Captcha Suggestion

[EWT]

I posted this several days ago in another topic but it got lost due to chit chat. So I re-posted it in its own topic with a few minor edits so as not to stir the natives.

I was looking at the new Captcha and a realitively simple idea came to mind. I am thinking perhaps it would strengthen the integrity of the Captcha, although it may have been considered already because it is so simple.

I noticed there are four basic colors to the letter sequence (ex: white, orange, red, yellow). It asks you to type in the letter sequence exactly as it appears in the image. However, the instructions could read as follows:

• Enter [randomly selected string] characters in the image exactly as they appear in sequence.

The randomly selected string would be from a list in the code as follows:

• "only the white"
  "only the orange"
  "only the red"
  "only the yellow"
  "all the"

Then, depending on the the randomly selected string, the modified instructions would read for as follows:

"Enter only the red characters in the image exactly as they appear in sequence."

(undrlined text above changes randomly, but does not necessarily need to be underlined; notice also the last choice which would require all characters to be entered)

Currently, the image colors change randomly and the randomly selected string choices would need to coordinate with the image colors, but that seems simple enough to program.

If they wanted to make the Captcha even tighter, they could remove the color words in the string choices (white, orange, red, yellow), and replace them with small image boxes representing each color using a color filled box. I guess the biggest criticism to this would be from those who are color blind, but studies suggest that only 1/2% of females and 5% of males fall into this category. So, to make this suggestion please those who are, the color recognition option could be turned off in the ACP.

I am not that much informed of whether today's bots are able to determine colors from an image and interpret it to crack a Captcha sequence as I have suggested but this is my two cents, and in my oppinion it would be better than what they have now.

[Matt12345]

From a medical point of view, this could be done if you were selective about the different colors that were used. The most common form of color blindess is red-green (X-linked, affects males in much higher frequency than females). There are some colors that can be used that would be pretty safe to use for most (but not all) major forms of color blindness. For everyone else, they would have to contact the board administrator, which people with visual impairment have to do now anyway.

-Matt

[Matt12345]

To add to my previous post, there is a web tool that I just found that lets you see different color schemes as various color blinded poeple would see: http://www.wellstyled.com/tools/colorsc ... ex-en.html If you stuck with one of their suggested color schemes. If you do choose this idea, choose colors that people with red-green color blindness can differentiate (because it affects up to 8% of men in certain populations.)

-Matt

[friendly-art]

If they wanted to make the Captcha even tighter, they could remove the color words in the string choices (white, orange, red, yellow), and replace them with small image boxes representing each color using a color filled box. I guess the biggest criticism to this would be from those who are color blind, but studies suggest that only 1/2% of females and 5% of males fall into this category. So, to make this suggestion please those who are, the color recognition option could be turned off in the ACP.

Do you realize how easy it would be to modify bots' code to match your suggestion and how many problems it would arise to color-blinded people?