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Chatroulette Working On Genital Recognition Algorithm

Posted by samzenpus on from the image-recognition-is-a-hairy-problem dept.

Show them while you can, Internet exhibitionists. Chatroulette is working on image-recognition software that will filter out shots of male genitalia. The website's founder, Andrey Ternovskiy, hopes that blocking the offending members will help clean up Chatroulette's reputation. He's even enlisted the help of Napster founder Shawn Fanning. I wonder if someone has told Andrey how well it went for Napster?

39 of 364 comments (clear)

  1. but...but... by Pojut · · Score: 4, Funny

    What if I have a bisected penis, you insensitive clod?!?!? Or maybe just some really flashy jewelry...

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    Living With a Nerd
    1. Re:but...but... by Jeng · · Score: 4, Funny

      But what if you look like Peter Griffin?

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    2. Re:but...but... by DamienRBlack · · Score: 4, Funny

      You know, when it said "Genital Recognition Algorithm" I though they meant something like facial recognition, where it would be able to identify someone for security purposes using their genitals. I guess that would get rid of the "anyone can get a picture of your face" problem.

  2. If they really want to be popular by spleen_blender · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They should make an algorithm that filters IN tits.

    1. Re:If they really want to be popular by bertoelcon · · Score: 3, Funny

      Well if they take out the penises all that will be left is tits, pussy, ass, faces, signs, and fake webcam drivers.

      --
      Anything can be found funny, from a certain point of view.
  3. Priorities by Ltap · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Chatroulette is working on image-recognition software that will filter out shots of male genitalia.

    I guess we know where their priorities lie...

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    1. Re:Priorities by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      There's actually a pretty decent amount of it, albeit a small fraction of the amount of male genitalia. Strangely enough though, it has not drawn a proportionate number of complaints.

  4. Seriously by name_already_taken · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I thought that was what Chatroulette was for.

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    1. Re:Seriously by rwa2 · · Score: 3, Funny

      A friend of mine's description of Chatroulette:

      "How many clicks to dick?"

  5. So... the only problem is the penis? by jfengel · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The way I read this, it says, "ChatRoulette is a great idea. The only problem is that there's too much penis. Get rid of that and it'll be fine."

    Uh, no. Trolls will troll. Showing your junk to the camera is the easiest and most obvious way, but even if you cut that out you'll just face the next thing down the pike. You're never going to out-grief the trolls.

    They're going to need something a lot more sophisticated than that. Google's Safe Search uses word context clues. It's far from perfect, but it seems to do a reasonably good job. If ChatRoulette doesn't want to be overrun with trolls, they're going to need to think at least that creatively, which means gathering up a lot more information than "that looks like teh peener".

    1. Re:So... the only problem is the penis? by maxwell+demon · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Don't forget that trolls are also humans, and therefore also have a certain intelligence. If they know that their first chat is a troll test, they will not troll until they get to the real chat.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    2. Re:So... the only problem is the penis? by albedoa · · Score: 3, Funny

      That analogy would validate if, when faced with seat belts and airbags, the cause of car crashes evolved.

    3. Re:So... the only problem is the penis? by Merls+the+Sneaky · · Score: 5, Interesting

      What they need is a rating system, like /. The trolls still troll, but the amount of people exposed to the troll is greatly reduced and it ruins most of their fun. Sure they can continue to use it, but you could redirect them to other random trolls. That way all the trolls get to look at each others cocks, and people who aren't that interested in cock will get to the people they want to interact with faster.

  6. What? by SnugglesTheBear · · Score: 5, Funny

    I thought the whole point of chatroulette was a gamble between seeing an actual person or just a dude jacking off.

    --
    Would you hug a bear?
  7. Really... by doctor_nation · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't understand why they don't have a simple voting system. If a user does something bad or obscene, vote them down. Then match the poorly rated people with each other. Or just have an obscenity button and if a person triggers it multiple times they get kicked off.

    1. Re:Really... by joggle · · Score: 3, Informative

      Actually, it works pretty well for slashdot. Have you looked at other, non-moderated forums such as at newspaper websites? It seems at least half the posts there are trolls.

    2. Re:Really... by Cyberllama · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Show Tits or I vote you down.

  8. Blatant Sexism by damn_registrars · · Score: 4, Funny

    Chatroulette is working on image-recognition software that will filter out shots of male genitalia.

    So women can show their hoo-ha, but I can't show my ting-ting? Where's the ACLU on this one?

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    1. Re:Blatant Sexism by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 5, Funny

      So women can show their hoo-ha, but I can't show my ting-ting? Where's the ACLU on this one?

      They moved on to the third grade.

      --
      No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
  9. Whatever. by garcia · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Chatroulette has long featured the rawest side of humanity -- copulating couples, men taking their pants off, and so on. But it also allows for a potentially rewarding (and potentially lucrative) random human connection, and that's what interests investors.

    While for me Chatroulette was nothing more than a one-time novelty and an interesting experiment by Ben Folds, I understand it may have a larger value to others. Unfortunately this sounds like Chatroulette is suddenly going to suck the same dicks they are eliminating because someone wants to make a buck.

    Let it continue on in the way it has or let it die. Let's stop bastardizing stuff because a bunch of investors don't like others seeing the raging members sticking out from their foreheads.

    1. Re:Whatever. by citylivin · · Score: 5, Informative

      "While for me Chatroulette was nothing more than a one-time novelty and an interesting experiment by Ben Folds"

      Well I don't know who "ben folds" is, but chatroulette was started by a russian teen programmer named Andrey Ternovskiy, who had positive experiences meeting people of other cultures in his uncles(?) Moscow based tourist shop. He tried to recreate this on the web. His vision was random people in the world having video chats to each other, to share knowledge and experience.

      There was a whole newyorker article on chatroulette. I am not surprised that he is trying to monetize it, as he is young and had alot of interest stateside (as to be expected with any viral hit web 2.0 application).

      Just because it was a novelty *For You*, does not mean that you get to attribute your, shall we say "wild guesses" to the motivations and ideals behind the site. They discuss cocks and stuff in the new yorker article and it seemed to me that he was planning some sort of filtering to make it more usable. You are always going to get trolls if you have a purely anonymous fourm. Fighting trolls on the internet is a skill one has to acquire and adapt. This is what he seems to be doing, in a slightly comedic but genuinely interesting way. He seems like a bright kid, so i wouldnt write him off as a one hit wonder yet.

      "Let it continue on in the way it has or let it die. Let's stop bastardizing stuff because a bunch of investors don't like others seeing the raging members"

      You seem to be under the mistaken impression that chatroulette was designed to display cocks. Raging members might be what your biases have led you to focus on, but it was never "the way" of the site, any more than slashdots way is penis birds or gnaa trolls. Perhaps if you actually read a bit more about the topic before commenting, you wouldn't be so mistaken in your key assumptions. (you must be old here, mr 4 digit userid!)

      --
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  10. escalation by Black+Parrot · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This will just result in games where people try to post non-genital pics that get filtered and genital pics that don't.

    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  11. How about a face recognision algorithm instead? by 91degrees · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Faces are a much better understood problem. And since all most of the users want is to see people face to face refusing to show the image (or at least providing a warning) if no face is present would be a much easier solution.

    1. Re:How about a face recognision algorithm instead? by Issarlk · · Score: 5, Funny

      Awesome! That would lead to an hilarious wave of penises wearing Groucho glasses.

  12. Re:"View picture"? by cayenne8 · · Score: 4, Insightful
    As long as they don't use this to keep BREASTS from being shown!??!?

    Female, that is.....

    --
    Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  13. Re:GREAT IDEA! by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 4, Informative

    You're never going to out-grief the trolls.

    Woah - hold up a second. Thats a great idea. No you see what they are trying is not to grief the trolls, but keep them out of the system. The idea of outgriefing a troll is an excellent idea, it should be taken to the next step.

    Instead of disconnecting or dropping a user that shows his penis, instead flood his browser with tons of gay porn and goatse. Then, cause a whole bunch of message box popups that he can't get out of without killing the browser process.

    And thats just an idea off the top of my head. I think if you put more thought into it, you could find some great ways to out-grief the trolls.

  14. This sounds like the worst job ever... by hajihill · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm going out on a bit of a limb here, so bear with me if you wood...

    But seriously, figuring out an algorithm to ID wangs; sounds like those developers are going to be eyebrow deep in junk for a while. That's a job, much like plumbing, that I can appreciate for the value of the product, but can't fathom the drive to devote oneself to.

    --
    Of blankness, I know nothing.
  15. What by jsegal205 · · Score: 5, Funny

    about all those times I am sitting on ChatRoulette eating hotdogs?

  16. Members' members... by stakovahflow · · Score: 3, Funny

    It looks like the line that reads:
    "...hopes that blocking the offending members will help clean up Chatroulette's reputation."
    should read:
    "...hopes that blocking the offending members' members will help clean up Chatroulette's reputation."

    Just my $0.02...

    --Stak

    --
    Holy happy hippy crap!
  17. I never thought I'd say "thanks for the... by arc86 · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...cockblock"

  18. False Positives? by mojo17 · · Score: 3, Funny

    It'll be interesting when they start getting false positives: "Sorry dude, but you actually DO look like a dick."

  19. What? by guspasho · · Score: 4, Funny

    "I wonder if someone has told Andrey how well it went for Napster?"

    I didn't realize that Napster's failure was due to its single-minded focus on creating a genital recognition system.

  20. Do you want to play a game? by TiggertheMad · · Score: 5, Funny

    I thought the whole point of chatroulette was a gamble between seeing an actual person or just a dude jacking off.

    Like global thermonuclear war, "The only way to win is not to play".

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    1. Re:Do you want to play a game? by Minwee · · Score: 4, Funny

      "The only way to win is not to play"

      ...with yourself.

  21. Re:Suddenly... by John+Hasler · · Score: 5, Insightful

    > ...you could just link those users to a video/chatbot that laughs at them.

    Just link them to each other.

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  22. Re:Suddenly... by Altus · · Score: 4, Funny

    Isn't that pretty much how it works now?

    --

    "In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson

  23. Re:Suddenly... by AvitarX · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Doubtful,

    It's not that there is a huge quantity of wang, it is simply that the secret wankers are nexted very quickly.

    My 20 minute conversation pulls a random aussie out of rotation for over 100 times as long as I pull a secret wanker out of the running (ten seconds tops if the screen loads slowly).

    This leads to the secret wankers being very over-represented. If 1/3 of the shots are wankers, that's about .3% being wankers.

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  24. this is an extremely difficult problem by Michael+Kristopeit · · Score: 3, Interesting

    i did a general pornography detection filter as a final project in an image processing class my senior year of undergraduate college... their best hope is around 90% detection with ~15% false positives. for the applications i was shooting for, that wasn't acceptable... for chatroulette, it might be, but even at 95% you're still getting 1/20th of the dicks. if most people on the network are dicks, that might still mean getting a dick almost every time. might as well just start selling boner pills and embrace your market rather than attempt to squash it.

  25. Re:"View picture"? by DurendalMac · · Score: 3, Funny

    I've only seen real, live boobies once on Chatroulette, and I'm not even sure they were human. Looked more like a friggin' whale. She got upset when I asked her to do the truffle shuffle.