Chapter 406: Hearing the Dao in the Morning

The basement of the Longli County Criminal Police Brigade.

Wu Wu Fa Yi Ye looked at Wu Wu Fa Yi Zhai's bloodshot eyes and felt a little afraid. As he moved a crate of bones out, he kindly said, "Director Zhai, don't you want to take a break? The work can be done at any time; there's no need to push yourself so hard."

"Rest..." Wu Wu Fa Yi Zhai tilted his head, repeating Wu Wu Fa Yi Ye's words sluggishly, like a broken tape recorder. After a while, he said, "If I... rest, wouldn't last night's all-nighter have been for nothing?"

"You didn't need to pull an all-nighter yesterday either." Wu Wu Fa Yi Ye was torn between laughter and tears, thinking to himself: *You look like someone who gets scammed out of 10 yuan just eating breakfast right now; what could you possibly accomplish? *

Wu Wu Fa Yi Zhai struggled for a moment, took another sip of the concentrated goji berry tea from his own thermos, perked up a bit, and said, "Although I only looked at some superficial things yesterday, if it's just to understand cutting-edge technology, it should be enough."

Wu Wu Fa Yi Ye clicked his tongue twice: "You're really pushing yourself too hard."

"What about you? You're still young; don't you want to push yourself?" Wu Wu Fa Yi Zhai kindly advised Wu Wu Fa Yi Ye.

Wu Wu Fa Yi Ye laughed: "I'm already 46. How many more years can I push myself?"

Wu Wu Fa Yi Zhai looked at him coldly: "Probably 10 years longer than I can."

Wu Wu Fa Yi Ye was stunned for a moment. Having been "lying flat" for many years, most leaders either didn't understand forensic technology or weren't much older than him; it was truly rare to have someone rub their own crotch with their heels like this.

Fortunately, he had been lying flat long enough, so he said casually: "I'm too far from the cutting edge. Pulling an all-nighter is useless."

"Chasing one day at a time is better than nothing. I'm also doing my best." Wu Wu Fa Yi Zhai's tone relaxed, and he turned to the young forensic doctors who had come for training.

He said: "You have more opportunities. When you have free time recently, look at the relevant materials. Don't look at the fact that Jiang Yuan is in Shannan Province; if you leave the province later, it will be even harder to witness such cutting-edge technology."

The young forensic doctors nodded one after another. Everyone understood the logic.

"Learn as much as you can; understanding a little is also good." Wu Wu Fa Yi Zhai tried to be as conservative as possible, so as not to make it sound too wonderful and give these young forensic doctors unrealistic fantasies, only for them to face failure later.

"Understood."

"We will definitely study hard." "How long has Captain Jiang been studying?"

The young forensic doctors were in good spirits. This was the most common situation during training: when facing something brand new and highly advanced, everyone's interest and enthusiasm were very high.

On one hand, people naturally like fresh things; on the other hand, brand-new technology has broad prospects, and if there is a place for oneself in those prospects, that would be even better.

While they were talking, Jiang Yuan also arrived.

It was still difficult to take whole corpses up to the office on the upper floor. Occasionally carrying a skull up, he could just tuck it under his arm and leave, and the police officers who saw him on the way wouldn't say anything.

But if he were to carry two crates of corpses up in one go, it would feel a bit eerie. Moreover, it wasn't very convenient to spread them out, so it was better to just leave them in the basement room—the funeral home was too far away, and everyone was actually too lazy to go there.

Therefore, compared to wet corpses, dry corpses were more welcomed by forensic doctors.

"Shall we start directly?" Jiang Yuan brought a laptop, a high-performance one that Director Huang had just sent over from the county, of unknown origin.

【406-26】 He installed 3dsler on it as well, placed it on the table, opened it, and set out the skull he had been working on halfway. Jiang Yuan then said: "It just so happens that the computer upstairs is running the male skull for Case 1, so let's do Case 2 here first. Now, are you going to look at the bones, or do skull reconstruction with me?"

Jiang Yuan loaded the 3dsler software again, placed it on the table, opened it, and set up the half-finished skull he had been working on. He then said, "The computer upstairs is currently running the male skull for Case 1, so let's work on Case 2 here first. Now, are you all just going to watch the bones, or are you going to join me in the skull reconstruction?"

Everyone expressed that they wanted to do skull reconstruction.

Wu Wu Fa Yi Zhai smiled frankly and said: "I reviewed it all night yesterday, just so I would understand a bit when I watched."

Wu Wu Fa Yi Ye said: "I'm fine with anything."

"Wu Wu Fa Yi Zhai is very dedicated." Jiang Yuan praised him. To maintain a pursuit of technology at such an old age was like a sage seeking the Dao; it felt like "hearing the Dao in the morning."

However, hearing the Dao did not mean one had to realize the Dao.

Jiang Yuan didn't hold back his secrets anyway.

He unfolded the software and said: "Case 2 is being done more slowly, but it has reached the local deformation stage. This part itself might need to be done meticulously because the final effect is largely determined by local deformation. Let's continue working downwards. Everyone, take a look first to get a basic feel. If you want to look from the beginning later, just find other cases."

The key steps of skull reconstruction, from 3D modeling to landmark calibration, and then to global deformation and local deformation—in this series of processes, 3D modeling is about creating an identical skull on the computer; landmark calibration is equivalent to applying soft tissue to the skull; global deformation is the adjustment of organ positions and proportions, such as where the nose is, how high the brow bone is, and what the mouth shape is like.

Up to this step, it can be understood as a person's unchangeable physiological characteristics.

Local deformation determines the specific shape and details of facial features and other parts, such as the size and height of the nose, the size and thickness of the mouth, etc. This step is actually equivalent to the part that plastic surgeons can do.

Theoretically, if a corpse had undergone plastic surgery during their lifetime, it could be roughly seen depending on the degree.

And wanting to perfectly replicate the deceased's appearance during the local deformation process is as complicated as guessing what they had turned themselves into; there are many details to pay attention to.

"There are some key data points to pay attention to here. For example, the distance between the glabella point and the outer canthus of the eye orbit on the skull model to be reconstructed, the distance between the outer corners of the two eyes, etc..." Jiang Yuan said while starting to fill in some data.

Wu Wu Fa Yi Zhai nodded slightly. After all, he had a foundation; what he mainly lacked were those prerequisite skills, and his knowledge of forensic anthropology was still very fluent.

Old Ye also nodded along. He didn't seek to understand it; he mainly focused on the atmosphere.

The young forensic doctors who followed nodded solemnly. Jiang Yuan's words contained forensic anthropology knowledge, but they actually also required relevant mathematics and computer knowledge. It was a bit difficult, but since they were just starting, everyone held their breath and tried their best to digest it.

Seeing this, Jiang Yuan continued.

He mainly still had to work on cases, or rather, he had to truly reconstruct these two skulls, so he took care of the others slightly and started working as usual.

Jiang Yuan dragged the screen while saying: "As everyone knows, there are currently two main methods to achieve local deformation of reference face models: one is the scattered data interpolation method, and the other is the free-form deformation technique (FFD). I am planning to use the first method now, adopting the radial basis function interpolation method. Commonly used radial basis functions include Gaussian functions, Hardy multiquadric functions, thin-plate splines with linear terms..."

While Jiang Yuan was speaking, he started assigning values to these functions.

In the past, purely manual skull reconstruction didn't need to consider these function-related issues; what was needed more were skills in art and sculpture. Replacing it with computer assistance meant that prerequisite skills like sculpture were no longer mandatory; what replaced them were requirements in mathematics and computers.

Times were changing, and the polynomials, coefficients, and equations on the screen were also changing.

Local deformation changed the face beyond recognition.

Jiang Yuan typed on the keyboard for a while, stood up, and said: "Let's run it and see. Essentially, a radial basis function network is a three-layer feedforward network..."

As he spoke, he looked at Wu Wu Fa Yi Zhai, Wu Wu Fa Yi Ye, and the other young forensic doctors.

Wu Wu Fa Yi Zhai was older and certainly didn't understand these, but the young forensic doctors were all college students who had just graduated. Although, under normal circumstances, they still wouldn't understand these, there might be some mathematical genius among them...

There wasn't. Everyone's eyes subconsciously looked at the other parts of the skeleton. Although forensic anthropology always made people feel uncomfortable, it depended on who you compared it with.

Jiang Yuan looked at Wu Wu Fa Yi Ye again.

Wu Wu Fa Yi Ye looked at Jiang Yuan with clear eyes, a smile on his face. If he didn't understand, he didn't understand; he, Ye the "Lying King," had a clear conscience.

Huashuge viewing. ===== CHAPTER 407 =====