Google Researches New Captcha Approach In Which Users Rotate Images Upward
April 19, 2009 on 4:09 pm | In Technology, Internet, Google, Search | Comments OffGoogle researchers released a paper [PDF] which explores a new approach to Captchas. Instead of the user entering a string of letters and numbers to prove they’re not a bot – with traditional Captchas often showing visuals that are hard to decipher not only for bots, but also humans – this approach asks users to orient a picture into an upright-facing position. Google shows off below 3 sample images:
A |
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Google says this set is easy to orient upwards for humans, but bots may also succeed here because they may use face detection. |
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B |
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This is the most useful approach: for humans, adjusting to an upwards direction is easy, but for bots it’s not. |
C |
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Sample C is again less useful because it’s hard for humans, too, to adjust this one correctly. |
The researchers from Google (Rich Gossweiler, Maryam Kamvar and Shumeet Baluja) explain:
To obtain candidate images for our CAPTCHA system, we start with a large repository and then remove images that a computer can successfully orient as well as those that are difficult for humans to orient.
For example, all of the images returned from an image-search start as potential candidates for our system. We then use a suite of automated orientation detectors to remove those that can be set upright by a computer. (...) We then apply a social feedback mechanism to verify that the remaining images are easily oriented by humans. In order to identify images that people cannot orient, we compute the variance of users’ submitted orientations and reject images which have a high variance. (...)
Our CAPTCHA technique achieves high success rates for humans and low success rates for bots, does not require text entry, and is more enjoyable for the user than text-based CAPTCHAs.
Below is an example interface, where one needs to slide 3 images into their “natural, upright positions”:
For comparison, a traditional text-based Captcha, as used in Google’s tests:
When Google tested their new Captcha approach internally, however, not all of the 16 users were happy. “68.75% of users (11 users) preferred rotating images, and 31.25% of users (5 users) preferred deciphering text,” the research states. One user said, “I prefer [deciphering text] since it requires simple keyboard inputs which are absolute. With rotating pictures I found myself continually making fine adjustments to make them perfectly upright, therefore taking a slight bit longer to accomplish. Also, I’m much more familiar with [deciphering text] since it’s what most internet portals use for security purposes.”
[Thanks Manoj, who saw it at Stephen Shankland’s report on CNet!]
[By Philipp Lenssen | Origin: Google Researches New Captcha Approach In Whi ... | Comments]
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PlayOn and vmcPlayIt
April 18, 2009 on 9:18 pm | In Computer | Comments OffI have been wanted to be able to cancel our cable service for a while. The thing that I have been wating for is a good way to get the TV content available on line on our TV, without having to use the a keyboard and mouse. (And ideally integrated into Windows Media Center)
PlayOn is sotware that implements a DNLA server. Instead of leting you play local content, you can use PlayOn to play videos from Hulu, Amazon Video On Demand
The interface to playing videos is not ideal on the Xbox. This is not the fault of PlayOn, but the Xbox displays DNLA servers as a hierarchical list of list. In addition, I don't want to have to switch to my Xbox to watch TV content. Ideally, I would be able to play this content on the Media Center itself.
vmcPlayIt is a Windows Media Center plugin that brings PlayOn content into Windows Media Center. This also presents the content in a Windows Media Center UI. One other great feature of the combination of vmcPlayIt and PlayOn is that since PlayOn transcodes the flash video to, I believe, MPEG2 the video is playable on Media Center Extenders.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get the plugin to work to play video. I was able to browse the categories, but I was only able to see one video in my Netflix Queue. The plugin is just in beta now, I will definitely be installing it once they fix these bugs.
[via Entertainment 2.0]
YouTube Testing New User Channel Layout
April 18, 2009 on 11:43 am | In Technology, Internet | Comments Off
YouTube is testing a new user channel layout. On their opt-in page for this they say, “Sssh! Welcome to the secret YouTube channels beta! We’ll be launching an all-new version of channels on YouTube over the coming weeks, and we’d love to get your help testing it – and your feedback – before it goes live.” In the new channel layout, the latest video will be showing to the left, and owners can edit the channel options and layout – like font, colors and background image – right on the same page (in the old version, editing the settings leads you to an extra page without such direct feedback).
[Thanks Hebbet!]
[By Philipp Lenssen | Origin: YouTube Testing New User Channel Layout | Comments]
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Get “To” Suggestions in Gmail
April 17, 2009 on 9:17 pm | In Technology, Internet, Google, Search | Comments Off
There’s a new Labs feature in Gmail called “Suggest more recipients”. Once you enable it, and you enter at least two recipients in the To field when composing a mail, Gmail will suggest more recipients (according to the Gmail blog, “based on the groups of people you email most often"*). Over at Friendfeed, the Google ex-employees who were also involved in Gmail as creators or designers, say “Wow, that was one of the more ’out there’ ideas I never thought would actually make it to the head of the feature queue” (Kevin Fox) and “This was one of the very earliest Gmail brainstorming ideas (from before there was any Gmail)” (Paul Buchheit). Kevin Fox in an earlier message also said he was “wondering when some Gmail labs features will graduate”.
[Thanks Mbegin!]
*When I tried this feature, Gmail acted kind of silly and usually tried to suggest to me to include “info@blogoscoped.com” as a recipient – but that’s my reply-to address, as defined in the Gmail settings.
[By Philipp Lenssen | Origin: Get "To" Suggestions in Gmail | Comments]
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Google’s Result for “Get Flash”
April 17, 2009 on 11:50 am | In Technology, Internet, Google, Search | Comments Off
When Patrick Cullen realized he was missing the Flash plugin, he went to Google to enter get flash. However, the top result for him (for me, too) was not Adobe’s download page, but a Belgian page dealing with the subject of Artificial Life Control in Mixed Societies. It’s not often that I see Google miss so clearly on such a short query (evaluating what’s a miss is subjective, but this one seems pretty nonambiguous). Does anyone have an explanation?
[Thanks Patrick!]
[By Philipp Lenssen | Origin: Google's Result for "Get Flash" | Comments]
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