The Chronicles
May 2012
One of the most often asked questions in the course of my computer lessons is : “ ... and what do those letters mean ... and why must I fill this box ?” Allow me to explain ...
It has certainly come to your attention when signing up for a new e-mail address (eg. Gmail) and/or joining a Social network (eg. Facebook), or when becoming a member of a website (eg. to buy holiday packages) and/or of a Forum/Blog (eg. to stay abreast of current events), or when answering an electronic Survey, that in order to be able to come to the end of the process you must fill in a CAPTCHA. More often than not this code is very difficult to read and you sometimes need more than one
try! What is the use of this exactly?
A CAPTCHA is a means by which inscription forms included on Websites can be validated. And the goal behind this validation is to differentiate between a human being and a computer program.
Today, nearly all Websites that require an inscription or the opening of an account use this validation system. This CAPTCHA is presented under various forms, as for example a series of deformed letters or numbers that only a sentient being is capable of deciphering. By typing in a code in the appropriate space, the Internet user can prove that he is not a computer program, which is incapable to date to read a CAPTCHA. Imagine for a moment that a Computer Hacker or a Spammer was able to write a Program that could open 1,000,000 accounts/e-mails simultaneously. The computer system of any business would find itself paralyzed for an unspecified amount of time and all the users wanting access to this company would be affected one way or another.
The CAPTCHA acronym is based on the word "capture" and stands for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computer and Humans Apart" and there are many forms in existence. It can be a deformed text, or it can be a voice that indicates what to write in the text square, or it can be the recognition of images (eg. having to recognize an animal (like a puppy) in a series of photographs of various species). This control tool is designed to bring peace of mind to Website owners constantly confronted by “Bad Guys”, but as a tool it is often more of a problem than not for users. As already mentioned, some CAPTCHA are deformed to such an extent in order to block any automatic recognition that the computer users themselves can't recognize them either. Moreover, what happens to visually impaired or hard of hearing people?
Of course, where there is an obstacle there are always those wanting to get around it! There exist more and more ways to circumvent CAPTCHAs. By the use of human beings to recognize them (a long and arduous process I will admit) or for example by the improvement of character recognition programs, to name but two. After all, as I was often told, nothing is perfect! But since 2000 when the CAPTCHA was patented by Luis van Ahn, Manuel Blum, Nicholas Hopper and John Langford at the Carnegie Mellon University in the United States, the system is getting steadily better. So, in closing, the next time you come across a CAPTCHA, tell yourself that your computing experience has been enhanced thanks to it.
Take good care of yourselves,
questions.monamilordi@gmail.com
This article originally appeared in Main Street – The Laurentians' English Language Community Newspaper.
