Ask HN: Can you select all images containing a truck?

1 pointsquineoa5y ago1 comments

Background: I'm on the younger side for an adult. I was born in the US and English is my first language. I have corrected vision, but my eye sight is not horrible.

The issue: I haven't been able to use Craigslist for a week because I cannot select all images containing trains. I failed the hCaptcha challenge maybe 8 times in a row on a few different days. Maybe I'm not human. I'm convinced that an algorithm can likely identify a train or a truck or a motorbus in a 25x25 image better than I can. I squinted at a building thinking it was a train. I analyzed the reflection in the body paint of a vehicle wondering if those were traffic lights or railway lights. Is a garbage truck, a truck? Does just one railway car, or part of one railway car count as a train?

The ask: Are you able to do it? Is there a better solution?

I understand this is a first world problem, but what about folks that may be differently abled than myself, especially in vision or congition? I saw there's a way to set an "accessibility cookie" but I did not go through the process yet.

P.S. Happy new year!

1 comments

simonblack5y ago

A better way of specifying 'train' would be to add 'or part thereof' to the definition, especially with those tiny image fragments they give you. So yes, part of one railway car is defined as a 'train'.

Another part of that problem is that the images given are usually US-centric.

Many of us from other parts of the world expect to see those boxes where we post our letters as not blue, but red or yellow, or perhaps something different again. A blue box is just as likely to be a rubbish bin for us 'foreigners'. And our taxis might not be yellow, but black, white or some other colour.

Unfortunately, where acute vision is required to differentiate items, faulty vision will often lead to bad selections. Maybe spectacles can fix that, maybe they can't.

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