YNOT – There’s something in the water in Utah — something that insists every software developer with time on his hands take a full-frontal approach to the “problem” of digital porn.
The latest in a long line of “kill the monster” products is the creatively named Porn Detection Stick from Orem, Utah-based Paraben Corp. The solution comprises a portable USB thumb drive embedded with software the company says is capable of snooping through any computer’s hard drive and ferreting out suspicious images. Best of all for the snoop, the USB key leaves behind no traces of its activity, instead keeping an onboard log documenting the results of its scan.
According to Paraben, the device is able to search through a 500-gigabyte hard drive containing 70,000 scattered images in about 90 minutes. And — also according to Paraben, which relates its in-house test results on its website at Paraben.com — while the thumb drive isn’t 100-percent accurate in its results, it’s pretty darn close (based on Paraben’s definition of porn, which the company doesn’t disclose). When the company tested a mixed library of 70,000 images, Porn Detection Stick returned only 400 false positives.
Porn Detection Stick’s software component is a scaled-down version of Paraben’s P2 Commander digital forensic tool. The developer claims the software is able to distinguish porn from inoffensive images (say, innocent pictures of babies in bathtubs) by using a complex algorithm that analyzes “image backgrounds, flesh tones, shapes and curvatures, face detection, body part separation and more” to root out smut. According to Paraben, the tool will detect not only stored images, but also images that have been deleted.
Gizmodo checked out the device and determined it’s not the porn-killer app Paraben might like people to believe, especially in the internet age. Porn Detection Stick is unable to analyze web content or videos.
The stick is designed to work with Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating systems and sells at a suggested retail price of $99.99.
Sue Denim is a freelance journalist specializing in sexuality and the adult entertainment industry.
