Algorithm system

Vision of the Future 2The issue of color codes can be resolved by using a web crawler to collect a large amount of image data and then statistically arranging it.

However, another problem—the size issue—is not so easy.

The size problem initially seems the easiest to solve, but in reality, it’s not.

Because Lin Yuan couldn’t possibly call the admissions office of Zijin Aviation School and ask them to provide the length and width of the admission letter, as well as the position and size of each image and the position and size of each character on it, in an electronic format.

The size doesn’t just refer to the dimensions of the admission letter itself, but also includes the size and position of every graphic and font on it.

If one has even a slight understanding of digital images, they would know that it’s impossible to replicate an identical physical object just by relying on physical images found online.

This is because any photograph of a physical object will have a problem—perspective and depth of field.

Simply put, humans are three-dimensional beings, but images are two-dimensional spaces. Photography is the projection of three-dimensional space onto a two-dimensional space, so distortion is inevitable.

To obtain the original appearance of an image, geometric transformation is required, and the key to geometric transformation lies in the reference object.

Because you cannot know the photographer’s position or the camera’s angle parameters when the photo was taken, you can only look for anchor reference objects within the image.

The most common reference object is usually a table, because almost all tables have two perpendicular sides, horizontally and vertically.

Whether it’s a right-angled or rounded table, its horizontal and vertical sides are generally perpendicular. However, when projected onto a photo, they are almost never perpendicular.

By obtaining the angles of these two lines on the two-dimensional plane, the parameters for geometric transformation can be deduced, as different shooting perspectives will inevitably lead to different angle parameters.

And current digital image processing tools such as Halcon and OpenCV have already encapsulated these common image processing functions. Therefore, Lin Yuan only needs to set the parameters and call them.

However, the current trouble lies in—the abominable beauty filters.

In this era where photos are no longer just photos, and ”photo deceptions” are everywhere, mobile phones often automatically activate beauty functions without the photographer’s knowledge.

This results in the captured images containing data that is no longer original. For example, lines might be stretched, or even worse, distorted and then stretched flat again.

As a result, the photos Lin Yuan recovered always contained these distortions. Either the corners were twisted, or some of the fonts on them were not authentic.

In desperation, he had no choice but to seek help from the computing power system.

Lin Yuan brought out the computing power system to correct the images.

Image correction is a routine function of the computing power system, as its training material is ubiquitous. Whenever Lin Yuan looked at a laptop screen or a phone screen, what he saw were two-dimensional images.

These two-dimensional images are the best training material for the computing power system.

It can even be said that as long as Lin Yuan uses his phone, the computing power system is collecting two-dimensional image material.

Therefore, having the computing power system complete the final image beautification was simply a piece of cake.

So why didn’t Lin Yuan just let the computing power system generate an admission letter with one click? Firstly, Lin Yuan was unwilling to waste precious accumulated computing power and did not want to bear the side effects after a large amount of computation. The final image beautification requires far less computation than direct one-click generation. Naturally, the computing power consumption and side effects are also much smaller.

Secondly, Lin Yuan didn’t like to rely on the computing power system for everything, otherwise, he would become a puppet of the system. This would give him a sense of discomfort—what if he became the shell of a hermit crab?

With a slight thought, Lin Yuan’s mind stirred.

”Set computing power: 50T/S.”

As usual, he set a very conservative value.

In less than three seconds, an admission letter, beautified and retouched, with his avatar on it, appeared before his eyes.

”Zijin Aeronautics and Astronautics University”

”Graduate Admission Letter”

”Name: Lin Yuan”

”Major: Computer Science and Technology”

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The system also thoughtfully converted the digital format of the image to a print format—CMYK.

There were two images in total, front and back, with 2K resolution. The overall size was not large, only about 10MB.

However, the next step was troublesome, because the computing power system could collect input through Lin Yuan’s eyes, but currently, there was no way to output data. Therefore, even though the finally generated image was right in front of him, Lin Yuan could not download it.

”System, can you generate a WIFI in my brain? We can communicate wirelessly in the future.”

The system did not respond.

”Bluetooth is fine too, even if it’s a bit slow.”

”If that doesn’t work, Morse code radio waves are fine too.”

”Oh my god, I don’t want to type it manually!”

Finally, Lin Yuan reluctantly accepted the only feasible solution—manual entry.

Because all data in the computer world is digital, and an image is just a bunch of 8-bit bytes.

10MB is approximately 10 to the power of 7 bytes.

Ten million bytes!!!

Each byte is like this: 1A, 2B. Two characters composed of 0~9, A~F.

Lin Yuan had to input ten million such characters into the computer.

If he inputs two bytes per second, that’s 120 per minute, 7200 per hour. 24 hours a day would be 172,800.

Lin Yuan would roughly need to continuously input for two months without sleep.

It has to be said.

A small snowflake in the computer world becomes a huge mountain in the real world.

All of this was caused by the inability of the human brain and limbs when faced with CPUs measured in gigabytes.

”Alas, carbon-based life is indeed insignificant!” Lin Yuan could only mock himself.

”But, I am an intelligent carbon-based life form.”

”System. Blur the non-key areas of the admission letter, only ensuring the resolution of the important areas.”

Most of the areas on an admission letter have very small color changes; these areas can be directly blurred. Then, a reverse sharpening process can be applied.

However, for areas with rich content, such as text, signatures and seals, and photos, the resolution must be ensured.

In fact, only about 20% of the areas on an admission letter need to have their resolution ensured.

Lin Yuan then reduced the image resolution to 1080P. Anyway, he was just using this certificate to get a tutoring job, not to deal with relevant authorities, so 1080P resolution would certainly be enough.

Since the overall data volume of 1080P is only three-quarters of 2K, and then 80% of the negligible areas were cut off.

Lin Yuan’s manual data entry time was reduced to over 200 hours.

This time was still too long. Lin Yuan wished he had a pair of laser eyes that could directly input the data into the laptop.

To reduce the time, Lin Yuan abandoned the cover. Because everyone’s admission letter cover is the same, and there isn’t much text on the cover, nor are the images very clear. So Lin Yuan simply generated a cover himself, using the system-generated content only for the main body of the admission letter.

Thus, the manual entry time was cut in half again, coming down to 100 hours.

A week later, an authentic-looking Zijin Aviation School graduate admission letter was finally produced.