20. A method of generating a human interactive proof for use in distinguishing a human from a machine, wherein a server has a memory storing computer-executable instructions, for performing the method, said computer-executable instructions comprising: defining a configurable difficulty factor, said difficulty factor representing a level of difficulty in computerized character recognition; selecting a plurality of characters from a predefined set of available characters; altering each of the selected characters individually to inhibit computerized character recognition; concatenating the altered characters into a character string, wherein each of the characters of said character string have a particular coloring; performing an operation to the original image, said operation altering the original image according to the defined difficulty factor to further alter the character string and to further inhibit computerized character recognition, said operation adding random arcs to the original image, at least one of said random arcs altering the particular coloring of a segment of at least one of the characters of the character string at least one of said random arcs linking a plurality of the characters; and generating a resulting image from the altered original image, said resulting image to be rendered to a user as a test.
34. The method of claim 20 wherein the difficulty factor corresponds to a number of random arcs added to the original image.