Automated test to tell computers and humans apart

摘要

Techniques for verifying a user is human as opposed to a machine are provided. A series of images may be presented to the user sequentially along with a challenge question that instructs the user to select the image that is responsive to the challenge question. If the user selects the correct image, there likelihood that the user is a human as opposed to a machine is greatly increased. Techniques for varying certain parameters associated with display of images and challenge question are also provided. The variations in these parameters may further help distinguish human users from machines.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
in response to receiving a request to validate a user to determine if the user is a computer or a human, performing the following steps:
randomly selecting a set of images from an image data store, wherein the image data store includes a plurality of images that are each categorized into one of a plurality of categories according to content of each image, wherein each image in the set of images is associated with a different category, wherein each image in the set of images is a randomly selected type of image, the type of image indicating how the image was generated, wherein the type of image includes two or more of a photograph, a drawing, a clipart or a line drawing;for a given image among the set of images, determining the category associated with the given image;generating a challenge instruction using the category of the given image, wherein the challenge instruction instructs the user to select an image from the set of images corresponding to the category;generating a user interface for displaying the challenge instruction and for displaying each image from the set of images sequentially to the user one at a time, each image being displayed for an interval of time, wherein the interval of time each image is displayed is selected randomly for each image in the set of images;receiving a user input indicating an image selected by the user from the set of images; and when the image selected by the user is associated with the category identified in the challenge instruction, generating a response to the request to validate the user, indicating that the user has successfully responded to the challenge instruction.