
Can simulated handwriting stop the spambots from getting through? - peter123
http://www.technologyreview.com/web/21939/?a=f
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eru
If that works --- it will create a lot of jobs in China and India.

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soult
I can't read any of the sample CAPTCHAs provided.

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opticksversi
Something I have not seen pointed out yet (in articles and discussions over
the preceding many years) is the fact that CAPTCHA tests are essentially
Gestalt Completion tests. A Gestalt Completion test is a type of IQ test. As
CAPTCHA tests get progressively more difficult to solve, they might weed out
progressively larger portions of the population - the _human_ population, that
is.

Perhaps, as a side-effect, the quality of web-based discussion will rise.

.

From Arthur Jensen's 1980 book _Bias in Mental Testing_ (pp157-158):

 _Gestalt Completion. Familiar words and objects are shown in various degrees
of "mutilation" and the subject must infer what the word or object is.
Performance is scored according to the average time taken per item or the
number of items completed within a given time limit. The difficulty of any
given item is a function of its familiarity and the extent of the
"mutilation"; these can be varied independently in making up items. ...
Gestalt completion items, which are known to be a good measure of the general
intelligence factor (as well as of a small group factor labeled speed of
closure), merit further experimental investigation in their own right._

