Everyday Life of a Top Student at Hogwarts

Chapter 177 Analysis and Optimization

Chapter 177 Analysis and Optimization

After successfully delivering the items to Dumbledore, Cullen's life returned to normal. She waited for Mr. Nico's reply while continuing her daily life and studies, occasionally studying the Quidditch equipment before its improvement.

It was another Charms Club gathering. The long table in the classroom was covered with specially made parchment taken from the Quidditch match record box on Saturday. It was densely covered with shimmering runes, intricate trajectory lines, power waveforms, and interactive markers. Professor Flitwick stood at one end of the table, his small face flushed with excitement, waving his wand and pointing at one of the diagrams.

"Look here! Creon! Wesley's powerful cross-court pass!" Flitwick's voice was high-pitched with excitement. "The trajectory line clearly shows the ball's arc and speed changes! How striking is the peak power symbol next to it! And here, Richard, the magic impact waveform at the moment the ball hits! Although there's still some noise, the characteristics are clear! This data can even help us analyze these players' data! It's incredibly valuable, but the only pity is that there's still a bit too little data."

Creon and Richard, along with five or six other upperclassmen members of the Charms Club, were gathered around the table, their faces filled with amazement and excitement. Just as Karen walked in, she heard Creon exclaim, "Professor! More importantly, the Golden Snitch! Although the signal is weak and the trajectory is intermittent, we actually captured its magical perturbation waveform! Look at this waveform! It's completely different from the magical characteristics of the Quaffle or the Wanderer! This data is incredibly useful!"

"Karen! You've come at the perfect time!" Professor Flitwick spotted Karen and immediately waved enthusiastically. "Come over here! We're analyzing the invaluable data we recorded last Saturday! It's incredible! A revolutionary breakthrough! Your design of the tracking core and the synchronization rune array is a testament to that!"

All eyes in the activity room instantly focused on Karen, filled with admiration and praise. Karen composed herself, put on a polite smile, and quickly walked over. "Professor, and all the senior students, you flatter me. It's the result of everyone's joint efforts, especially Senior Kryon and Senior Richard's on-site debugging and operation, which ensured the stable operation of the equipment in the complex environment."

"Don't be modest, Karen!" Richard patted Karen on the shoulder forcefully, almost making him fly, and laughed loudly, "The core architecture is yours! The optimization ideas were also yours! We were just helping out! Come and take a look at the waveform of this golden thief, do you have any suggestions or ideas for optimizing signal capture?"

Karen walked to the table, her gaze quickly sweeping over the spread-out parchment. The feeling of complete control she had when operating the instruments on Saturday was back.

He picked up the sheets of paper recording the Golden Snitch's tracking, pointing to the thin, intermittent golden trajectory line and the magical disturbance waveform next to it: "The weak signal is the main problem. The Golden Snitch's own magical field is too weak, and its movement trajectory is too erratic. I think we can start from several aspects: First, improve the tracking core's sensitivity to high-frequency weak magical disturbances. This may require replacing the sensing crystal with a purer one, or adding a layer of miniature magical amplification circuit. Second, further optimize the signal reception resolution based on the data, and reduce interference from the environmental magical field and the broom tails of other players."

Karen then pointed to some spikes on the waveform graph. "Third, these noises are largely caused by the magical fluctuations of the device itself and the disturbances of the arena environment. The wind was quite strong that day, and the noise made by everyone in the stands was also considerable. We could consider adding a more stable anti-interference rune layer to the outside of the tracking lens, or—use a levitation spell to achieve levitation and fixation, completely isolating the transmission of ground vibrations and the influence of wind."

"Hovering and fixed?" Elena, a sixth-year Ravenclaw student specializing in rune stability, brightened up. "Like the hovering base of some advanced astronomical telescopes? That's a fantastic idea! It can significantly reduce the impact of external vibrations on precise tracking! I'll be in charge of the rune design and stability testing for this module!"

"Leave the sensitivity enhancement to me!" Creon immediately raised his hand. "My family sells alchemy materials; I'll go get some suitable crystals!"

"I'll optimize the signal reception resolution!" Benjamin, another fifth-year Ravenclaw student skilled in spell and energy field analysis, pushed up his thick glasses. "I need basic data on the environmental magic field of the entire stadium during Saturday's game, the more detailed the better."

"No problem! The data is all here!" Richard immediately pushed over a stack of parchment recording the environmental background magic.

The discussion quickly became lively, with everyone eagerly taking on tasks and proposing improvements. Professor Flitwick watched with amusement, occasionally interjecting to offer crucial suggestions or point out potential technical challenges.

Just then, a tall, muscular Hufflepuff boy with short, neat brown hair and a friendly, square face pushed his way to the front. He was Edgar Burns, the seventh-year student council president. He wore a hearty smile, his eyes filled with keen interest and eagerness at the technology before him.

"Fantastic! Cullen! Professor Flitwick! Everyone!" Edgar's voice boomed, carrying the characteristic enthusiasm and pragmatism of Hufflepuff. "These data, and the potential shown by this 'Record Eye' system, are simply astonishing!" He picked up a parchment containing a network of player movement trajectories. "Look at this! Clear tactical runs! Look at this power marker! Objective and clear criteria for foul calls! And this tracking of the Golden Snitch! If this were applied to official matches, how much would the referee's error rate decrease?"

He put down the parchment, his gaze fixed intently on Cullen, his tone becoming serious and sincere: "Cullen, I have an idea and would like your approval. You know, I'm graduating next year and have already secured a position in the Department of Physical Education at the Ministry of Magic. I've always wanted to do something to promote fairness and technological innovation in Quidditch. This 'Eye of the Quidditch Record' you created is absolutely revolutionary! If it can operate reliably in the Hogwarts Cup, especially the finals, and demonstrate its value, it will be an extremely impressive project on my resume during my internship! I want to promote it! First, perfect it within Hogwarts, and then try to pilot it in the professional leagues! What do you think?"

A moment of silence fell over the activity room as everyone looked at Karen. Promotion? Professional league? This is a bit of a leap.

Karen was somewhat surprised, but he quickly regained his composure. Edgar Burns—he remembered the surname; it belonged to Susan Burns' family in the original story, a family with considerable influence in the Ministry of Magic, known for their integrity. Edgar himself, as student council president, had a good reputation and was capable. Promoting the technology and gaining access to a larger verification platform and greater influence would be beneficial for both the project and him personally.

"Brother Burns' idea is very forward-thinking," Karen said cautiously. "Technology rollout is an inevitable path for a project to mature. I'm very happy to see 'Record Eye' contribute to the development of Quidditch. However," he added, "the system still has many areas that need improvement. It's bulky, complex to operate, and the real-time data processing and display isn't intuitive enough. Its performance in inclement weather is also still unknown. We need to polish it to be reliable and user-friendly enough."

"Of course! This is the foundation!" Edgar nodded immediately. "I mean, during this period before the House Cup finals, everyone should work together to optimize it to its best state! We need to fully validate it in the relatively controlled environment of Hogwarts! As for its promotion to the professional leagues, that's a long-term goal, requiring more rigorous testing and approval from the Ministry of Magic. But the success of Hogwarts will be a crucial first step!" He looked at Professor Flitwick and the club members. "Moreover, the credit for its promotion belongs to everyone! The project will definitely be credited as 'Developed by the Hogwarts Charms Club,' and Cullen, as the core designer and project leader, will naturally be at the forefront!"

His statement was excellent; it acknowledged the collective contribution, highlighted Karen's central role, and clarified that he was a promoter, not a sham. The other upperclassmen smiled in agreement. After all, who wouldn't want their research recognized and promoted?

"In that case, I agree with Senior Burns' suggestion." Karen nodded, a smile on her face. "With Senior Burns in charge of promotion and coordination of external affairs, we can focus more on optimizing the technology itself. This is best for the project."

"Great!" Edgar clapped his hands excitedly. "Then it's a deal! Professor Flitwick, what do you think?"

Professor Flitwick stroked his mustache, his eyes crinkling into slits with a smile: "This is a huge affirmation of our club's research! I fully support it, of course! Kids, let's work harder to create the perfect 'Eye of Record' for the Academy Cup final!"

"No problem, Professor!" the crowd responded in unison, their enthusiasm high.

"Oh, right, Cullen," Edgar said, pointing to the uniformly colored blue dots representing players on the chart on the table, "I was thinking about this during our discussion earlier. The player markings aren't distinctive enough. Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff are both blue dots; distinguishing them by name tags is too difficult, and they're practically invisible at high speeds. Is there any way to give players from different houses different colors? For example, blue for Ravenclaw, red for Gryffindor, yellow for Hufflepuff, and green for Slytherin?"

"That's a good question!" Creon immediately chimed in. "I mentioned it before! Color differentiation is crucial for real-time displays!"

Karen thought for a moment: "Technically, it's feasible. We just need to add an academy information recognition module to the tracking core, and then assign different colors to the light spots of different academies in the projection and recording graph. The difficulty lies in how to quickly and accurately identify the academy to which a player belongs."

"The broom itself isn't marked 'Broom!'" Daisy, a Ravenclaw fourth-year student who hadn't said much until now and was skilled in alchemy and enchanting, suddenly interjected excitedly, "Why not attach a miniature 'signal transmitter' with the House identification rune to the end or handle of the players' brooms? It doesn't need to be very powerful, just enough to be recognized by the tracking core! This would not only solve the color problem but also improve tracking accuracy! Especially for capturing the broom's motion!" She became more and more excited as she spoke, "Think about it! If we could capture the precise motion data of the broom's sharp turns, dives, and sudden stops, it would be much more helpful in analyzing player skills and judging dangerous fouls! And didn't Karen say before that she wanted to study broom motion data?"

This proposal was like a pebble thrown into a calm lake, instantly creating even bigger ripples!

"Add a signal transmitter to the broom?" Richard's eyes lit up. "Brilliant! That way, the tracking target changes from the player themselves to a fixed signal source on the broom! The accuracy and stability will definitely improve dramatically!"

"And it can directly solve the problem of color differentiation in colleges!" Creon added.

"It can even expand the motion capture capabilities!" Benjamin exclaimed excitedly.

"But," Elena raised a concern, "wouldn't this require the consent of all Quidditch players and the House team? We also need to ensure that the launcher is lightweight and safe enough not to affect flight performance, and that it cannot be interfered with or exploited by the opponent."

All eyes were on Edgar Burns. As student council president, he was familiar with how to handle the transitions between the various house prefects, and he had just taken on the external coordination work regarding the Eye of the Quidditch record.

Edgar clearly understood this as well. He grinned, a confident "challenge makes it more exciting" kind of smile spreading across his face. "Leave it to me! Coordination and communication are my forte! I'll talk to the Quidditch captains of each house! I'll also contact Professor McGonagall, Professor Sprout, and Professor Snape. As long as we can prove that this thing is safe, effective, doesn't affect the fairness of the game, and can even improve the accuracy of the calls, I believe they'll support it! Especially," he winked mischievously, "if it could be used in the Slytherin and Gryffindor matches, I think at least Captain Wood would be 'interested,' but unfortunately their matches ended early this year." He was referring to the fierce competition and frequent foul controversies between the two teams.

A knowing laugh erupted in the activity room.

"Then it's settled!" Professor Flitwick smacked his hand happily. "Cullen, your technical team will focus all your efforts on optimizing the existing system and designing the broom signal transmitter! Burns, you'll be in charge of coordination, communication, and promotion! Everyone else, follow Cullen's previous assignments and perform your duties! Goal: The House Cup Finals! Let Hogwarts, let the wizarding world, see the results of our Charms Club!"

"Yes, Professor!" A spirited response echoed throughout the activity room.