Researchers develop new robot-proof CAPTCHA

April 23, 2008 – 1:36 PM

CAPTCHAs are becoming both ubiquitous and useless. When you visit many web sites, you have to decipher some tough-to-read text and enter it in a box before you can leave a comment or send an email. But hackers are getting better and better at developing automated systems to crack CAPTCHAs, which means that you have to squint at the screen for nothing.

But some researchers at Penn State University have developed a next generation CAPTCHA system that asks users to actually use their noggin a bit. There are two tests. The first requires you to click the center of a composite image, while the second presents you with a list of ten words and asks you to pick the right one to describe a randomly generated image.

The test is difficult for computers to solve because the images have a bunch of random colors, textures, and other features designed to confuse an automated program. But human being should have no problem deciphering the visual information in the images.

The test page is partially down today thanks to a Slashdot mention, but you can still see screenshots of the tests.

Source: Download Squad