MS to ban freedom of speech?
Tech for changing rude words into Shakespeare
Microsoft has come over all PC - gedddit?!?!? - by filing a patent application for technology that’ll stop you from swearing online.
In its “Automatic censorship of audio data for broadcast” patent application, the firm describes how a real-time or batch-mode automatic censor could be employed to filter out “undesired words or phrases”.
MS' PC filter at work?
Exactly which products could make use of Microsoft's PC-tech hasn't been mentioned, but it’s reasonable to assume that Xbox Live could be one of the software giant’s primary targets.
Microsoft stated that if, say, a gamer’s words are likely to match those listed in its library of undesirable speech, the input audio data stream will be altered so that the offending word or phrase is made “unintelligible or inaudible”. The application also mentions automatic replacement of undesired words with acceptable words or phrases.
Based on the description, it sounds like the technology will either change your portrayal of a rival gamer as a 'd**k-faced, motherf***er' to a 'Richard, who was nice to his mum', or just bleep it out altogether.
Unfortunately, Microsoft hasn’t listed a top ten of its most offensive words. But 'red', 'ring', 'of' and 'death' must be quite high up the list.
COMMENTS
Seriously?
How fucked up does a company have to be to try and patent something like that. And for a government to allow a company to rule out freedom of speech over their devises? what's next, M$ makes a phone and two people are having a heated conversation over it and for the most part all they will hear is beep beep beep you beep coward. I would rather be back in the stone age if this is what technology is coming to.
haven't we already had an article on this?
Enquiring minds want to know
Is this the same Microsoft...
...whose foul-mouthed Santa chat robot had to be withdrawn...?
--Paris, parce que...
Well at least the swearing
may get a little more inventive.
Most of the swear words are four letter Saxon words, so with that in mind, and the general acceptance of zut alors as being ok, I think this anti swearing thing is actually racism and a hate crime through le derriere.
Too long have the Saxons been under the yoke of the Normans, and whilst most have been bred out of the or into the country, just like China in Tibet, we should perhaps explore the possibility of bringing back the Saxon language and stop the persecution.
