What Do Naked Children and Breast Cancer Have in Common?

[Eric Cordian]

No sooner has Peacefire put the final nails in the coffin of BAIR, an
alleged AI application that purports to recognize porn,

http://peacefire.org/censorware/BAIR/first-report.6-6-2000.html

than we get this entry from the land of Ireland, which claims to do
something similar.

http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2001/09/09/stiireire01015.html

As readers of this mailing list are aware, most pornography recognition
software can't tell the difference between group sex and an autographed
picture of Babe the Pig.

Nonetheless, this story makes some amazing claims, amongst them...

o  That the software was originally developed for breast cancer detection. 

o  That the software can recognize child porn through encryption codes
   and detect child porn hidden in otherwise inaccessible files. 

It would be amusing if this program could be tested by an objective
researcher, and the results reported.

I smell snake oil.

-----
   
Dublin team cracks child porn code
Lynne Kelleher 
                                                                         
A COMPUTER program invented to detect breast cancer will now be used by
gardai to prosecute paedophiles using child pornography websites.
   
Two Dublin biologists developed the tracking device, which can detect
pornographic images hidden behind computer code or in otherwise
inaccessible files. The technology was first created to identify breast
cancer in tissue images.
   
The inventors, Dr Dara FitzGerald and Dr Donal O'Shea, were first asked by
gardai for help in tracing pornographic images on computers. British
police and America's Federal Bureau of Investigation have examined the
system and are planning to use it in their child sex abuse units.
   
PixAlert Enforcer, launched last June, finds online pornography by
searching for human skin in computer images. After police impound a
suspect's computer, they run the program and it searches all the files in
a few hours, a task that once took several days.
   
While this program will cost police forces IR£7,500, two cheaper versions
are also available for the commercial market. PixAlert Auditor, costing
£125 per computer, is being targeted at the corporate sector, government
departments, schools and libraries. PixAlert Monitor, priced at £60, is
for discreet monitoring of home PCs by parents.
   
"We worked on breast cancer, BSE and tuberculosis," said FitzGerald. "It
was a very big and very expensive undertaking. People also come to us all
the time looking for solutions to their problems and the gardai were
looking for a computer program to access these images.
   
"We used the high-tech knowledge used in the diagnosis of breast cancer
for this program. Gardai told us there were so many images and files to
search for child pornography, and it was a very onerous job."
   
Employers are also becoming more concerned about workers downloading
pornographic images on their computers, FitzGerald said. "We think the
application will work in the workplace. Pornography on computers in
becoming a big problem for employers," he said.
   
A garda spokesman confirmed that the force is using the device with a view
to purchasing it. "We are very happy with the product," he said. Gardai
have been testing the system for nine months and have been working closely
with the two scientists, making improvements to the program.
   
British police have been testing PixAlert Enforcer for the past month. The
inventors have consulted 29 police departments across Britain. Tony
Gibbons, a director of BioObservation Systems, met the FBI last April.
   
Muireann O Briain, director of End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism,
said she hoped police worldwide would be able to use this system to find
images otherwise impossible to trace on a computer.
   
"Paedophiles can put all sorts of encryption codes on their computer or
use other means to try and hide the images," said O Briain, a Dubliner who
is based in Thailand. "This is a great development. We still don't know
the full extent of the abuse of children whose pictures are on the net.
   
"An English police operation against paedophiles known as the Wonderland
Club came across these problems. To become a member of this club you had
to have at least 10,000 images. Every one of them showed a child in a
pornographic pose. More than 750,000 pornographic images were seized in
that first raid on more than 100 homes worldwide in September 1998. One of
the seven men who committed suicide had such sophisticated encryption
codes on his computer that police would never have been able to access the
images."

-- 
Eric Michael Cordian 0+
O:.T:.O:. Mathematical Munitions Division
"Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law"