PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Henry S. Baird

Henry S. Baird is a researcher whose work on document image analysis and reading-based CAPTCHAs examines what computer vision can and cannot read. After a Princeton doctorate in 1984, he led a multidisciplinary Bell Labs research department from 1996 to 1998, and in 1998 he joined Xerox PARC as a principal scientist. In 1996 the International Association for Pattern Recognition named him a fellow for contributions to document analysis and for service to the IAPR. Lehigh University brought him on as a full professor in January 2004, and he is no longer on its active faculty.

Works
120
Citations
4,459
h-index
37

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 15 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 1984

    A Princeton doctorate

    He earns a Ph.D. at Princeton in 1984, and his thesis wins an ACM Distinguished Dissertation award.

  2. 1996

    An IAPR fellowship

    The International Association for Pattern Recognition elects him a fellow in 1996 for contributions to document analysis and for service to the IAPR.

  3. 1996–1998

    Multimedia document research

    He heads a multidisciplinary Bell Labs research department from 1996 to 1998, focused on algorithms and systems for analyzing multimedia documents.

  4. 1998

    Principal scientist at PARC

    He joins Xerox PARC in 1998 as a principal scientist in its Document Image Decoding area.

  5. August 2003

    An ICDAR outstanding contributions award

    He receives the ICDAR Award for Outstanding Contributions in August 2003 for playing a central role in the 1990s renaissance of basic research in document image analysis.

  6. 2003

    BaffleText, a reading CAPTCHA

    In 2003 he works on PARC's BaffleText, a reading CAPTCHA built from words that people can read but the best computer vision cannot decipher.

  7. 2004

    A professor at Lehigh

    He joins Lehigh University in January 2004 as a full professor.

  8. Since 2015

    Retirement from Lehigh

    He retires at the end of the spring 2015 semester and is no longer on the active faculty.

Sources and credits

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  1. Prof. Henry S. Baird's Awards - CSE Dept, Lehigh Univ. cse.lehigh.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  2. Alphabetical List of IAPR Fellows – International Association for Pattern Recognition iapr.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  3. Prof. Henry S. Baird's Miscellaneous - CSE Dept, Lehigh Univ. cse.lehigh.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  4. Captchas Eat Spam – Computerworld computerworld.com. Checked 14 October 2026.
  5. Henry Baird's Research on HIPs and CAPTCHAs cse.lehigh.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  6. Prof. Henry S. Baird's Academic Homepage -- CSE Dept, Lehigh Univ. cse.lehigh.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.