What is CAPTCHA?

The term CAPTCHA was first used by computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University in 2000. CAPTCHA is actually an acronym that stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. That’s a pretty straight-forward title, except for the Turing test part. What exactly is a Turing test? Alan Turing was a computer theorist who invented the Turing test which humans use to see if a machine can converse like a human being. A CAPTCHA is actually an inverted Turing test whereby a machine tests to see if you are human or not, but the core principle remains.
 
A CAPTCHA (a backronym for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart") is a type of challenge-response test used in computing to determine whether or not the user is human.

The term was coined in 2003 by Luis von Ahn, Manuel Blum, Nicholas J. Hopper, and John Langford.[1] The most common type of CAPTCHA was first invented in 1997 by two groups working in parallel: (1) Mark D. Lillibridge, Martin Abadi, Krishna Bharat, and Andrei Z. Broder; and (2) Reshef, Raanan and Solan.[2] This form of CAPTCHA requires that the user type the letters of a distorted image, sometimes with the addition of an obscured sequence of letters or digits that appears on the screen. Because the test is administered by a computer, in contrast to the standard Turing test that is administered by a human, a CAPTCHA is sometimes described as a reverse Turing test.

This user identification procedure has received many criticisms, especially from disabled people, but also from other people who feel that their everyday work is slowed down by distorted words that are difficult to read.[3] It takes the average person approximately 10 seconds to solve a typical CAPTCHA.[4]
 
A CAPTCHA (a backronym for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart") is a type of challenge-response test used in computing to determine whether or not the user is human.

The term was coined in 2003 by Luis von Ahn, Manuel Blum, Nicholas J. Hopper, and John Langford.[1] The most common type of CAPTCHA was first invented in 1997 by two groups working in parallel: (1) Mark D. Lillibridge, Martin Abadi, Krishna Bharat, and Andrei Z. Broder; and (2) Reshef, Raanan and Solan.[2] This form of CAPTCHA requires that the user type the letters of a distorted image, sometimes with the addition of an obscured sequence of letters or digits that appears on the screen. Because the test is administered by a computer, in contrast to the standard Turing test that is administered by a human, a CAPTCHA is sometimes described as a reverse Turing test.

This user identification procedure has received many criticisms, especially from disabled people, but also from other people who feel that their everyday work is slowed down by distorted words that are difficult to read.[3] It takes the average person approximately 10 seconds to solve a typical CAPTCHA.[4]
 
CAPTCHA: image you see above is a picture and text tool, called a CAPTCHA - which stands for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart '(public Turing test is fully automated to differentiate PCs with people). It is essentially a test of the accuracy of the feedback (the protocol includes a party and a party questioned giving valid answers and authenticated) to differentiate users (who are trying to access the site) are human or robot.
 
CAPTCHA: image you see above is a picture and text tool, called a CAPTCHA - which stands for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart '(public Turing test is fully automated to differentiate PCs with people)
 
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