Chapter 52: A Backpack Worth Half a Million
At a nearby exhibition stand, a massive unmanned cargo aircraft stood quietly, casting a giant shadow under the sunlight. This was the "Platinum Route." Old Jia noticed that the two female military officers were taking pictures of it again. The "Platinum Route" had a huge belly capable of accommodating a large shipping container, and it claimed to be the largest unmanned transport aircraft in China currently. However, this was merely a prototype model.
China had already established the lowest-cost, fastest, and most efficient logistics system in the world. If these heavy-load drones were integrated into this logistics network, China's logistics costs would drop even further, making Chinese products even more competitive globally in terms of cost-performance ratio.
Old Jia strolled around several nearby drone exhibition stands, preparing to cut across through the weaponry hall to return to the Mythical Bird Drone exhibition area.
Amidst the bustling crowd in the weaponry hall, Old Jia noticed a specific individual—a young man wearing a white T-shirt, shorts, and glasses. The backpack he wore featured a thick, half-meter-long antenna rod, and he was holding a strange, white camera-like device, taking pictures in front of a howitzer artillery vehicle inside the hall.
Old Jia pondered to himself: Are military enthusiasts nowadays this professional? Isn't taking photos with mobile phones and DSLR cameras enough? Do they really need such specialized photographic equipment?
Of course, Old Jia had no idea what this professional device was actually used for. He used his phone to take a picture of the man's equipment and uploaded it to Kimi to search for it. Kimi replied instantly with the following information:
This equipment is a wireless handheld 3D scanner manufactured by a well-known foreign high-tech company. Below are some performance specifications and pricing information for the device:
Performance Specifications:
• 3D point accuracy: Up to 0.1mm;
• 3D resolution: Up to 0.2mm;
• Texture resolution: 2.3 megapixels;
• Maximum 3D image reconstruction frame rate: 80 FPS;
• Data capture speed: 3.5 million points/sec;
• Computing platform: NVIDIA Jetson TX1;
• CPU: Quad-core ARM Cortex-A57 MPCore Processor;
• GPU: NVIDIA Maxwell 1 TFLOPS GPU with 256 NVIDIA CUDA Cores;
• Built-in hard drive: 256GB SSD;
• Screen size: 5.5 inches;
• Wireless connectivity and data transmission capabilities: No need to connect to a power source or computer;
• Built-in battery pack: Additional battery packs can also be purchased separately;
• Equipped with the NVIDIA Jetson TX2 processor: After the upgrade of the new Artec Leo 2022, the power is stronger and the accuracy is more stable;
• Price: $29,800.
"What? Thirty thousand US dollars?!" Old Jia clicked his tongue in amazement, thinking to himself, "Are these military enthusiasts nowadays really this hardcore? Could he possibly be taking this back to build model airplanes?"
Without thinking too much about it, Old Jia quickly walked through the bustling crowds of the weaponry hall, casting passing glances at the bizarre mechas, artillery pieces, and armored vehicles. He thought to himself that the weaponry in this single hall alone would be almost enough to equip a combined arms battalion for a medium-sized country.
Suddenly, Old Jia's eyes lit up. He spotted the antenna-toting backpack guy wandering near the Mythical Bird Drone exhibition stand as well. Old Jia immediately became alert, mingling among the spectators while watching the backpack man's every move.
At that moment, a group of visitors requested to get close to the Mythical Bird Drone to take photos and check-in. Long Wuyang generously opened the barriers to let everyone inside, and the backpack man followed this group right in. Without hesitation, Old Jia trailed closely behind the backpack man and stepped right up to the Mythical Bird Drone.
As soon as the backpack man reached the underside of the drone, he began stroking the aircraft's fuselage inch by inch with his hands. Then, without a moment's hesitation, he raised the white device in his hand and started scanning the drone.
Old Jia was somewhat shocked, but he maintained his composure, wanting to see what else the man would do.
He watched as the man, holding the scanner in his hand, carefully moved along one direction of the drone's fuselage, scanning every single part of the aircraft body. Old Jia felt a sense of foreboding. Just as the man began moving toward the underside of the engine rotors to scan the engine details, Old Jia lunged forward in a flash and blocked the scanner.
Old Jia asked the backpack man sternly, "What are you doing?"
"I, I, I'm just taking a few pictures," the backpack man replied in a panic.
"What on earth is that thing in your hand? Is it a scanner?" Old Jia followed up with a harsh question.
"Oh, no, it's not. It's a professional camera. You guys built this drone pretty cool; I'm a professional military enthusiast, and I just wanted to take some high-definition photos," the backpack man muttered nervously, then turned his head, ready to leave.
"Stop right there! You're not going anywhere!" Old Jia lunged forward and grabbed the backpack man by the arm, then shouted at the top of his lungs toward Long Wuyang and the others, "Hurry up, call security!"
The crowd instantly erupted into chaos. Seeing this situation, Long Wuyang was startled at first, but immediately grasped what was happening. He rushed to Old Jia's side without delay to block the backpack man's escape route, while Cui Yinuo and the others sprinted outside the barriers to find security guards and on-duty military officers.
Realizing his path was blocked, the backpack man instantly panicked. He suddenly shook off Old Jia's hands, attempted to run away, and shouted loudly, "What right do you have to stop me?"
Quick-witted and agile, Long Wuyang lunged forward, grabbed the backpack man in a bearhug, clutched the man's backpack tightly, and roared, "You're not going anywhere! You can explain yourself clearly when the military police arrive."
Soon, a nearby security guard and an on-duty military officer rushed over. After listening to the accounts provided by Old Jia and Long Wuyang, they confiscated all of the backpack man's equipment without further ado and led him away to the duty room.
Upon witnessing this scene, the onlookers began chattering animatedly among themselves, with some even live-streaming the incident using their mobile phones.
"Teacher Jia, what is he doing?" Cui Yinuo asked with a worried expression.
"What kind of thing was he carrying on his back?" Sun Mengjie asked, looking baffled.
Old Jia answered with a solemn expression, "That is a high-resolution 3D scanner. By scanning an object, it can rapidly generate a 3D digital model of that object with an accuracy of up to 0.1 millimeters. That thing he was wearing on his back is a wireless transmitter, which allows him to transmit data outward while scanning. I suspect his accomplice has a receiver located elsewhere; once they receive the scanned data, they can recreate a complete 3D model. That set of equipment costs thirty thousand US dollars—it is definitely not something a regular military enthusiast needs to own."
"Ah? Doesn't that mean the external dimensions of our drone were easily obtained by him just like that? Even all the manufacturing details were scanned away?" Long Wuyang said with extreme indignation.
"Fortunately, we discovered it in time before he could scan the critical parts. It shouldn't have leaked any classified secrets," Old Jia said, equally angry. "He's probably a spy, either an industrial spy or a technological spy. Nowadays, these tech spies often disguise themselves as researchers at consulting agencies or visiting scholars."
"What? A spy?! Could he be one of those online sensations known as the 'walking half-a-million'? And he's a backpacker too! Conducting espionage activities so blatantly and crudely in broad daylight—this is unbelievable!" Sun Mengjie cried out in shock. "I suddenly feel like it's so dangerous around us!"
"You've been reading too many web novels! Making such a fuss over nothing! This is on Chinese soil, what danger could there possibly be?" Cui Yinuo gave Sun Mengjie's arm a sharp twist.
"This is technological warfare. It's a war without the smoke of gunpowder," Old Jia murmured softly.