novelsite Chapter 20 Bulletproof glass is not as hard as steel.
Chapter 20 Bulletproof glass is not as hard as steel.
"The third layer: Windows protection—no, I'm going to completely overturn this concept."
Wang Zhengyang's voice echoed in the empty carriage. His fingers swiped rapidly across the tablet, erasing the original complex multi-layered bulletproof glass design.
Chen Yishang and Lin Luoer were both stunned.
"Dr. Wang, you mean..." Chen Yishang looked at the screen in confusion, "We're not going to use bulletproof glass? How will the driver observe the outside world then?"
"Approve this." Wang Zhengyang pulled up the new design scheme.
On the screen, the area in front of the driver's cab is completely filled—not with glass, but with a 60mm thick composite armor plate that is fully integrated with the surrounding armor. The regularly distributed circular protrusions and thin slits on the steel-gray surface look like the interfaces of some kind of precision equipment.
"In extreme environments, any transparent material is a weakness." Wang Zhengyang's voice was calm to the point of being cold. "Even the most advanced bulletproof glass will eventually fail in the face of continuous shooting, explosive impacts, and extreme temperature changes. Not to mention long-term problems such as acid rain corrosion and sand and dust abrasion."
He zoomed in on the structures on the armor plating: "These aren't windows, but sensor array mounting bases. We don't have any visual windows in the cockpit—all external observation is done electronically."
"First, the external sensor array." Wang Zhengyang showed the sensor layout diagrams of various parts of the vehicle.
驾驶室正前方装甲板上，三个不同尺寸的圆形接口呈品字形排列。「顶部是主光学观察模块：一台2000万像素的高清摄像头，传感器尺寸1英寸，配备6片4片ED镜片的25-150mm电动变焦镜头。但它不止是摄像头——」
He pulled up the module's technical parameters: "Integrated multi-layer coating, 92% light transmittance; built-in heating and defogging device; oleophobic and hydrophobic coating on the lens surface. Most importantly, it operates in three bands: visible light, near-infrared (850nm), and thermal imaging (8-14μm). In other words, one module can achieve three modes: daytime observation, night vision, and thermal imaging."
"The middle one is the laser radar module." Wang Zhengyang pointed to the second interface, "It's a 32-line rotating laser radar with a ranging range of 300 meters, an accuracy of ±2 centimeters, and a scanning frequency of 20Hz. It constructs a real-time 3D point cloud of the vehicle's external environment for obstacle detection, terrain analysis, and automatic navigation."
"Below is the millimeter-wave radar module." The third interface is enlarged: "77GHz frequency-modulated continuous wave radar, with a detection range of 250 meters, can track 32 targets simultaneously. Its advantages are strong penetration, stable operation in adverse weather conditions such as rain, snow, fog, and dust, and it is unaffected by light conditions."
Lin Luo'er calculated softly: "These three modules... cover almost all sensory needs."
"Not enough." Wang Zhengyang expanded the view to the entire vehicle.
Four spherical devices appear at the front edge of the roof. "These are panoramic monitoring cameras, each with a 200-degree ultra-wide angle, stitched together to achieve a 360-degree surround view without blind spots. They employ a fisheye lens distortion correction algorithm to output seamless panoramic images."
On both sides of the train, there is a small sensor node every three meters. "Side observation point: a simplified combination of camera and laser rangefinder, specifically for monitoring close-range situations on both sides of the train to prevent attacks or climbing."
The rear of the vehicle also features a main sensor array symmetrical to that at the front. "The front and rear sensing capabilities are completely consistent, eliminating the need to turn around when reversing."
Finally, there's the undercarriage. "The chassis is equipped with 12 wide-angle cameras and multiple ultrasonic sensors to monitor the condition of the tracks, potholes in the road surface, and any explosives or obstacles that may be placed on the tracks in real time."
Looking at the densely packed sensor array, Chen Yishang's breathing quickened: "How... how many video signals are there? How are we going to process them? How are we going to display them?"
"This is the core: the panoramic fusion display system." Wang Zhengyang pulled up a rendering of the driver's cabin.
The original window placement has been replaced by a single, slightly curved black screen that extends from the left A-pillar to the right A-pillar, almost completely covering the forward field of vision. Below the screen is the driver's console, and above it are two smaller auxiliary displays.
"The main display screen measures 3.2 meters wide and 1.1 meters high, with a curvature radius of 4 meters," Wang Zhengyang announced. "It uses Mini-LED backlighting technology, with a peak brightness of 2000 nits, ensuring clear visibility even in sunlight. The resolution is 7680×2160, which is equivalent to two 4K displays horizontally spliced together."
He played a simulation demonstration video.
The screen lit up, but it didn't display a simple camera feed. The scene ahead unfolded with near-perfect perspective—the railway tracks stretched into the distance, the scenery on either side receded naturally, and the sky was above. The image was clear, the colors accurate, and there was no lag.
"This isn't footage from a single camera," Wang Zhengyang explained. "It's a seamless panoramic image generated from multiple video streams after real-time stitching, distortion correction, color matching, and perspective transformation. Simply put—"
He switched to a technical diagram: "The main front camera provides a high-resolution central field of view; the side cameras supplement the peripheral field of view; all images are fused in real time by a graphics processor to generate a continuous image equivalent to a 140-degree field of view for human eyes. Moreover, because the cameras are positioned higher than human eyes, the actual field of view is wider than looking directly through a window."
Chen Yishang leaned closer for a closer look: "This...this has almost no distortion, and you can't see any signs of splicing. How did you do that?"
"Customized image processing algorithms," Wang Zhengyang briefly mentioned, without mentioning that these algorithms came from the technological accumulation of the next decade. "The processor uses a dual NVIDIA Orin platform with a computing power of 500 TOPS, specifically designed for real-time video processing and computer vision. Each video input has an independent timestamp and pose information, and the fusion algorithm performs pixel-level alignment."
Lin Luo'er noticed a detail: "Those semi-transparent data and icons at the edge of the screen..."
"Augmented reality overlay." Wang Zhengyang nodded. "The system will overlay various information onto the real-time screen: navigation path, obstacle warnings, threat markers, environmental parameters (temperature, radiation, chemical pollution), and vehicle status data. All information can be customized to be displayed or hidden."
He demonstrated several scenarios:
Night mode: The screen switches to thermal imaging, objects at different temperatures are displayed in pseudo-color, and live targets are marked with a red box.
Severe Weather Mode: Laser point clouds are merged with visual images to reveal the terrain outline ahead through dense fog.
Threat Warning Mode: When the millimeter-wave radar detects a rapidly approaching object, a red tracking box and the estimated impact time will appear on the screen.
"And this isn't a single-screen system," Wang Zhengyang pointed to other areas of the driver's cab.
There is an identical display screen in front of the passenger seat, and the content displayed can be set independently. On the armrests of both the driver's and commander's seats, there is a 10-inch touchscreen that can access individual camera feeds or display sensor data, maps, and system status.
There is also a rear-facing display screen on the roof, which displays the view from the rear camera, making it convenient to reverse or observe the situation behind.
"Here's the problem." Chen Yishang, being an engineer, immediately realized the key point: "What if such a complex electronic system breaks down? Electronic equipment is the first thing to fail in war."
"Triple redundancy design." Wang Zhengyang was prepared and pulled up the system architecture diagram.
"First layer: sensor redundancy." He marked each key sensing direction, "There are three independent main sensor groups directly in front: three high-definition cameras (different brands, different principles), two laser radars, and two millimeter-wave radars. Even if half of them are damaged, the system can still work."
"Second layer: processor redundancy." The screen shows three side-by-side chassis. "The main processor has dual-path backup, and the backup processor uses a completely different architecture (ARM+FPGA). All three systems simultaneously receive data from all sensors and determine the output result through a voting algorithm. If any system fails, it is immediately isolated without affecting overall operation."
"The third layer: display redundancy." Wang Zhengyang pointed to the large screen. "It is actually made up of 12 independent display modules, each with its own driver and power supply. Even if 30% of the modules fail, the rest can still form a complete picture, only with reduced resolution."
He paused, then stated the most crucial design element: "Moreover, we retained the final contingency plan—the mechanical observation device."
The scene shifts to details of the armor plate. Below and to the side of the sensor array, there are several inconspicuous manual operating devices.
"Here," Wang Zhengyang zoomed in on a structure, "a periscope-style mechanical observation scope. Normally stored inside the armor, it's completely sealed. In an emergency, the driver pulls a lever, and a set of high-precision optical prisms rises from inside the armor plate, passing through 60 millimeters of armor to form a small observation window in the driver's cab."
He demonstrated the working principle diagram: "The light path undergoes three reflections, and what the observer actually sees is the scene outside the car. Because the light path is completely closed, and the prism is a single piece of optical glass, it does not have the fragility of traditional windows. The disadvantage is that the field of view is extremely small—only 20 degrees, and the resolution is also limited, but it is sufficient to judge the general situation and take emergency actions."
"In an even more extreme scenario," Wang Zhengyang pulled up the last plan, "if all the electronic systems and mechanical observation scopes fail, we still have this—"
Beneath the armor plate, a cylindrical structure slowly emerges. "A retractable gunner's sight—this is a design concept from World War II tanks. A metal tube rises from a pre-drilled hole in the armor plate, with a small prism protected by bulletproof glass at the top. The driver observes through an eyepiece at the bottom. Although exposed and easily damaged, it is the last 'eye'."
Lin Luo'er said softly, "From the most advanced panoramic electronic vision to mechanical periscopes, and then to the simplest artillery scopes... this is a progressive backup."
"In extreme environments, any single point of failure can be fatal." Wang Zhengyang turned off the tablet. "So when we design systems, we don't consider 'what if it works,' but rather 'what do we have left if it doesn't work.'"
"Of course, I also have mechanical abilities," Wang Zhengyang thought to himself. "With me here, I can certainly guarantee that electronic devices will always be in good working order."