Here’s Why CAPTCHA Shows You Traffic Pictures – The News …
Added on March 19, 2019
Kimiko Kidd
autonomous, CAPTCHA, google waymo, self driving, self driving vehicle, testing autonomous cars, Waymo, Waymo self-driving service
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Photo: smoothgroover22
Ever had your browsing disrupted by a CAPTCHA prompting you
to click on all the buses, traffic lights, or stop signs? You’ve probably
noticed that CAPTCHA likes asking you to click on driving-related images, as
opposed to making you identify all the kittens or pandas in a picture. There’s
a reason for that, and it all leads back to Big Tech.
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What is CAPTCHA?
CAPTCHA is short for “completely automated
public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart. ” You’re likely to
take a CAPTCHA when registering an account, making a purchase, or posting a
comment, because CAPTCHAs are meant to weed out spambots from real users.
Therefore, it takes a human-specific skill to pass the test — like the ability
to accurately identify signs and vehicles on the road.
Using data from humans
While bots currently fall a bit short when it comes to picking out things on the road, this is a teachable moment for AI. According to speculation by tech experts, every time you’re asked to look at a picture and click all the squares that contain a stop sign, you could be tutoring a future self-driving car — particularly, a Google-owned Waymo car.
Google has used this method before. Remember the old days, when completing a CAPTCHA was just interpreting distorted words and typing them out? That data was used to help improve Optical Character Recognition technology, which allowed Google Books to digitize paper-based texts. Then, CAPTCHA went through a phase where it made users interpret house numbers and street signs. That data went to work improving Google Street View.
Waymo weighs in
Waymo explains that it uses many methods to teach its cars
the rules of the road, such as data from DNNresearch, which uses algorithms for
visual classification instead of human effort. However, Michael Cutter, who
holds a PhD in Computer Engineering, speculates that the CAPTCHA data is being
used to double-check the AI’s work.
So, the next time you have to stop and click all the buses, just know that you’re making the roads of tomorrow just a little bit safer.
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Source: Ceros
Kimiko Kidd is a native Daytonian. She graduated from Wright State University with degrees in environmental science and sociology. She loves her trusty old Honda Civic, but dreams of owning a 1974 Ford Falcon XB with a custom paint job and a vintage Kawasaki Z1000. In her free time, Kimiko can be found watercolor-painting, baking muffins, collecting rocks, playing old-school Nintendo games, writing her novel, sewing stuffed animals, and cosplaying as her favorite Mad Max characters. See more articles by Kimiko.
Why do online CAPTCHA boxes show traffic pictures? – Grove …
Have you ever been searching the Internet and had your browsing session interrupted by a security CAPTCHA? The security CAPTCHA usually prompts you to click on images of traffic lights, stop signs, or buses. They may also ask you to click on cars, trucks, or other driving-related images. The reason for this is less about automotive images and relates more to the smart car tech PTCHA is an abbreviation for “completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart. ” CAPTCHA was first released in 2007 and was created by a collaboration of computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. In 2009 Google snatched the idea and incorporated it into specific websites. CAPTCHA prompts typically appear when you need to make a purchase, post a comment, or register an account. These security measures are meant to weed out the bots from the real users. These tests usually require the user to identify vehicles and road signs accurately. The CAPTCHA test weeds out bots because each experiment takes a specific skill that only a human can pass. Google saw that these tests could benefit both parties involved. The website could ensure that the information being entered is from a human, and users can transcribe the data from the images for other technological advances. In the past, CAPTCHA text involved interpreting distorted words, and that data was used to help improve Google’s Optical Character Recognition technology for their digitized paper-based text. In 2012, Google started snippets of photos from Google Street View. By 2014, the CAPTCHA system was primarily focused on training AI. Google has mentioned that by this time, they used CAPTCHA to teach self-driving cars, such as the new rideshare Waymo vehicles. Google uses images to train their AI because it’s shown to improve Google Maps results, photo libraries, and Google Image Search CAPTCHAS are certainly annoying & time-consuming, each completed one helps the roads become a bit safer. Your time isn’t being wasted, but put to good use by Google. And with the dangers of bots & viruses, CAPTCHA helps prevent bot access to some of the website’s most critical pages.
Why do online CAPTCHA boxes show traffic pictures? – Grove …
Have you ever been searching the Internet and had your browsing session interrupted by a security CAPTCHA? The security CAPTCHA usually prompts you to click on images of traffic lights, stop signs, or buses. They may also ask you to click on cars, trucks, or other driving-related images. The reason for this is less about automotive images and relates more to the smart car tech PTCHA is an abbreviation for “completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart. ” CAPTCHA was first released in 2007 and was created by a collaboration of computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. In 2009 Google snatched the idea and incorporated it into specific websites. CAPTCHA prompts typically appear when you need to make a purchase, post a comment, or register an account. These security measures are meant to weed out the bots from the real users. These tests usually require the user to identify vehicles and road signs accurately. The CAPTCHA test weeds out bots because each experiment takes a specific skill that only a human can pass. Google saw that these tests could benefit both parties involved. The website could ensure that the information being entered is from a human, and users can transcribe the data from the images for other technological advances. In the past, CAPTCHA text involved interpreting distorted words, and that data was used to help improve Google’s Optical Character Recognition technology for their digitized paper-based text. In 2012, Google started snippets of photos from Google Street View. By 2014, the CAPTCHA system was primarily focused on training AI. Google has mentioned that by this time, they used CAPTCHA to teach self-driving cars, such as the new rideshare Waymo vehicles. Google uses images to train their AI because it’s shown to improve Google Maps results, photo libraries, and Google Image Search CAPTCHAS are certainly annoying & time-consuming, each completed one helps the roads become a bit safer. Your time isn’t being wasted, but put to good use by Google. And with the dangers of bots & viruses, CAPTCHA helps prevent bot access to some of the website’s most critical pages.
Frequently Asked Questions about captcha street signs
Why are CAPTCHAs always street signs?
CAPTCHA prompts typically appear when you need to make a purchase, post a comment, or register an account. These security measures are meant to weed out the bots from the real users. These tests usually require the user to identify vehicles and road signs accurately.Jul 31, 2020
Is CAPTCHA for self driving cars?
So, it’s confirmed. Google does use reCaptcha to teach its self-driving Waymo cars to label images so they can, for example, tell the back of an Escalade from an empty patch of asphalt.
Where do CAPTCHA images come from?
They started with the archives of The New York Times, then sold the technology to Google, who began using it to transcribe old books. That’s right—you have likely worked for free for Google and The New York Times. Those grainy images of old-timey text are real words from real pages.Jun 21, 2016