What is the problem you want to solve?

I’m doing a psychology PhD that looks to build a test for depression based on time perception. I’ve built a version already, but it doesn’t work on all devices and browsers. It’s very simple in principle, but it’s getting it to work flawlessly for clinical purposes, that’s the problem. All it needs to do is measure the time between a user pressing start and stop buttons in their web browser.

Sounds simple. Isn’t. For example, Apple devices do weird things at around 40 seconds if you haven’t touched the screen or moved the mouse. To be effective, the screen will need to be idle for about 90 seconds.

Why do you want to solve this problem?

I’m very keen to have people troubleshoot and build a solution because I’ve already spent my allocated funding on development. With a working web app, I will be able to conduct a population-wide test and hopefully prove it up for clinical use. If it works, it will help identify symptoms of depression and anxiety like a thermometer measures fever. Simple, quick, cheap, accessible and, most importantly, difficult to fake.

What do you envision as the ideal solution for this problem?

I already have a version that works fine on PC and on Apple up to around 45 seconds. Ideally, the web app will function equally well on all devices and in all browsers. The current developers have ideas about how that might be done, but I'm keen to see how others approach it.

The ideal solution would also include an element of feedback after each section of the test so that it could be used as a therapeutic treatment as well as a screening test.

What sort of Open Source solution do you think can be created in 48 hours, by a small team of developers, designers and data analysts?

It's such a simple program, I imagine that a fully functioning version could be built and tested in 48 hours. If a quick technical solution is found that works independently of the browser/system, then work could be done on upgrades to the basic version that gamifies of provides clever feedback to the user. At the moment, I am asking test subjects to make sure that they move the mouse while doing the 40s-90s intervals, which is not ideal. There is currently no workaround in terms of general release for people to use at home on any/all devices and browsers. My research is at a standstill until the problem is fixed.