South Korea, National Computer Research Center.
The effort to crack the Phantom Projector was in full swing.
More than three thousand of South Korea's top IT professionals and senior engineers specializing in projector software and hardware had joined the project. Over ten thousand support staff were on hand, and tens of thousands of technical workers on the periphery could be called in at any time.
The industry's biggest names had gathered together, pooling the knowledge of the nation's top talent. They held dozens of meetings a day, with the help of a national supercomputer. Spurred on by the money at stake, their progress was slowly advancing.
The more they studied the software, the more deeply these top talents were shaken by Ning Yifan's ability to invent and create it. They were utterly impressed!
The driver software's underlying language was unlike any programming language currently in use. It was an unknown language Ning Yifan had invented himself, making it exceptionally difficult to crack.
Fortunately, they had strength in numbers, ample resources, and the support of a supercomputer. Their progress continued, bit by bit.
Half a month passed in a flash. Inside a room marked Test Lab 19,
a researcher picked up a driver board that support staff had just delivered after finishing its driver program and installed it in a projector. As he powered the projector on, he wrote in his report, "Test Lab 19. Test number 57,623. Result: _____"
After recording the test in the lab log and leaving the result blank, the projector finished starting up.
The researcher glanced casually at the projected image on the wall, picked up his pen, and said without thinking, "Failed again."
Just as he was about to write in the test log, he suddenly turned back and looked at the projection on the wall again.
The startup animation appeared clearly on the wall. Unlike the pixelated mess he had seen countless times before, this projection was crystal clear!
"Wait, it didn't fail! We did it! We succeeded!" the researcher shouted excitedly.
It was the lab's more than fifty-thousandth experiment, and the five-millionth test among all one hundred test labs. At long last, they had a success!
The projection was exceptionally clear, and its image quality came remarkably close to that of the Phantom Projector the researchers had tested so many times before. In fact, the two were practically identical, since every component other than the driver program was the same as the one inside the Phantom Projector.
Only the driver program had been developed from cracking the Phantom Projector. Now that they had cracked it, it was only natural that the assembled projector worked just like the original.
News of the successful test spread quickly. Technical staff from all over rushed to the lab, crowding it until there was barely room to move. Everyone stared at the image on the wall, their hearts racing. This day had not come easily!
The materials related to the driver program used in Test Lab 19's successful test were quickly sealed off.
With the efforts of the many technicians working on the crack, they used the successful sample to make another hundred projector driver boards, then distributed one to each test lab.
A new round of testing began. This time, though, they ran many more precise performance tests: RGB color gamut, display latency, projection under bright light, resolution, and comparisons with the Phantom Projector.
Working together, thousands of people quickly produced the test results. They were exhilarating: apart from calibration, which reached only eighty to ninety percent of Shenma Technology Company's standard, the projector was no worse than the Phantom Projector in every other metric!
The lab had successfully reverse-engineered the Phantom Projector and built a projector of its own!
Samsung's executives were naturally the first to hear the news. They soon arrived at the lab and watched the entire cracking process with their team.
In the crowd, Samsung's president held the driver board between two fingers. His expression was complicated.
This tiny board was barely two fingers wide and only a thin layer thick. It contained nothing but a simple chip, and its hardware was inferior to the motherboards in most electronic products today. Yet cracking it had cost Samsung Group enormous manpower and resources, nearly a month of work, and almost twenty billion won.
Fortunately, it had all been worth it. The president and his team watched as technicians entered the driver program on the spot, installed the board in a newly assembled projector, and played a test image. Its colors were vivid, and its clarity was no worse than that of Shenma Technology Company's Phantom Projector.
The president swept his hand through the air and addressed the engineers, technicians, and senior executives around him:
"Get the production lines ready and begin mass-producing our own Samsung projectors as soon as possible.
"And the experts who made major contributions to cracking it should stay for now. Having a product like Shenma Technology Company's is only the beginning. We need to use the information we have to upgrade it and make an even more powerful projector.
"Get our Samsung-branded projectors on sale as soon as possible, and crush Shenma Technology Company until they can't get back up.
"Make sure the rewards for the technical staff who made outstanding contributions to this development are paid out promptly, too."
After giving those instructions, the Samsung president suddenly remembered a report from one of his subordinates: Shenma Technology Company had not registered any patents related to the Phantom Projector!
He immediately turned to his secretary and said, "Secretary Zhao, compile the relevant materials as soon as possible and register the driver board's program as patented technology."
Whether Ning Yifan of Shenma Technology Company had been confident or arrogant, the fact remained that the patent for this product was about to belong to Samsung Group!
With the patent, they could even order Shenma Technology Company to stop making Phantom Projector products. Otherwise, the company would be infringing on Samsung Group's exclusive patent, and Samsung would sue it into bankruptcy.
When Samsung Group went all out, it was terrifying. Patents that would normally take ordinary people a long time to get approved were all processed in less than a day.
At the same time, Samsung's projector prototype was built. Its performance was almost identical to that of the Phantom Projector; an ordinary person could hardly tell the difference between them!
The outcome was settled. Samsung Group's senior executives met to decide what the company should do next.
That day, many of Samsung's executives gathered in the headquarters conference room.
"Now that we have the patent, Shenma Technology Company's Phantom Projector is infringing on Samsung Group's rights. It has also caused us enormous losses. We must resolve this properly through legal channels!"
"We should strike first. Find a legal team and sue Shenma Technology Company for infringement as soon as possible."
"We also need to make good use of public opinion online. Everyone needs to know that we're in the right!"
"Shenma Technology Company must not only stop making Phantom Projectors in the future; it also needs to compensate us for all the units it has already made and sold for a profit!"
"Get people to fabricate evidence, and order everyone involved in cracking the product to keep quiet. Have them sign nondisclosure agreements, or use money if necessary. When we sue Shenma Technology Company, they need to keep their mouths shut."
"Shenma Technology Company is just one person. It doesn't even have a legal department. We can't lose this case. He'll pay for his arrogance!"
The executives each offered their opinions. Anyone who had risen to such a position had handled this kind of business maneuver many times before.
The meeting lasted almost an hour in a relaxed atmosphere. As it drew to a close, the executives smiled and shared their thoughts.
"If the plan goes smoothly, we won't just bring down Shenma Technology Company. Samsung Group's Phantom Projector will also dominate the international market with its excellent performance."
"We've turned things around! Hahaha! We no longer have to worry about Shenma Technology Company and the Phantom Projector squeezing our products out. From now on, our Samsung Group products will take over the global market for TV and projector products!"
"They were too young. The guy might be talented, but he was careless and left such a huge loophole. We thought that even if we cracked the Phantom Projector's production technology, we'd have to study it further and make changes to avoid infringing on the patent. We never expected we could use it right away."
"I almost feel like we should thank Shenma Technology Company for handing us such wonderful technology!"
"That young man Ning Yifan is quite talented. Once Shenma Technology Company goes bankrupt, we can have a company with no apparent ties to us recruit him. We'll offer him a high salary and have him work for us. Hahahaha!"
"With the Phantom Projector technology, Samsung has become even stronger. This could be the opportunity we need to take another big step forward. If our revenue grows again, it might even account for half of South Korea's total income!"
"This is such a happy occasion. We should celebrate properly tonight. There are a few actresses in the entertainment industry who have been doing quite well lately. Let's have them come sing and dance for us tonight!"
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