LABELING IMAGES LUIS VON AHN CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY

9 BILLION MAN-HOURS OF SOLITAIRE WERE PLAYED IN 2003 EMPIRE STATE BUILDING PANAMA CANAL 7 MILLION MAN-HOURS (6.8 HOURS OF SOLITAIRE) 20 MILLION MAN-HOURS (LESS THAN A DAY OF SOLITAIRE)

LABELING IMAGES WITH WORDS STILL A COMPLETELY OPEN PROBLEM FACE MAN SUPER SEXY

IMAGE SEARCH ON THE WEB USES FILENAMES AND HTML TEXT

ACCESSIBILITY LESS THAN 10% OF THE WEB IS ACCESSIBLE TO THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED REASON:MOST IMAGES DONT HAVE A CAPTION

DESIDERATA A METHOD THAT CAN LABEL ALL IMAGES ON THE WEB FAST AND CHEAP

HUMAN LABELING THE ESP GAME COULD LABEL ALL IMAGES ON THE WEB IN 30 DAYS! THE ESP GAME CLEVER

TWO-PLAYER ONLINE GAME PARTNERS DONT KNOW EACH OTHER AND CANT COMMUNICATE OBJECT OF THE GAME: TYPE THE SAME WORD THE ONLY THING IN COMMON IS AN IMAGE THE ESP GAME

PLAYER 1PLAYER 2 GUESSING: CARGUESSING: BOY GUESSING: CAR SUCCESS! YOU AGREE ON CAR SUCCESS! YOU AGREE ON CAR GUESSING: KID GUESSING: HAT THE ESP GAME

© 2004 Carnegie Mellon University, all rights reserved. Patent Pending.

MANY PEOPLE PLAY OVER 20 HOURS A WEEK 3.2 MILLION LABELS WITH 22,000 PLAYERS THE ESP GAME IS FUN

LABELING THE ENTIRE WEB INDIVIDUAL GAMES IN YAHOO! AND MSN AVERAGE OVER 10,000 PLAYERS AT A TIME 5000 PEOPLE PLAYING SIMULTANEOUSLY CAN LABEL ALL IMAGES ON GOOGLE IN 30 DAYS!

A FEW MILLION LABELS CAN IMPROVE IMAGE SEARCH CAN BE USED TO IMPROVE COMPUTER VISION

WHAT ABOUT CHEATING? IF A PAIR PLAYS TOO FAST, WE DONT RECORD THE WORDS THEY AGREE ON

WE GIVE PLAYERS TEST IMAGES FOR WHICH WE KNOW ALL THE COMMON LABELS: WE ONLY STORE A PLAYERS GUESSES IF THEY SUCCESSFULLY LABEL THE TEST IMAGES WHAT ABOUT CHEATING?

SEARCH RESULTS

SADDAM MR. WILSON MAN FACE MOUSTACHE SAMPLE LABELS BUSH PRESIDENT DUMB YUCK COMING SOON: MEET YOUR SOUL MATE THROUGH THE GAME!

THE ESP GAME GIVES ITS PLAYERS A WEIRD AND BEAUTIFUL SENSE OF ANONYMOUS INTIMACY. ON THE ONE HAND, YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHO YOUR PARTNER IS. ON THE OTHER HAND, THE TWO OF YOU ARE BRINGING YOUR MINDS TOGETHER IN A WAY THAT LOVERS WOULD ENVY. THE ESP GAME GIVES ITS PLAYERS A WEIRD AND BEAUTIFUL SENSE OF ANONYMOUS INTIMACY. ON THE ONE HAND, YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHO YOUR PARTNER IS. THE ESP GAME GIVES ITS PLAYERS A WEIRD AND BEAUTIFUL SENSE OF ANONYMOUS INTIMACY.

MAKES ME THINK ITS FUN TRYNG TO GUESS WHAT OTHERS THINK. YOU HAVE TO STEP OUTSIDE OF YOURSELF TO MATCH ITS FAST-PACED HELPS ME LEARN ENGLISH

BLOGS IN OTHER CROWNING ACHEIVEMENTS, I HAVEN'T PLAYED IN AT LEAST A WEEK (PROBABLY LONGER), AND I AM STILL ON THE TOP TEN LIST OF PLAYERS ON THE ESP GAME. NUMBER EIGHT IF I REMEMBER CORRECTLY. GOD, MY LIFE IS SAD.

THERE ARE MANY FASCINATING THINGS ABOUT THE ESP GAME: HOW IT USES A GAME STRUCTURE TO BUILD AN INDEX OF IMAGES ON THE WEB WHAT WORDS BECOME TABOO FROM FREQUENT USE HOW INTERESTING SOME OF THE IMAGES PULLED RANDOMLY FROM THE WEB ARE BUT BY FAR THE MOST INTRIGUING ASPECT OF THE GAME IS HOW OFTEN YOUR RANDOM, UNKNOWN PARTNER IS A COMPLETE IDIOT.

REUSING HUMAN CYCLES

WWW. ESPGAME.ORG

MORE SPECIAL THANKS UDI MANBER MONI NAOR LENORE RAMM CHUCK ROSENBERG RONI ROSENFELD DAVID STORK LATANYA SWEENEY SHINGO UCHIHASHI MANUELA VELOSO SPECIAL THANKS TO ADITYA AKELLA JOSH BENALOH GUY BLELLOCH LENORE BLUM MANUEL BLUM ANDREW BORTZ SHUCHI CHAWLA LAURA DABBISH BILL GATES NICK HOPPER SCOTT HUDSON TAKEO KANADE STEVEN KATZ JOHN LANGFORD JITENDRA MALIK SPEAKERS ENTERTAINMENT PROVIDED BY HOMESTARRUNNER.COM WARDROBE PROVIDED BY THE GAP THIS WORK HAS BEEN AND WILL BE PARTIALLY SUPPORTED BY MANUEL BLUM THE ALADDIN CENTER MICROSOFT RESEARCH

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