3D Captcha

Most everyone these days who has participated any sort of web-service is familiar with the Captcha. It's the (usually) annoying little set of disfigured letters or words that you must decode and type into a box to assure that system that you are, indeed, a human being. Weeding out traffic from hackers and bots is a necessity so that the providers of these automated services can dedicate their time and resources to serving real users. While the current common Captcha system has helped in this respect, it has put an unnecessary additional load on users (Does it ever work right the first time?) and is not foolproof.

The conceptualization and implementation of a new 3D Captcha system promises both an easier and more reliable solution as well as highlighting a new niche for 3D on the web. Instead of identifying words or letters, users would have to choose images that match with a randomly generated view of a 3D object.

From the CNET article:

The challenge is a 3D image of an animal, say of a rabbit's face. The list of answers would display different common animals from different angles, including a photo of the rabbit, this time of its side. Only a human brain would be able to quickly see that the challenge image and the second image on the answer list are of the same animal. Now you just need to click on the correct second image to pass the challenge.

The system relies on the human brain's ability to easily identify different views of a complex 3D object as being the same object. An algorithm can be created to automatically process a text-based Captcha image and try to translate the symbols found into the finite set of available letter, number, and symbol characters. The more disfigured the symobls, the harder for the algorithm to process, but also harder for the human to process! This 3D solution greatly simplifies the ordeal for users while exponentially increasing the difficulty of automating a hack.

What a creative and elegant solution to a complex problem! Three cheers for evolution! :)