A New Interface to Auditory Captchas
Welcome to the Auditory Captchas web survey. We are conducting this study to determine the usability and accessibility of a new interface to audio captchas. A captcha is a computer-generated challenge-response test that is intended to be easily solved by a human, but difficult for a computer to solve. Captchas are often used to prevent automated software from performing unauthorized actions, like creating user accounts or downloading software.
We are testing a different interface for solving captchas. Please take some time to familiarize yourself with the new interface. Keys for controlling playback are as follows:
- Typing a period in this box will cause the captcha to play, and pressing it again will pause playback
- Typing a comma will rewind the captcha by 1 second and then continue playing.
- Typing a forward slash will fast forward the captcha by 1 second and then continue playing.
These keys work only when the textbox used to answer the captcha problem has focus. This allows you to control the captcha directly from the box into which you will enter your answer. The control key characters will not be entered into the box and are only used to control playback of the captcha.
During the study, you will be asked to solve several different captchas. Please solve these captchas as quickly and correctly as possible. You will need Adobe Flash installed and headphones with the volume turned up to solve the audio captchas. Participation is completely voluntary.
An example captcha is shown below. Listen to the audio captcha by first focusing the textbox as if you were going to type something into it. Then press period to play/pause the captcha. You can also press comma to rewind the captcha and forward slash to fast forward it. Please practice each of these functions before continuing with the study. If you don't hear anything played, please download the latest Flash Player.
