Chapter III-The module test

Chapter III: The module test

The beeping in his head was starting to cause irritation. Prakash lifted his arm and turned on the infolink. The screen read:

Schedule

1430: Facial recognition module test phase 7

It was time to go. One of the drawbacks of being on the development team for SuryaTech’s National Security System was having to go all the way to the testing areas as the schedule demanded.

Prakash got up from his seat, and went to the lobby, where the express elevators were. After being cleared by the retinal scanner, he punched the 7-digit code that would take him to the testing range in basement number 5, about two miles below ground level.

He hated these elevators. The incredible speed with which they moved always led to pressure build up in his eardrums. He got out, went through another set of biometric scanners, and entered through a blast door into a long corridor, with doors on either side.

The fifth door let him in after checking his fingerprints.

“You’re late.” Dr. Sehgal said brusquely. He was a barrel-chested, bearded man in his sixties, who looked more like a prizefighter than a scientist.

“Anyway, now that you’re here, let’s get on with the test.”

Prakash sat down at the terminal provided, and started installing the code he’d written earlier.

“It’s ready”. He waved to indicate the robot camera that stood nearby.

“Alright, testing phase 7…,” Dr. Sehgal activated the large screen projector. It showed a scene outside a metro station at rush hour. A large crowd of people surged towards the camera. With his laser pointer, Dr. Sehgal targeted a few faces. A red halo appeared around them as they moved forward, then the film froze.

“Memorize.”

The selected faces were instantly stored into a large test database from which they would be re-selected.

The next test would be to check whether the faces could again be identified correctly. Dr. Sehgal started randomly selecting faces for recognition.

A few minutes later, the results of the test were displayed.

Prakash looked up. He would know now, whether the fine-tuning he had done on the algorithm had paid off or not.

“Seek time still needs improvement. 780 milliseconds is not good enough.”

Prakash did a double take.

“Not good enough? It’s practically being done in real time! It has to search a minimum of a million records before coming up with a match!”

Something wasn’t right. The older man would not look him in the eye. He shook his head gravely. “There’s the targeting system also that needs to be accounted for…the project is already behind schedule..,” he muttered almost under his breath.

“Targeting system? Isn’t this just an airport security measure being installed?”

Dr. Sehgal looked up, his face impassive.

“Thank you for your cooperation, Prakash. That will be all for today. Please try to optimize the system further, before our next series of tests.”

Prakash made his way back to his seat. Something wasn’t right. Why was access time so critical for this application? The National Security System surely went beyond all this.

He sighed. All projects at SuryaTech were shrouded in the utmost secrecy, and team members were kept informed on a need to know basis. He’d have to find out on his own.

He decided to call a meeting of his own.

“Videoconference. Team FRM2046003.”

The holo-projection screen expanded to show the faces of his three team members.

“Right, people, testing was done for phase 7 just now. They want to make it faster yet.”

An angry babble of voices rose at once. Signalling the trio to keep calm, Prakash asked them to meet him after work.