REDMOND, Washington: A pair of grey kittens napped in a cage
at Microsoft TechFest, oblivious to their roles in protecting
internet surfers from being duped by bogus websites.
On a nearby table, a dozen pictures of dogs or cats were on
a computer screen along with a challenge to distinguish one from
the other.
Microsoft researcher John Douceur clicked on the feline pictures
to be rewarded with the affirmation “You are human”
and permission to proceed.
Failure to tell all the animals apart was met with “You
are a bot,” automated software pretending to be a person
trying to access a website online.
The pet-oriented online security program was among 150 creations
on display at the software company’s headquarters in Redmond,
Washington, during the 15th annual TechFest event running through
Thursday.
Douceur came up with the idea to thwart Internet criminals sophisticated
enough to program computers to figure out graphics-obscured letters
or numbers used to confirm website passwords.
A banner at the booth read “Securing web services with
cute puppies and kittens.”
Telling cats from dogs is difficult for people and unmanageable
for computers, according to Douceur.
The service, which became available for online use on Tuesday,
was created with the help of the US animal rescue website PetFinder.com.
Volunteers at the nationwide network of animal shelters upload
photos and identifying information about dogs and cats to Microsoft,
where the images are used to keep security picture arrays fresh.
Each image of a cat or dog in the security windows comes with
a computer link that can be clicked on to adopt the animal.
“It’s a win all around, because we get increased
security and they get new homes for more of the animals,”
Douceur told AFP.
Just around a corner in a conference room crammed with exhibits,
Microsoft researchers Jasha Droppo and Ivan Tashev excitedly showed
off stereo speakers controlled by software that targeted sound
to desired spots.
Music could be directed to where a person was standing and be
barely audible a few steps away in any direction.
Television show audio could be blasted directly at a favourite
chair of a hearing-impaired elder while sparing everyone else
in a home the sound, Tashev explained.
People standing at racks or counters in stores could hear spoken
messages about the contents of displays and people listening to
audio on computers could tailor sound for their ears only without
wearing headsets, Tashev said.
“It’s magical,” Droppo told AFP. “You
are doing things you shouldn’t be able to do. I love that
I was able to build it in my garage.”
The technology is naturally suited to work with facial recognition
software that enables computers to recognize people and have audio
follow them as they move about, according to Droppo.
Microsoft researchers Ramarathnam Venkatesan and Mariusz Jakubowski
combined fingerprint scanning with encryption and devised a biometric
lock for computers.
“This is cryptology thrown at fingerprinting,” Venkatesan
said. “Who would use it? Everybody.”
The number of fingerprint analysis points used for biometric
authentication was greater than that used by police in the United
States or Europe to identify criminals, according to Venkatesan.
Other innovations on display included software to clean up podcasts
by easily editing the audio to remove unwanted sounds such as
“uh” or “um.”
Software creations ranged from e-mail designed for illiterate
people to peer-to-peer file-sharing technology to improve multi-player
online video games for people with low bandwidth Internet connections.
“TechFest is one-stop shopping to see and experience the
breadth of software innovations we’re pursuing,” said
Microsoft Research senior vice president Rick Rashid.
The event brought together researchers from Microsoft labs on
three continents to share their work with scientists at the software
giant’s headquarters. – AFP
