In the Press

From Hot Hardware

The games are nearly mindless and kind of stupid, but that’s the point. For example, one game is “Catch only the butterflies”, wherein you can control a net with your mouse and drag it to the couple of butterflies in the tiny picture while avoiding the birds and bees. (There’s a joke in there somewhere.)

From PR Newswire

Veritix today announced the introduction of PlayThru, a game-based verification service that offers an easy-to-use alternative to a CAPTCHA. Veritix has partnered with Are You a Human to offer this integrated service for online ticket purchases, which eliminates the need for buyers to enter difficult to read CAPTCHA words that frequently require multiple entry attempts. Instead, consumers engage with short, simple, and interactive games to verify that they are human.

From Southeast Michigan Startup

Are You A Human…a tech start-up that is reinventing CAPTCHA technology (the squiggly letters online that authenticate human interaction) with simple video game play…is now one of the portfolio firms at Detroit Venture Partners, a high-profile tenant at the M@dison Building in downtown Detroit and an employer of an Adams Entrepreneur Fellow.

From Core3 Solutions

With Are You a Human, you no longer have to worry about typing ridiculous words; their system utilizes a variety of games (called PlayThrus) to test if people are humans or robots. That’s right—no more eye-squinting madness to identify yourself as a person. Games range from putting toppings on a piece of pizza to placing fish into water, and some other awesomeness in between.

From Tnooz

Are You a Human uses mini games, as above, for its Playthru human verification system and is also planning to offer branding opportunities around the system.

[Co-founder] Ben Blackmer says these sorts of solutions are about improving the user experience and can improve form submissions by up to 50%.

From PC Magazine

“Would you like to play a game?” A computer once asked that in the movies, but in real life it’s tough for a ‘bot to get playful. The PlayThru authentication module from Are You A Human displays a very, very simple game, different each time.

From CBS Detroit

Capital Community Angel Investors announced that its members have successfully closed an investment in Are You a Human LLC, a technology company headquartered in downtown Detroit.

From .Net Magazine

Ever just given up on a Captcha form, convinced that the thing must be broken somehow? Well, you’re not alone in that. Are You a Human presents a much simpler and more friendly way to validate a user’s humanity.

From Trademark Productions

Aside from the occasional troll on the web, what would you consider the most annoying thing about the internet to be? For many people, including us, it’s the dreaded CAPTCHA. Detroit startup Are You A Human is trying to put an end to these frustrating exercises by replacing them with something else: a PlayThru game.

From Teqno Logical

Are you tired of those annoying captchas displayed on almost every web form? Of course you are, because they appear all the time, whatever you do on the net, and most of them are totally unreadable not only for machines, but for humans, too! If you hate those captchas as I do, here’s a nice alternative.

From One Producer in the City

What Are You A Human does is replace that annoying Captcha with a fun game which still proves you are not a robot and stops you from having an aneurism. I’m really not sure I have seen anything more awesome so they get this week’s honors.

From Noupe

The principle of “Are You a Human“ is simple: Users have to accomplish a small game to prove that they are human beings. Obviously these games cannot be solved using spam bot techniques. All the different games have in common that the player has to sort things in some way or the other. Users need to place aliens on their home planets or basketballers on their court.

From the Ubercart Newsletter

If you’ve spent any time managing a web site, you’re well aware just how riddled the internet is with bots crawling the web looking to do their evil bidding.

From Michigan Today

The firm’s founders envision technology as the catalyst to diversify the state’s economy. One reason? Tech startups are easy to launch. “All we really need is a desk, wifi, and talented people to do what we do,” Paxton says. And with Amazon Cloud, there’s not even a need for servers. So, could Detroit become the next Silicon Valley? Paxton says no. “We’ll create something different here.”

From Sephone

CAPTCHA…annoys the human that’s trying to match the cryptic letters, because they happened to forget their secret decoder ring in their cereal box. Not only that, but as a website owner you could potentially lose submissions from your website, simply because people might not have the patience to try to guess these squiggles or constantly refreshing the CAPTCHA until they find one that can be read.

From Webloggerz

Playthru is very simple yet highly innovative product to help combat spammers…In my opinion, [it] will definitely prove to be the real game changer in upcoming years in the web market. Hopefully it will bring an end to text based Captcha systems soon.

From Nettuts+

Enter PlayThru: a CAPTCHA alternative, which asks users to play a simple mini-game instead of typing unreadable gibberish. It’s easy to implement, and is nearly uncrackable by any existing CAPTCHA solving solutions.

From Automation Alley

Whether creating a new email account or buying concert tickets online, it’s an annoyance we all encounter: trying to decode the squiggly letter and number combinations that confuse automated spam programs and insure we are – in fact – human. Detroit-based entrepreneur and CEO Tyler Paxton, 30, felt there had to be a better solution to this problem: something dynamic and complex enough to block spam programs, yet simple and fun for actual people. So, Paxton thought, why not use a game?

From B&T

You know CAPTCHA codes, those annoying words you need to decipher on web forms (but never can) to verify you’re a human? Now there’s a much better way—a game.

From SecurityWatch

The developers at Are You a Human aren’t shy about expressing their scorn for traditional CAPTCHA schemes. They’ve got a point; CAPTCHA can be awful…I was impressed by the wide range of variation in the games. Who knows, maybe someday we’ll see the last of text-based CAPTCHA.

From The Next Web

Back in the early 2000s, the text-based CAPTCHA was a brilliant idea, which not only saved mankind from tons of spam, but also spurred the development of image processing tools that would allow to overcome this type of defense. Later on, when CAPTCHAs grew barely readable for both bots and humans, alternative solutions started to appear…Detroit-based Are You A Human has introduced new customization options for its game-based alternative CAPTCHA PlayThru, adding themed games and translations to some European languages.

From Gamification.co

It is no coincidence that the sloppy CAPTCHA has a dropoff rate that is nearly equivalent to the increased conversion rate of PlayThru…Are You A Human is concerned most about making the Internet a better place and I think never having to deal with CAPTCHA again would be absolutely amazing.

From CNet Australia

“Don’t you hate those CAPTCHAs that leave you squinting at the screen in irritated bewilderment? Here are some systems that are a little more user friendly.”

From Model D Media

“We went to a uniquely named Detroit firm called Are You a Human, which launched while the co-founders were getting their MBAs at the University of Michigan and incubating at the school’s TechArb facility. The time spent there gave them the confidence and motivation to strike out on their own. Today, the company is one of many creative ventures in downtown Detroit’s M@dison Building, which is getting national attention for creating the groundwork for what some are calling ‘Webward’ or ‘Silicon Valley 2.0.’ ”

From VentureBeat

“Captchas have gotten so hard that 25 percent of the time, the people who did stay on the site leave…that’s like getting ten visitors to your front door, turning three of them away without even talking to them, and then turning away another two when they can’t answer a skill-testing question about the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow.”

From Forbes

“Because automated software tools are increasingly able to bypass CAPTCHAs, and because users are increasingly annoyed by them, Are You a Human? has turned human authentication into a game with its quick, fun PlayThru challenges. This month, the 5 millionth PlayThru game was played.”<

From You & Yours on BBC Radio

Co-Founder Reid Tatoris talks with BBC Radio show You & Yours about what CAPTCHA is, why its used, and how PlayThru is better.

From Infoworld.com

“Traditional CAPTCHA is steadily losing favor on the Internet, proving continually frustrating to well-intentioned users and easily exploitableto malicious hackers and spammers. A startup called Are You a Human has announced its own unique approach to fixing CAPTCHA: turning it into a game.”

From PCMag.com

“A Michigan startup called Are You A Human (AYAH) has developed a pretty fun way to prove to a website that you are, indeed, a human being. Instead of typing out distorted text or sound, you’re presented with a quick drag-and-drop game called a PlayThru, like dragging parts of a face onto an Mr. Potato-like head, or dragging a car into an empty parking space.”

From The Consumerist

“If you’ve ever been faced with a CAPTCHA sullenly asking you to type the words in a box below a mishmash of crossed out and jumbled letters, you know how frustrating it can be when you’re inevitably told to try again with another set of just as flurbled letters. A new company says it has an easier way to prove you’re not a robot, just a regular old flustered human…”

From PCWorld.com

“Only three things in life are certain: death, taxes, and universal hatred of CAPTCHA.

CAPTCHA, of course, is the system that’s used on countless Web sites to prove that a user is human, and not some ‘bot looking to wreak havoc.”

From Readwriteweb:

“We all know about those authentication blocks of text called CAPTCHAs, perhaps too well. (Today’s fun trivia: The acronym stands for Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart.). A new idea from PlayThru is to embed a small Flash or HTML5-based game that a human plays with a mouse to prove he or she really is a carbon-based life form. It is intriguing, potentially less annoying, and has captured (if you will excuse the pun) a few supporters already. The service is just getting started, and it is free to try out.”

From Engadget

“At their worst, captchas are impossible to decipher; at their best, they’re… fun? A startup called Are You a Human has developed PlayThru, an alternative to text-based authentication. Instead of requiring the user to type some blurry, nonsensical word, PlayThru has them play a mini-game, such as dragging and dropping a car into an open parking spot.”

From The Globe and Mail

“CAPTCHA — you know, those indecipherable text boxes you have to type in at websites to verify that you’re human — may be a thing of the past if one Detroit-based startup gets its way, Digital Trends reports.”

From NothingButSoftware.com

“There are several methods the Internet uses to separate humans from robots, whether you’re attempting to post a comment on your favorite blog or watch a video (or recover a lost password).  Most verification systems use CAPTCHAs, an often illegible combination of letters and numbers you must accurately decipher to view or post content.”

From Ubergizmo.com

“Don’t you just hate it when you often need to solve a captcha whenever you want to log in to select websites? You know, those irritating slanted and jumbled group of letters and numbers, where sometimes, you cannot even tell whether it is the letter ‘o’ or the number ’0′, or if the particular letter is in the uppercase or not.”

From DigitalTrends.com

“Detroit-based startup Are You a Human has come up with an game-based alternative to the Captcha, those word-based authentication systems used around the web.”

From MSNBC.com

We were featured by MSNBC.com on their technology blog!  Check it out!

“One of the most frustrating parts of logging into some websites is trying to solve a “captcha,” the jumbled, slanted and often maddeningly indecipherable group of letters used to verify that you are in fact a human and not an automated “bot,” or program.”

From A Home in College Hill

“I was contacted to locally participate in a user review/demo of a new plug-in Are You A Human is developing for WordPress.org users. It s supposed to eliminate CAPTCHA while still providing a lot of security, by making it fun with games. Makes me want to move over to WordPress.org sooner than later. I need to get on that. It was fun to do, really fast,and hey, who doesn’t hate CAPTCHA. The more work you need to do to leave a comment, the less likely you are to do it.”

From MakeUseOf.com

“All of us have been proved non-human at some point or another by rogue CAPTCHAs. They are often unreadable and almost always annoying. PlayThru is a great alternative to traditional CAPTCHAs where instead of words or phrases, the CAPTCHA requires you to complete a 2-3 second game. Once you complete the dead simple game, you can proceed to the actual webpage.”

From Forbes

“We’ve all had to go through the horrible pain of filling out a form online. We input all the necessary information and get to the end, only to face off with those obnoxious, squiggly letters and numbers, trying desperately to fill out the confusing, off-putting image to prove we’re not a spammer robot.”

From Tell Us Detroit

“If you’re a frequent internet user or shopped online, then you have likely encountered a CAPTCHA, that string of squiggly and distorted letters you have to decipher before proceeding with a transaction or posting a comment.We participated in a panel at the Madison Theater Building with some other Bizdom U companies.”

From Model D

“Of all the verbal gems thrown out at last week’s speaker series event on growing companies it’s hard to top this one: “fear is good.”

No, it’s not as alliterative as Gordon Gecko’s “Greed is good” line from the movie Wall Street. That was fiction. And it was the 1980s.”

From Wordpress Experts

“Are you tired of CAPTCHA’s? I bet everyone is. An annoying sequence of Q and A that is occasionally impossible and usually implausible. Made up words and difficult-to-decipher audio clues make getting into a website more difficult than it needs to be. Are You a Human’s PlayThru gives you a new option, available for WordPress in the form of a plugin called Are You a Human – Free CAPTCHA Alternative.”

From GetElastic.com

“CAPTCHA is more than a catchy name, it’s an acronym —Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. But in practical terms, CAPTCHAs are often Consistently Annoying, and Prevent The Conversion from Happening A-Lot.

One study by Stanford University (link opens as PDF) found 3 human users agreed on the “translation” of the CAPTCHA only 71% of the time. Overall success rates were ~85% on average.”

From Bizreport.com

“CAPTCHAs have long been used as a means of defense against hackers and bots but the increasing trend of outsourcing the hacking of CAPTCHAs to cheap labor forces could prompt the search for a different method. How about the gamification of the verification process?”

From Model D

Are You a Human is riding a nice wave of success in its first few years. The 2-year-old start-up has landed a sizable venture capital investment, hired a handful of people and is continuing its business plan competition winning streak. Now the firm is looking to hire a few more people as it works to create traction for its technology.

From CBS Detroit

Anyone who doesn’t want to work in downtown Detroit really ought to take a look at 1555 Broadway St.

From Metro Mode

“Metro Detroit firms swept into the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition and ran away with most of the $1 million in awards last month.”

From Bizreport

“CAPTCHAs have long been used as a means of defense against hackers and bots but the increasing trend of outsourcing the hacking of CAPTCHAs to cheap labor forces could prompt the search for a different method. How about the gamification of the verification process?”

From Bloomberg/BusinessWeek

“It’s not your vision going bad: Those blurry words that some websites force you to retype when you log in are getting blurrier. They’re known as captchas, and they’re designed to stop malicious software from accessing a site and, say, using speedy algorithms to snatch up all the tickets to a concert in seconds. Computers have a hard time deciphering the wavy characters, but they are getting better, says Luis von Ahn, the Carnegie Mellon computer science professor who invented captchas in 2000.”

From Huffington Post

“At times it seems there’s enough startup buzz in this town to power 12 of Dan Gilbert’s M@dison buildings, but how does one sift through the business plans of IT wannabes to find the one that could be the next Apple?”

From Ross School of Business Blog

Tyler Paxton, MBA ’11, entered the Michigan Ross MBA Program with an idea. Two years later, that idea has become Are You a Human LLC.  “One of the things that attracted me to the University of Michigan was the availability of funding and resources for entrepreneurs,” he says. “What I gained on campus was invaluable.”

From Detroit Free Press

“In a sign of the ongoing challenges the state faces in trying to diversify its economy, the amount of venture capital dollars being invested in Michigan companies is down sharply through the end of September and is likely to show a decline for all of…”

From The University of Michigan office of Innovation

“Real live person or spambot? Are You a Human can tell: Everybody knows them—those irritating computer programs known as CAPTCHA that make users decipher squiggly confusing letters in order to get to the web content they want.”

From Xconomy.com

“The Michigan Business Challenge, a four-month business plan competition sponsored by the University of Michigan’s Zell Lurie Institute, kicks off today in Ann Arbor. Student teams will compete for $60,000, gaining valuable feedback and broadening networks along the way. And the public is invited to watch at every step.”

From Model D Media

“Detroit-based firms and start-ups with strong ties to the Motor City did quite well at this year’s Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition, taking top spots in a couple of categories and second place in the overall competition.”

From AnnArbor.com

“Ann Arbor area life sciences firm DeNovo Sciences took home the top prize of $500,000, and manufacturing technology company Fusion Coolant Systems Inc. won $150,000 at the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition here Thursday.”

From Fiscal Times

“When entering a website utilizing the “human software,” a person will be asked to complete a simple game, easy for humans, but difficult for computers to decipher. A possible victory for mankind over machine!”

From http://www.modeldmedia.com/startupnews/areyouahumandetroit081611.aspx

The startup, originally based in Ann Arbor, plans to move into the Madison Theater Building when it opens in the fall.  U-M graduates and students founded the 2-year-old company as way of reinventing CAPTCHA, the squiggly words on webpages.”

From eCurrent

“It can be universally frustrating trying to match a distorted image of text to gain access to a website. The process, called human verification, is meant to weed out spamming programs and confirm that we are, in fact, real people.”

From Crain's Detroit

“Detroit business journal discusses Are You a Human’s investor involvement and the company’s plans for the future.”

From AnnArbor.com

“AnnArbor.com talks with Are You a Human developers about how they got their start and their goal of ridding the world of frustrating CAPTCHAs.”

From CSS Money

“Are You a Human participated in the 2011 Rice University business plan competition against 42 other teams, finishing 2nd and earning $154,000 in prize money and in-kind awards.  The business plan is known as the Super Bowl of business plan competitions due to the large awards available.Are You a Human takes second place in the 2011 Rice University Business Plan Super Bowl for its alternative to the existing Internet tool for human authentication.”