Posted on 10/19/2008 9:00:44 AM PDT by dayglored
Microsoft has been awarded a patent for automatically censoring speech and other audio, by removing or obscuring "undesired words or phrases". Here's the abstract from the patent:
An input audio data stream comprising speech is processed by an automatic censoring filter in either a real-time mode, or a batch mode, producing censored speech that has been altered so that undesired words or phrases are either unintelligible or inaudible.The automatic censoring filter employs a lattice comprising either phonemes and/or words derived from phonemes for comparison against corresponding phonemes or words included in undesired speech data. If the probability that a phoneme or word in the input audio data stream matches a corresponding phoneme or word in the undesired speech data is greater than a probability threshold, the input audio data stream is altered so that the undesired word or a phrase comprising a plurality of such words is unintelligible or inaudible. The censored speech can either be stored or made available to an audience in real-time.
(Excerpt) Read more at patft.uspto.gov ...
But in another sense, it's radically different -- there's no "bleep" to tell you something has been censored.
I am deeply troubled that this is now an automated technology that can change the words that people are saying, in real time, without the intervention of a human being.
In a few years, this will be standard practice, and we will no longer be able to believe anything we hear even if it appears to be coming out of somebody's mouth.
I'm sure our New Messiah will find this tool useful....
Pings?
I’m sure that an Obama Administration will order many, many copies of these for all the new radio regulations...
Just in time for the Obama administration-maybe they won’t have to jail Rush after all.
Might be worth a libertarian ping...
AmSoc 8yp doubleplusgood.
Good one! Yeah, no more need for the memory hole... just change what the person said, to match the current "reality".
And the list of "undesired words and phrases" will include:
FREEDOM
LIBERTY
ORIGINAL INTENT
I would predict that conservative talk radio will indeed suffer from this. Political correctness will reign supreme...
The patent was filed in October 2004....??
The -application- for the patent was filed back then -- it takes years sometimes for a patent app to get approved and the patent awarded. You're right that Microsoft has been developing censorship software for years. This post is about the fact that it's now a patented technology that will make it out into the public in Microsoft's products (and licensees' products, presumably).
...the undesired speech is simply ... replaced with an acceptable word or phrase.The end of spoken truth.
Yahooosere? Sun Microsynapses. Applonium. McIntosheerstockings.
There, it works.
Well, Bill Gates is a member of Bilderberg...so, it fits in....
How long before freedom and liberty are bleeped?
Install this over at the Daily Kos, DU, Huffinton Post, etc. and it would eliminate 95% of what the Left has to say. Today’s Leftists would be incapable of expressing themselves if vulgarity was removed from the language.
Didn’t some Mormons do this for movies several years ago?
Yep, see comment #8. ;-)
Non-real-time censoring of movies has been around for a while.
This is real-time substitution of words in live broadcast speech.
No, it's more. The patent describes substituting "acceptable" words for the "undesirable" ones. And the whole point is to eliminate "bleeps" because they're considered disruptive. The idea is to have the listener NOT REALIZE IT'S BEEN CHANGED.
This would apply to any audio you listen to via a computing device, including modern radios. Certainly on your Windows computer (if you run Windows), or any other audio appliance that licenses this software.
I think that people would catch on after listening to three hours of silence....
True, but that same criticism has been offered over the years against many technologies that did in fact improve enough in time that they addressed the limitations, and became accepted (even required) parts of our daily experience.
I would bet that this technology is advancing quickly enough that the "censorship workarounds" you give as examples will be handled successfully within five years.
Besides, someone speaking for public consumption is not likely to use Pig Latin, intentional spoonerisms, etc. just to work around these filters, since it makes them sound silly to everyone else. Might work for online gaming, but not where one is addressing a wider audience.
Actually, it’s only a technical solution to what they do now. There is a show locally where the host swears and they just hit a delay button so you just skip the word. Sometimes you never even know it happens, depending on the context. They can already censor anything they don’t want broadcast.
Heh.
But remember that the filter can, as described, substitute other "acceptable words and phrases" -- there needn't be silence.
This technology can LITERALLY put words into Rush's mouth. Live, on the fly.
My DVD player does this now - it just reads the closed caption text and removes specific words. Unfortunately it removes a few words before and after the offending word so a complete sentence can be missed. It’s a great feature for watching a movie with the 10 year old when only the language is an issue. Why Hollywood doesn’t include a clean version of the movie on the DVD is a mystery to me.
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
True, but replacing the human being censor with a computer censor means much wider usage -- no salary paid to a real person. This permits deployment of censorship INTO YOUR HOME, programmable from some central software-update service (could be Microsoft, the US government, whatever) that determines what it wants you to hear.
This is not just another way of "bleeping". This is a way to change everything you hear to match that which you are supposed to hear.
(Damn! Where'd I put my tinfoil hat...?)
But seriously, this takes it to a whole other level.
HA! Good one!
This only works at the events. They haven't gotten it in place when he is talking to people directly. As a result, Joe the Plumber got the real answer that Barack said rather than the censored answer The Party would have approved.
Nor, btw, did I mention regionalisms and dialects as being incomprehensible to these wannabee ''filters''. I had occasion about 6 years ago to be a test subject for a machine comprehension project. Now, I'm half-Scots by birth, so I took my 'burr' out of storage for the machine's benefit...er, so to speak.
It couldna tol ae wird Ah spoke. (And this spelling doesn't **nearly** do justice to the pronunciation). Didn't know whether to shjt or reboot.
Dinna fash yersel', laddie. Ye've naught te fear froom sooch as these. I daresay the machine would have had similar problems with a good nasal Longuyisland dialect, too.
And there are lots of those!
Ah, so. That explains those awkward pauses... he's actually talking about how wonderful American Socialism ("AmSoc", see comment #6) will be, but he's not supposed to say that until after Jan 20.
> This only works at the events. They haven't gotten it in place when he is talking to people directly. As a result, Joe the Plumber got the real answer that Barack said rather than the censored answer The Party would have approved.
Give 'em a few months, they'll have that down too.
I alway knew Bill Gates was on the dark side.
Obama is a muslim will automatically be deleted. In fact, anything negative about the chosen one will be deleted. They’re coming folks!
Well, yes -- your point is well-made -- dialect will always be a challenge to automated filters.
The trick will be: how far can one deviate from "standard English pronunciation" (to circumvent the filters) and still remain comprehensible to the bulk of the intended audience.
At the larger philosophical level of this issue, it's really a co-evolution. Like the moth and bat, or armor and armor-piercing ammo, every attempt to inflict damage will be met with better devices to avoid damage, which in turn will be challenged with more powerful weapons to inflict damage, and so ad infinitum.
I can see the Obama crowd employing this technology on the airwaves censoring words like liberty, excess taxation, socialism, conservatism, spreading the wealth, income redistribution etc. I’m sure the Chinese government will find this technology equally as useful.
Techies quick, bureaucrats slow.
If I understand the concern correctly, the fear is that this technology would be used to say change the words spoken on his show as Rush Limbaugh conducts a broadcast. IMHO, there is almost NO WAY this can work effectively and undetected by the listener. First, you would have to replicate his voice, which while not impossible, would be quite a chore to do for all his callers on the fly. Second, trying to edit speech effectively and substitute words without losing the pace, pitch, ambient noise and studio timbre, and emphasis of the sentence is not easy. What would happen if he makes a comment over a caller’s voice while the other person is speaking? How does the technology match the tonal quality and sound levels of both voices? I think in short order people would be able to ferret out when censorship has taken place.
My granddaughter got a new phone on Thursday evening. Among other things, when you get a text message, the phone will “read” the message to you in audible voice if you select that feature. At that point, it’s just one small step to have software which EDITS messages and renders them POLITICALLY CORRECT.
Language adapts **FAR** faster than programmers can develop improvements to cognition software. I believe this curve will even steepen in future.
One thing for certain: we're going to see an exponential expansion of abbreviations and acronyms, some of which will be entirely context-sensitive...and thus require even higher levels of capability for machine recognition and cognition. We're nowhere -- NOWHERE -- near that sort of capability now. The ultimate preventive of ''master censorship'' software for the spoken word is context-sensitivity. Another poster in this thread made fun of this very point with the ''tufted titmouse and cockatoo'' post.
Techies quick, bureaucrats slow.
How much did Barry Pay off Gates for this?
They both need to burn in Hell forever.
I wonder how this software will deal with the word “niggardly”?
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