This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Name: NuCaptcha

Quick Pitch: NuCaptcha is a first-of-its-kind CAPTCHA technology that uses video to determine if users are human, not bots. Genius Idea: CAPTCHA is an acronym for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart”. These tests, of which 100 billion were used last year alone, generally comprise warped letters and numbers displayed in a widely varying range of readability levels. The idea is that they're supposed to be nonstandard enough to be indecipherable by machines yet simple enough for humans to understand and reproduce, preventing spambot or other machine use of computer systems while granting access to humans.

In recent years, some of the CAPTCHAs humans has been asked to solve, however, have been ridiculously illegible. Most of us have at least once had to pause at the end of a web form to squint at a CAPTCHA that looked more like a yarn squiggle than an actual string of characters. That's where NuCaptcha aims to make a difference.

NuCaptcha's technology substitutes a brief video display of characters for the usual smash or squiggle of letters. It's definitely easier on the human eye, and its creators say it's also much more secure.

Moreover, if humans find NuCaptcha as legible as machines find it illegible, it should help increase signups while decreasing spambots for web services and applications.

NuCaptcha's videos run in a small, embedded screen. They come in a variety of themes and show a predetermined, constant white text followed by a short string of red letters, which the user is asked to type in a box below. As you can see below, the legibility for end users is far better than with a typical CAPTCHA:

NuCaptcha Demo



NuCaptcha was founded in 2008 and has offices in Vancouver and San Francisco. The company offers APIs for a handful of languages and platforms; you can also download a WordPress plugin.

What do you think of NuCaptcha's technology? Is it easier for you to read than a CAPTCHA from another site? And if you have a site or app of your own, would you consider using a technology like this? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark

BizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.