a decisive decision.

He was prepared to use the remaining first-class merit in case he encountered an unsolvable case.

Moreover, "Image Recognition and Analysis" could be used not only in the images brought by the UAV, but also in satellite remote sensing or photographically captured images.

In modern society, which is equipped with countless cameras, the application scope of this skill is broad enough to compensate for Jiang Yuan’s skill shortfall.

The technicians of the Image Reconnaissance Brigade are certainly handy, available as needed, but experts at Level 3 are incredibly rare.

The price outside was too high, one needed either a strong heart or a thick family background to resist such temptation.

Jiang Yuan processed the scanned images, selected a batch, and then meticulously treated them using Level 5 Image Enhancement Technology.

Lieutenant Colonel Zhang, being a professional himself, naturally understood Jiang Yuan’s operations, waiting nearby, serving tea and stealing techniques. Mainly the former.

Compared to Xu Taining, Lieutenant Colonel Zhang admired Jiang Yuan a little more.

Essentially, they were doing the same thing, both attempting to find a needle in the sea. However, while Xu Taining at least knew that the needle was in the sea, Jiang Yuan didn’t know--like these batches of images before him, which most likely contained no useful information, yet he still had to process them carefully, even more meticulously.

Not finding it doesn’t prove it doesn’t exist; even after thoroughly searching and still not finding it doesn’t prove it absent, only means continuing the search and maintaining hope, with more earnest dedication...

Lieutenant Colonel Zhang knew he lacked Jiang Yuan’s technology, but he was even less sure whether he would continue earnestly searching for hope if he had Jiang Yuan’s technology.

"Lieutenant Colonel Zhang?" Jiang Yuan took a sip of coffee.

"Yes!" Lieutenant Colonel Zhang instinctively responded, as if called by a superior, standing at attention.

Jiang Yuan paused, then smiled and said, "There are a few routes here, could you arrange for the UAV to fly them again? It can fly lower and capture clearer images."

Jiang Yuan picked up a paper map, without using rulers, circled a large sausage-like circle with a pencil.

"Yes. Do you need to deploy a squad for an armed reconnaissance?" Lieutenant Colonel Zhang worried Jiang Yuan might hesitate to use the unit.

"Not now." Jiang Yuan slowly shook his head, saying, "Because this area is a broadleaf mixed forest, it is relatively difficult to recognize images captured by the UAV."

Lieutenant Colonel Zhang hesitated for a moment, saying, "If it flies low, wouldn’t the suspects hide from the UAV... Or should I deploy a high-resolution large UAV over here..."

"No need. I’m not trying to locate the suspects, but to see if they left any traces."

"Can traces be seen?"

Jiang Yuan looked at him curiously and said, "As long as the resolution is high enough, recognizing any image is merely a matter of feature extraction... Of course, recognizing traces left by living suspects is harder than identifying obvious targets left by deceased ones, but these two escapees aren’t very professional, leaving behind evident living traces, still bearing hope."