Improving your ESP

*
Blind people have less fun on the Web.

Why?

Because the way they browse -- using screen readers that speak web pages out loud -- leaves many gaps.

The gaps? Images.

Images that cannot convey what they are about because the Web page's designer skipped an important element -- 'tagging' the image with a phrase or key words that describe its contents.

These tags have been around since the beginning of the Web. You will see them (if they are there) when you pass your mouse over a tagged image. They'll be in a little popup window.

They are mostly unused, meaning gazillions of pictures cannot convey any information to blind surfers.

Enter ESP, the game.

ESP is an online game where you are partnered with another person at random to try and agree in a measured amount of time on the 'tag' words for a series of images you are both given simultaneously.

Certain obvious words about the image are 'taboo' to force you and your partner to come up with finer-grained descriptive words. You can pass on tough ones, provided your partner agrees.

It's fun and fast-paced. As you improve, you move up in skill levels so that you are partnered with people who have a similar level of skill.

The game is the brain child of Luis von Ahn, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University.

PT joined up (just choose a username and a password), logged on and played. See the results below.

Front page shows you how many are playing at the moment and recent high scorers.

Here is where you play. Type a word in and hit enter to type another word. You're running against a clock. When you and your partner agree on a 'tag,' you are automatically advanced to the next image. 15 images make a round unless the clock beats you (two minutes).

PT scores as a NOVICE. Who'da thunk it!

von Ahn's eventual hope is that the millions of images the volunteer gamesters tag will help form a knowledge base to train computers to automatically tag images found on the Web. That, of course, is waaaay in the future.

For now, log on and have some fun.

-- Dan Damon

PT's images? Thought you'd never ask. Blogger seems not to support tagging, though I have tried many times. A complaint has been logged with the powers-that-be. Meanwhile, here are useful links --

The website: "The ESP Game"

WashPost story: "Image Labeling for Blind Helps Machines 'Think'"

View today's CLIPPINGS here. Not getting your own CLIPPINGS email daily? Click here to get started.