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Chatroulette Working On Genital Recognition Algorithm

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?

14 of 364 comments (clear)

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

    They should make an algorithm that filters IN tits.

  2. 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 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.

  3. 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.

    --
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  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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
  7. 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.
  8. What by jsegal205 · · Score: 5, Funny

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

  9. I never thought I'd say "thanks for the... by arc86 · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...cockblock"

  10. 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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    HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
  11. 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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    Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
  12. 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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