China's 'mind-reading' porn detection cap takes censorship to new levels

pcgamer.com:

Researchers in China have come up with a new and elaborate way to detect porn for the purpose of censorship. The helmet-like device can detect spikes in human brainwave patters when the watcher is presented with pornographic imagery.

Porn has been illegal in China since the People's Republic was formed in 1949, so censorship is a pretty big player over there, if you weren't aware already. AI bots have, for some time, been set loose on the web in a bid to detect and flag any indecent imagery found. 'Porn appraisers,' or jian huang shi, the majority of whom are women,are also in position to help catch what the AI misses, but a lot of things still slip through these barriers and filter out to the porn-starved general public.

As such, China isn't satisfied with its current censorship tactics. That's according to Interesting Engineering(opens in new tab), which brought the South China Morning Post(opens in new tab) article to our attention (via Hackaday(opens in new tab)).

In order to improve and automate the censorship that is already going on, Beijing Jiaotong University researchers developed the 'mind-reading' helmet, which looks more like a shower cap covered in wires, to maximise the efficiency of it's current efforts. It's able to detect pornographic imagery with high accuracy, and is even able to filter through potentially detracting brain waves caused by emotional states, low energy levels, and random thoughts.

The research participants consisted of 15 male volunteers, aged 20-25, who I'm assuming were shown 'straight' porn (homosexuality is legal but still widely frowned upon in China(opens in new tab)).

Researchers note that the technology worked almost every single time participants were presented with explicit