Have you ever been asked to enter a number that you see in a box, when applying for an email address or leaving a comment on a blog (captcha)? Have you ever wondered if there is any computer program that can automatically detect the numbers embedded in that image? If yes, watch Luis von Ahn talk at Google about human computation.

Luis von Ahn is an assistant professor in the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University, where he also received his Ph.D. in 2005. Previously, Luis obtained a B.S. in mathematics from Duke University in 2000. He is the recipient of a Microsoft Research Fellowship.