PITTSBURGH, Sept. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- ReCAPTCHA Inc., a spin-off of Carnegie
Mellon University's Computer Science Department, has been acquired by Google
Inc. The Pittsburgh company developed online puzzles that serve the dual
purpose of protecting Web sites and digitizing printed text.
The reCAPTCHA puzzles, which consist of words with distorted letters that
computer users must decipher to register for services online or otherwise gain
access to a Web site, began as a research project of Luis von Ahn, assistant
professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon. ReCAPTCHAs were introduced
in 2007 and are used by many leading Web sites. The company, ReCAPTCHA Inc.,
was founded by von Ahn in 2008.
Like similar CAPTCHA (Completely Automatic Public Turing test to tell
Computers and Humans Apart) puzzles, reCAPTCHAs distinguish human visitors to
Web sites from automated intruders. But reCAPTCHAs are created using words
from printed texts that current optical character recognition programs are
incapable of reading. So when humans solve the puzzle, they also help digitize
pre-computer-age books, newspapers and other printed materials.
"Google is the best fit for reCAPTCHA," von Ahn said. "From the very start,
people often assumed the project was connected to Google, so it only makes
sense that reCAPTCHA Inc. ultimately would find a home within Google."
Multiple ties exist between Google and Carnegie Mellon's School of Computer
Science, von Ahn noted. Many researchers from the two organizations
collaborate with each other and Google's Pittsburgh engineering office is
situated on Carnegie Mellon's campus. In 2006, Google licensed the ESP Game,
an online game devised by von Ahn, for use as the Google Image Labeler.
Von Ahn will remain on the computer science faculty, but will also work at
Google's Pittsburgh engineering office.
ReCAPTCHA Inc. is among the startups that have participated in Carnegie
Mellon's Project Olympus, which provides advice, incubator space and investor
connections to help faculty and students explore the commercial potential of
their ideas.
About Carnegie Mellon: Carnegie Mellon (www.cmu.edu) is a private,
internationally ranked research university with programs in areas ranging from
science, technology and business, to public policy, the humanities and the
fine arts. More than 11,000 students in the university's seven schools and
colleges benefit from a small student-to-faculty ratio and an education
characterized by its focus on creating and implementing solutions for real
problems, interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. A global university,
Carnegie Mellon's main campus in the United States is in Pittsburgh, Pa. It
has campuses in California's Silicon Valley and Qatar, and programs in Asia,
Australia and Europe. The university is in the midst of a $1 billion
fundraising campaign, titled "Inspire Innovation: The Campaign for Carnegie
Mellon University," which aims to build its endowment, support faculty,
students and innovative research, and enhance the physical campus with
equipment and facility improvements.
SOURCE Carnegie Mellon University
Byron Spice, +1-412-268-9068, bspice@cs.cmu.edu
