Apple's new patent helps censor explicit language
It seems that Apple is starting to have a problem with vulgarities. The IT giant has recently patented a technology which allows it to easily identify and remove or replace explicit language from audio files. At the moment, none of the company's devices are capable of using this kind of technology, but now that it's registered, it is very likely that future iPhones and iPads will be able to filter out the dirty words from songs and audio books.
Called "Management, Replacement and Removal of Explicit Lyrics during Audio Playback", this technology allows Apple to identify foul language and replace it with the classical bleep, silence or a different audio bit. The algorithm is based on the file's metadata, allowing the company to easily find the parts that contain the undesirable words and then censor them. Hopefully, if this technology gets implemented in Apple's future devices, it will be optional and not mandatory or no hip-hop fans will use an iPhone ever again.
Up until know, if Apple identified explicit language in an audio file, it would have either asked the author to create a clean version or simply marked it as explicit and avoided it. Now, the company has the technology to simply let the clean parts intact and only modify the vulgar fragments. Since, as far as I know, Beats 1 only plays "clean" songs, this patent will allow Apple's radio station to play more songs by simply censoring any "bad words". Additionally, this technology is capable of providing real-time analysis and screening of the audio content, so it could be successfully implemented in real-time transmissions that are delayed with 5-10 seconds (just like a lot of TV stations do in live broadcasts).
In case you own an iOS-powered device, you might also enjoy reading some of our previous stories such as: "What to do when the browser on your iOS device gets hijacked" or "How to make a video recording of your iPhone's screen".
