I feel myself in a serious moral bind when it comes to porn-blocking software, but here we go. The “problem” with image-based filters is that they get a lot of false positives. But porn moans? There’s no confusing those.
Unless you’re browsing videos of someone falling off a cliff, the screams of OH MY GOD OH MY GOD YAAAAAAAAA are porno sounds, through and through. Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology have a fresh new algorithm to isolate porno yelps, which they figured out are higher pitched and more repetitive than anything else – think about it. It’s accurate 94 per cent of the time – although it does get snagged on ecstatic audience applause from time to time (if you watched Oprah and closed your eyes, you’d probably think you were listening to an orgy scene).
Still. Keep this thing away from my computer. [New Scientist]