Mini-games make spam blocking fun

04th May 2012

A start up company has devised an ingenious alternative to the traditional text-based CAPTCHA, allowing users to complete form submissions via a simple mini-game.

The company Are You a Human says that it developed the innovative bot-blocking solution, PlayThru, with the dual aim of improving online security and user experience.

The company explains: “300 million times a day, humans are forced to go through a CAPTCHA just to prove they are, well, human. That adds up to a lot of headaches and frustration. We want to replace all of that with fun.”

A demo of the product showed a game where the user has to drop a sports car into an empty car parking space, while another one has the user putting tools into a toolbox.

PlayThru uses many games with different instructions in rotation at any one time, making it extremely difficult for spam bots to guess at the correct solution.

PlayThru is currently in beta and will officially launch on PCs and smartphones on the 21st May. Users wanting to try it out can do so by visiting http://www.areyouahuman.com/demo.