PROPOSAL:

You are familiar, one assumes, with the CAPTCHA, a contrived acronym for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart." The CAPTCHA generally takes the form of a distorted picture of letters and numerals, which a human with normal vision can easily decipher, but a computer cannot.

I think it might be possible to devise a similar test, but rather than telling computers and humans apart, this new test would distinguish humans who are wearing 3-D glasses from humans who are not. For now, I shall refer to this proposed test by its own contrived acronym, CATNAP: Completely Automated Test to Notice Anaglyph Perception.

EXAMPLE:

The above image should appear to say "SWELL" to a person wearing red/cyan anaglyph 3D glasses, and having adequate binocular vision. (In fact, it works almost as well with just the red lens alone.) The word "SWELL" should be difficult or impossible to see for other persons. I created this image manually, but I believe it would be no great feat to generate such images automatically.

USES:

The CATNAP would be used for circumstances where participation should be restricted to those who can see 3D images properly. One possible use is a forum where users can vote to rate 3D photographs; you would only want to count the votes of those users who can see the image properly. Other circumstances may come to mind.

REQUEST FOR COMMENTS:

This proposal may or may not be worth pursuing. That is why I am requesting comments from any interested persons. Please just comment by commenting on this post, below. I want your thoughts on these questions, especially the first one:

1. Is there really any need for this test?

2. What problems would the developer of such a test encounter?

3. Is CATNAP the best contrived acronym for this test?

Thanks.