Google Buys reCAPTCHA For Better Book Scanning 138
TimmyC writes "This story may interest the Slashdot folk, many of whom use the reCAPTCHA anti-spam service. Well, reCAPTCHA is now owned by Google. Apparently, what attracted Google to ReCAPTCHA is that the company has linked its core authentication service with efforts to digitize print books and periodicals. The search giant has a massive (and controversial) effort underway in that area for its Google Books and Google News Archive services. Every time people solve a CAPTCHA from the company, they are also, as a byproduct, helping to turn scanned words into plain text that can be indexed and made searchable by search engines. Interesting times indeed."
Re:WTF Summary (Score:5, Informative)
From: recaptcha.net [recaptcha.net]:
But if a computer can't read such a CAPTCHA, how does the system know the correct answer to the puzzle? Here's how: Each new word that cannot be read correctly by OCR is given to a user in conjunction with another word for which the answer is already known. The user is then asked to read both words. If they solve the one for which the answer is known, the system assumes their answer is correct for the new one. The system then gives the new image to a number of other people to determine, with higher confidence, whether the original answer was correct.
Re:WTF Summary (Score:5, Informative)
The best part is, it automatically selects for words which are invulnerable to OCR-based attacks. And if the user's presented with an illegible scanned CAPTCHA, they aren't penalised for getting it wrong.
Re:Won't this eventually defeat the purpose? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Won't this eventually defeat the purpose? (Score:3, Informative)
Go here [recaptcha.net]. Bounce on the reload button a few times to see some example reCAPTCHA. Tell me with a straight face that they're not warped. Perhaps they're scanning books printed on silly putty? As for obfuscated see the example here [recaptcha.net]. They used to slap a line across each word. They don't appear to be doing so any more, but they used to.