Chapter 1411 - 1335: Disarray
Jiang Yuan inspected the evidence’s windbreaker at the scene, intentionally taking a magnifying lens to examine several potential fingerprints. He then used new technology to refresh his mind and looked up, saying, "I need a high-resolution spectral imaging device. Do you have one?"
Standing opposite him were two police officers from the archives room. Faced with Jiang Yuan’s inquiry, they could only lift their overtime eyelids, feeling both mentally and visually dazed.
"The provincial department has a Resonon push-broom type with a resolution of 5.5 nanometers; I borrowed it once before," said the rushing criminal science technician Zheng Feng, a "young" expert under 40.
"Anwan City doesn’t have one, right?" Jiang Yuan was somewhat unwilling to give up and tried asking again.
"We have high-definition microscopes, but no high-resolution spectral imaging device. You want to use a high-resolution spectral imaging device to scan this jacket, right? We can’t do it; the provincial department’s one should work. I’ve heard the high-end model costs 500,000. Our municipal bureau simply can’t afford it," Zheng Feng was very familiar with his own equipment.
With him was Liu Changchuan, captain of the Criminal Science Brigade, who bluntly said, "Even if we could afford it, we wouldn’t know how to use it. Foreign software is very complicated. I’ve used Resonon’s; the images it captures are different from those of a normal camera, requiring image enhancement. Oh, Director Jiang understands image enhancement..."
It was unclear if he was complaining about the technology or praising Jiang Yuan.
"From the provincial department, it can’t be borrowed today, right." Jiang Yuan was slightly disappointed. He had activated the system’s temporary +1 skill, a total of 405 minutes, just over 6 hours. Once used up, it needed a 24-hour cooldown. Without the equipment, the skill was essentially wasted.
However, he had no choice but to activate it; the new technology wasn’t easy to grasp either. With fingerprint analysis at Level 6, he was great against current fingerprints. But using new technology to retrieve old fingerprints with clarity for solving cases, even Level 6’s fingerprint analysis was strained.
The cost of new things is a bit higher.
Zheng Feng, seeing the situation, glanced at the time and said, "Even if the provincial department had someone on duty now and we could borrow the equipment, making a round trip, it would probably be by tomorrow morning. Today, it likely can’t be borrowed."
Captain Liu Changchuan gently licked his dry lips, "Even if the provincial department had someone on duty, they couldn’t borrow it."
The scene emitted a laugh of making light of adversity.
"Oh, a bit of waste," Jiang Yuan was genuinely regretful. Fingerprint analysis at Level 7; now, if used for regular fingerprint verification, the firepower would definitely be over the top, wasting a day.
"Is it very urgent?" Zheng Feng naively asked.
Beside him, Liu Changchuan frowned, "Director Jiang is here to help us; how can you speak like that."
After speaking, Liu Changchuan said to Jiang Yuan, "We’ll tidy up now, try to borrow the machine from the provincial department by tomorrow morning, then drive back. Estimated time of arrival is around noon."
This was already beyond the regular procedural speed.
Jiang Yuan gently shook his head, "If it’s tomorrow noon, then there’s no rush."
After speaking, realizing others might not understand, Jiang Yuan concocted another reason, saying, "My current state is still good. I can probably keep working for about 6 hours. After 6 hours, I won’t be able to do fingerprint comparison. I’ll probably need a deep sleep, so it might be another day before dealing with this jacket again."
As Jiang Yuan spoke, he placed the jacket back into the evidence bag.
Even the veteran captain Liu Changchuan was moved. What kind of spirit is this...
"Let me think of a way!" Liu Zhuangshi, stepping out from a cozy home, just walked in. Because of soaking his feet, his adequately supplied brain instantly thought of a solution.
Regarding the provincial department, he—a mere city Criminal Police Brigade captain—certainly held no influence. But this time, Zhang Limin, who came with vinegar to make dumplings, was from the provincial department. Most of the fingerprints handled in this Anwan fingerprint battle weren’t even from Anwan, so naturally, Zhang Limin could be sought to solve the problem.
Liu Zhuangshi didn’t care about the late hour; he dialed Zhang Limin.
Soon after, Zhang Limin appeared in the operations meeting room with a large iron basin, entering with a refreshing note, "Everyone, straight from Jiang Village, a special roast beef eye from the Jiang Family is here. Ta-da..."
The sizable cadre entered with self-generated sound effects, naturally evoking rounds of applause.
Unless particularly afraid, everyone came forward to take the roasted beef eye, giving them face. Meanwhile, others saw grilled beef skewers in the basin, so some simply took the skewers instead of the beef eye, which was also acceptable face-wise.
Zhang Limin cheerfully offered food to everyone, then took a beef eye skewer for Jiang Yuan, smiling, "Try it, made under Mr. Jiang’s guidance. As for the high-resolution spectral imaging device, I called the department. They’re already on their way with the machine and personnel. Driving a bit faster, they should arrive in a bit over two or three hours."
"Ah, you’ve sorted it out," Jiang Yuan was a bit surprised and couldn’t help but add a polite "you."
Zhang Limin smiled and nodded, "A trivial matter, borrowing an instrument was our oversight. If you have any other requests, just let us know. We’ll fulfill any we can, and if there’s equipment the department doesn’t have and you feel it’s necessary, I’ll immediately contact someone for procurement."
Jiang Yuan warmly thanked him, took another bite of beef eye, finding it indeed richly fragrant and tender, akin to the texture of muscles on cow shank, very chewy, yet completely lacking the rigidity of muscle.
"Very fragrant!" Jiang Yuan gave Zhang Limin a thumbs-up.
"Glad you like it; I’ll go roast some more to try," Zhang Limin didn’t hold Jiang Yuan back for conversation, allowing time for him to work, eagerly going off to roast more meat. At that point, it was unclear if it was due to work or preference.
The experts remaining in the meeting room returned to their stations to scan fingerprints. During the fingerprint battle, one benefit was you could work overtime without worrying about being scolded by family for coming home late, as one could opt to stay here instead of returning home.
Although the unit’s computer chassis emitted constant noise in the nighttime rooms, everyone’s minds were very calm.
Criminal Science Brigade Captain Liu Changchuan was carefully observing Jiang Yuan. Speaking of, forensic doctors were also part of criminal science, but when it came to convenience in doing things...
"Bring the remains over for a look too," Jiang Yuan scanned all the evidence from this remains case again.
More than 2 hours flew by.
Two dusty police officers, accompanied by Zhang Limin, entered with an enormous camera.
The 500,000-value high-resolution spectral imaging device, in terms of appearance, wasn’t as large as a traditional camcorder, a black and red rectangular box with a camera head protruding.
One of the police officers hurried to introduce the instrument to Jiang Yuan, especially highlighting the subsequent pieces of equipment and software, particularly opening the instructions, "When we do sample collection, we first need to complete automatic exposure measurement, calibration focusing, and removing the dark background. For spectral imaging, the step is generally set at 1.33nm, allowing each sample acquisition to gather a spectral image set consisting of 462 images in one go... The collected raw data is processed by pectrononPro software and converted into reflectance data..."
He briefly explained, then looked at Jiang Yuan, prepared to hear his command and for self-operation.
Jiang Yuan noticed, extended a hand for the instrument, saying, "Let me try first; you all help me observe."
After speaking, Jiang Yuan requested the evidence jacket again and spread it out on the spot to start operating.
This type of high-resolution spectral imaging device was inherently capable of outdoor sampling. Theoretically, upon discovering a body, the field investigation with the equipment could directly select fingerprints and other traces on the site for sampling and comparison. This was the simplest use case.
The technician hesitated for a moment, then seeing Jiang Yuan’s skilled movements, couldn’t help but ask, "Have you used the same model before?"
"Something like that," Jiang Yuan ambiguously replied, extracting several fingerprints quickly.
As the name suggests, the push-broom type high-resolution spectral imaging device samples by pushing and scanning flatly. Once the equipment is tuned, using it is very convenient.
The fingerprints obtained were transmitted to the computer, opened with pectrononPro, and the technician, with a probing gaze, looked over.
Jiang Yuan unabashedly sat down. If it was ordinary fingerprint comparison, letting someone else operate would’ve been easier, but the fingerprints found on the evidence jacket were limited, and since he had the Level 7 skill active, using it now was worthy of their effort of driving several hundred kilometers at night.
A few fingerprints quickly emerged, albeit heavily fragmented in appearance.
"Are they usable?" Li Zemin, with a cigarette dangling from his lips, concernedly squeezed in.
"They need some processing," Jiang Yuan contemplated aloud.
"How do you process them?" Li Zemin was curious.
"HE or WT. Or BBHE and SEHE," Jiang Yuan mentioned Standard Histogram Equalization (HE) and Standard Wavelet Transform Algorithm (WT), as well as Average Brightness-Preserving Bi-Histogram Equalization (BBHE) and Two-Dimensional Space Information Entropy Histogram Equalization (SEHE).
Li Zemin let out an "oh," seemingly understanding, turned his head to ask the two technicians, "What do you usually use?"
"Ah... we usually... usually just default to HE," the technician responded somewhat flustered, looking slightly disarrayed.