Why a framework for Captcha?

The consulting company i work for OCTO Technology was answering a RFP for the public administration in which a anti-bot submission protection was requiered. Nothing was available in java at the time, so we decided to write an Open Source implementation.

Why a framework for Captcha?

Yes, why use a framework with hundreds of classes when some implementations are so simple? To answer this question lets imagine what happens when a captcha is cracked ie this is no more a hard AI problem.

• From scientific point of view
  • This means computeur science has made a move a step forward in a precise field : for exemple Gimpy cracking involve new technics in the field of OCR.
  • Scientifics will have to invent a new, different, harder AI problem that human can easily solve and computers can't
  • The jcaptcha framework provides a common , high level language to defines those problems (the com.octo.captcha interface and typed derivatives)
• From a jcaptcha user point of view
  • This means that his jcaptcha-ized application is may be vulnerable under bots attack
  • He will have to change the captcha in order to re protect his application
  • The jcaptcha framework provides simple way to parametrize new captchas (with engines and jcaptcha components)
• From a jcaptcha developper point of view
  • This means he'll have to implement some new tests
  • He will have to implements a new captcha sub class, and to integrate it with the whole jcaptcha architecture
  • The jcaptcha framework clearly separates the services and integration facilities (service and modules subprojects) from the tests definitions and implementations (the core and engine sub projects)