What next, talk about political correctness.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081020-microsoft-gets-patent-for-real-time-f-bomb-bleeping.html

Back in 2004 Microsoft applied for a patent for real-time censoring of audio streams, and now the USPTO has granted that patent.

As PC gamers have known for a long time, and Xbox gamers have known for a while, playing against other humans online is a much more enjoyable experience than beating a computer. Thanks to the advent of teamspeak, you can game with others as if they were in your living room, without having to worry about them knocking their drinks over and staining the carpet. However, the somewhat anonymous nature of the internet means you also encounter individuals who lack the sort of internal filter that prevents most of us from blurting out streams of profanity that would make Mr. Tourette blush.

More often than not, the profanasaurus on the other end of the mike is a schoolboy still at the age where yelling random insults at strangers seems amusing, but it only takes one moron to spoil a good time. The patent involves real-time (or batch) analysis of an audio stream that can recognize inappropriate language based on phonemes, and then overwrite objectionable words with bleeps, other noises, or silence.

But online gaming isn't the only area where this technology could show up. TV networks, fearing hefty FCC fines, would be able to broadcast live without fear of exposing the sheltered ears of their audience to a (possibly life altering) outburst or expletive. No more seven-second delay with an editor's finger hovering over the bleep button, no more being raked over the coals by the Parents Television Council, no more f***s, s***s, or m************* c********* slipping into the next award show.

I can also envisage a more sinister role, however, regardless of one's opinion on whether or not those seven words ought to be allowed to be said on television. Imagine the same system applied to digital telephony, then think how valuable such a system might be to an authoritarian regime. As we've seen to good effect in Burma and elsewhere, the ubiquity of cell phones has been a good thing for dissidents who need to get their message out or organize themselves. The Great Firewall of China already blocks objectionable web content from reaching Chinese computers; what's to stop cell phones from censoring anti-government conversations too?

Sounds like a great idea. It would be awesome if they used this as an option that you could enable.

The whole cell phones censoring anti-government conversations things is a bunch of crap. They can already listen in whenever they want on cell phones so trying to plan anything confidential with a cell phone is retarded. If they wanted they could just let you talk and then arrest you by using your cell conversation as evidence, and gps/tower information to find you.

If you want to do something like that, you better take your battery out of your cell, or leave it in another room.

im sure parents would love that feature added to the parental controls for xbl

...and Halo wasn't the same ever again.

sounds like a great idea!!

as long as the user has the option to turn this on or off i'm for anything that provides more functionality. and let's face it...no one likes that kid with the potty mouth.

sometimes they can be quite amusing

Oh really? NSFW maybe:

lmao when did rosie o donnell get so funny

Yeah if the option is there to turn it on or off maybe.

But then the kids will be able to bypass it probably.

So then you defeat the purpose if you know what I mean.

^^The purpose is to make it more enjoyable for yourself, not as a parental control. I think it's great!