NuCaptcha introduces a video captcha service, ads included

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

A British Columbia company NuCaptcha launched a video-based animated CAPTCHA service to test whether users are humans or robots. As the company says, it is easier to recognise for humans and more difficult to decipher. Many companies supply the users of the service with video and text of advertising content, since the image is what the users have to view to proceed with the service they're using.

According to NuCaptcha, the moving image doesn't need to be as clear as static images. With a random video background and big-sized moving text, the blurred text turned out to be easier to be recognized by the brain. The researchers say same text isn't that easily recongised when it's static. Therefore, the image is more complicated to process or abuse, while still being easily readable, NuCaptcha says.

The image, as most modern videos, has a significantly bigger size than previously used static images. If often opens in a popup window. The bigger size improves accessibility. As news reporters say, the CAPTCHAs are now easy to use even for older people with vision impairments.

The website administrators have to get a database of videos and text material for use with the new technology. In reaction to this demand, a number of companies supply the webmasters with advertising videos for use as the text background.

The Captchas need full attention of the user to solve. The ads are also not blocked incidentally by security tools like NoScript. The service is seen as a niche for successful advertising, and is favored by advertisement providers along with the webmasters.

Electronic Arts, Activision and Disney are among the current list of companies which give out the videos and text for NuCaptcha.

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Sources

"Coming soon: Captcha adverts you just can't ignore" — Oneindia.in, October 31, 2010
Press Release: "Industry's Most Secure CAPTCHA Platform Ensures Publishers can Drive New Revenues in a Safe Environment" — PR Newswire, October 25, 2010
Lucian Parfeni. "NuCaptcha Introduces Video Captcha Ads" — Softpedia, October 25, 2010

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