reCAPTCHAby Jim

Wed
28 May 2008
8:05 pm
4

Today at work I attended a presentation by the inventor of CAPTCHA, Luis von Ahn, entitled Human Computation. An older version of this presentation he gave at Google is here. It was a very interesting (not to mention entertaining) presentation about how humans can be used to do things computers can’t. The coolest part is that he has created a way to turn games into a useful part of a computer program to identify words and images. At the presentation, he showed us a web service called reCAPTCHA. Basically, what it does is translate words from text scans of documents to digitize books. It turns the process of validating “human” users into contributing to a large project to make the world a better place. Cool.

So, I went to their website and found a WordPress plugin! I’ve installed the plugin, so donate some of your brainpower to a good cause by leaving a comment. This new feature now means you can leave comments without having to wait for them to be moderated. Enjoy!

P.S. Angie is doing well. The recovery is slow, but she is making progress.

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  1. emi-jo
    12:51 PM on May 29th, 2008

    im so glad! thick blood, thin blood, hospital, home!… :} its good to know you’re all making it through!

    i love you all! angie, jim, kathy, jon, and anyone and everyone else who is helping angie right now! đŸ˜€

  2. Andre
    3:24 PM on May 29th, 2008

    I don’t understand what it is we’re testing with the new comment section. Does it just stop spam?

  3. Jim
    3:26 PM on May 29th, 2008

    No, it does not just stop spam. It stops spam and helps to transcribe books. The reCAPTCHA project uses humans to assist in proof-reading another program’s attempt at typing a scanned document. It is all for a good cause, so it should make you feel good to use it.

  4. Andre
    2:13 PM on May 30th, 2008

    I feel better already đŸ™‚

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