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Chapter 2809 The Prelude to the Digital Age (First Update, Please Subscribe)
As evening approached, a heavy rain enveloped the entire city of Chang'an, shrouding it in a misty, rainy atmosphere.

In the heavy rain, two military police officers wearing raincoats and carrying AR15 carbines strolled in front of the iron gate. They appeared to be on high alert, but in reality, they were quite lax.

This is the Soviet representative office in Chang'an. The military police outside the gate are responsible for its security.

However, as is well known, they merely exist; they neither intercept people entering the representative office nor require them to show their passports or other information.

Despite this, they still diligently fulfilled their duties.

Inside the representative office, perhaps because they had nothing to do after the rain, most of the staff were chatting idly. In a room in the northwest corner of the third floor, two men in white shirts were smoking and watching TV, which was showing a reporter's interview about the Iridium factory.

Moscow is very curious about the "Federal Cooperation Satellite Factory," named after SEA's first artificial satellite. That significance isn't particularly significant; what intrigues them is how they manufacture satellites on an assembly line, much like they manufacture Model T cars.

500 Iridium satellites produced annually...

This in itself was enough to pique their interest; however, the Soviet Union never extended its reach there because the Iridium factory was located in Rocket Town, which was a restricted area.

Although SEA is a Western country, it has followed the Soviet Union's model in some areas, such as the Wanhujiao area, which is a controlled zone. The entire controlled zone is divided into three areas: a core area where outsiders are strictly prohibited from entering, namely the Wanhujiao launch center; a controlled zone where outsiders need to register to enter, such as Rocket Town; and an area where outsiders not only need to register but also state their purpose. If they are not invited, they are usually turned away.

One is a temporary open area—that is, during rocket launches, tourists will travel to the visitor area via a special road. This visitor area includes both rocket launch visits and visits to the Wanhujiao Launch Center. The former is open to the public, while the latter requires a reservation.

That's why getting into a satellite factory is not only difficult, but it could also expose your identity. But... this is a Western country. While they seem to keep it secret, they also open it to the outside world, actively revealing their secrets.

Just like now, satellite factories and their production processes are presented to the world on television screens without any concealment.

When pressed by reporters about the security of Iridium satellites, Lu Xingyan laughed heartily in front of the camera:
"I think this is just some conspiracy theorists worrying unnecessarily. Currently, Iridium has over 100 million users worldwide, and in the future it will exceed tens of millions or even hundreds of millions. Every moment, hundreds of millions of users around the world use it. Under such circumstances, how could it be possible for humans to eavesdrop?"
The core function of the Iridium series is to provide seamless global communication services. Its design aims to benefit remote areas and will never threaten the information security of any country. There is no need to worry about this, and technically speaking, it is impossible to achieve.

In front of the television, Simonoff sat upright in his chair, an unlit cigarette between his fingers, his eyes coldly fixed on the screen. When he heard the SpaceX executive's explanation, a mocking smirk curled at the corner of his mouth, and he muttered dismissively:

"it's out of the question."

He slowly took a drag of his cigarette.

"After all, Iridium has been in the hands of the SEA from beginning to end. The so-called 'no threat to information security' is just a smokescreen. If they want, they will eavesdrop on any mobile phone number they get."

Simonov said this because that's what they were doing domestically, and it had already been achieved. The KGB discovered that monitoring mobile phones was even easier than monitoring landlines; all you needed was a number to directly eavesdrop.

Captain Victor, standing to the side, nodded quickly, his expression solemn in agreement, and stepped forward half a step, saying:
“Lieutenant Colonel, you’re right. The whole world is gradually using Iridium satellites. Whether it’s ordinary people or some organizations, they’ve all started using it for communication. As long as someone is using it, we can’t stop them from secretly obtaining all kinds of information through Iridium. We have no way to defend against it.”

Simonov slowly shook his head, his brow furrowed, his fingertips tapping hard on the armrest of the chair, a hint of seriousness even flashing in his eyes:
"This is not the most terrifying thing."

He paused, his gaze sweeping across the window, looking at the city outside:
"What's even more frightening is the impact on us. Unlike ordinary mobile phones that rely on cellular networks, Iridium phones use satellites, which means they are completely uncontrollable. With Iridium, whether it's reactionaries, foreign forces, or ordinary citizens, as long as they have an Iridium phone, they can make calls and transmit information at will without going through any of our official channels, and they might even use it to transmit classified information."

With a furrowed brow, he leaned forward, took a drag of his cigarette, and his tone grew increasingly heavy:

"The communication control system we have built up over the years is an important barrier to ensure that our country is not eroded by the West. However, Iridium is like an unblockable gap. It does not rely on ground base stations, does not go through any official review, and can achieve indiscriminate communication wherever the satellite signal covers. We do not know who is using it or what information it is transmitting, let alone intercept or monitor it. This complete lack of control is even more deadly than the SEA secretly obtaining information."

After he finished speaking, the office fell into a deathly silence. The two stood facing each other, with only the sound of the television and their breathing remaining in the room.

After a long silence with furrowed brows, they watched television and discussed the potential threats posed by Iridium, a new communication tool, but could not hide their inner worries—Iridium's uncontrollability had long exceeded the scope of ordinary communication tools; it not only broke the country's long-standing communication monopoly, but also completely tore open a gap in information control.

Unregulated communications could become channels for foreign forces to transmit intelligence, and various sensitive information could be leaked at any time, directly threatening the foundation of national security.

And what about them? They couldn't find any effective way to deal with it, and could only watch helplessly as it all happened. After a long sigh, Captain Victor finally spoke:
"The only saving grace is that it can only transmit language and text, and it is very expensive, making it unaffordable for ordinary people."

"Well, this might be the best of a bad situation."

When Simonov said that, he clearly forgot one thing—technology is constantly advancing.

Technology is constantly advancing. Not only is it unimaginable to outsiders, but even technical personnel themselves are sometimes extremely shocked by the speed of technological progress.

In the Zeiss laboratory in Yongning, looking at the camera before him, Shi Zulin's eyes were filled with shock:
"Dr. Shi, look at this camera. It not only uses an interchangeable lens design, but also has three lenses: a standard zoom lens, a medium zoom lens, and a telephoto lens. It's quite different from the one you designed back then, isn't it?"

"It's definitely different...this is a real camera!"

Picking up this camera, which is not much different from an ordinary 35mm camera, Shi Zulin's thoughts once again drifted back to the past.

1965, which is fifteen years ago.

In Zeiss's laboratory in Yongning, a black-and-white image of a child and a puppy was captured by a CCD sensor and recorded onto a cassette tape. This was the world's first digital photograph taken by the world's first digital camera.

The CCD charge-coupled lens was originally developed by SpaceX to overcome the limitations of reconnaissance satellites' "film-based return capsules." It was first applied to reconnaissance satellites and later to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Zeiss is also a collaborating research institution.

Twenty years ago, after graduating with a master's degree from Nanyang University, Shi Zulin joined Zeiss and became an engineer at the Applied Electronics Research Center.

He then joined the "electronic camera" project team. The goal of this project was to take pictures without film. Two years later, the first prototype was born in the laboratory, but it weighed more than 30 kilograms and its prototype product only had 10 pixels, resulting in very rough images.

After continuous improvements, it finally met the needs of reconnaissance satellites and drones.

Although this technology was first applied in the military, the advent of the digital camera was fraught with difficulties.
Meanwhile, Shi Zulin, a member of the project team, came up with the idea of ​​designing a "handheld electronic camera".

At that time, digital technology was very difficult to develop. CCDs were hard to control, A/D converters were hard to manufacture, digital storage media were hard to obtain, and their capacity was very small.

The PCs at the time didn't support it, and the playback equipment needed to be custom-made. These difficulties meant it took them a year to install the camera.

The digital camera was a small project for the company. Since the decision was made to use a digital method, there were not many moving parts in the camera. Shi Zulin and two technical engineers completed the project.

"Zulin, do you remember when we first showed our prototype to the company's senior management and they asked when this product could become a consumer product? How did you answer them?"

Hearing his colleague's question, Shi Zulin nodded:
"I replied that it would probably take 15 to 20 years for such products to enter ordinary consumer households." Shi Zulin's judgment was quite accurate. The development of digital cameras is a long road—in the past fifteen years, Zeiss's laboratories have generated more than 1 patents related to digital cameras, laying the foundation for the architecture and development of digital cameras, allowing them to gradually become a reality. At the same time, many other companies in SEA have invested in the research and development of digital cameras, including ORWO film—SEA's largest film manufacturer and the world's second largest, second only to Kodak in the United States. Sometimes, things are really amazing—ORWO, as a film manufacturer, actually invested so much effort in digital cameras that do not require film, and to a certain extent, it was ORWO, together with Zeiss, that promoted the development of this technology.

In fact, it's not just Zeiss and ORWO; many other companies also see it as a future development direction. Even King Laboratories has joined in, and ultimately, with market investment, a large number of patented technologies have been launched.

And now, Zeiss has finally launched its first commercially available digital camera.

"It's been exactly fifteen years now!"

Shi Zulin put down his digital camera and said:
"We finally have a real camera—that doesn't use film!"

(End of this chapter)