Smartphone Latency Testing
The CtrLab wanted to determine whether research participants can use their own phone or need a study-provided phone to complete cognitive testing with the ARC app
- Different Devices = Different Performance
- Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is critical for ecological validity.
- When they use their own, the study app becomes just another app on their phone.
- iPhones don’t have as much variability: ~10-14 devices, very consistent specs, iOS ”locked down”.
- Androids come in many more varieties: >5000 devices in US alone, OS (operating systems) can be manipulated by manufacturer. Specs provided are often incorrect.
- Participants enroll with different phones, different OS’s, and then often change them midstudy.
- Devices with broken screens or screen protectors may not work as well.
- We engineered a series of devices to assess smartphone and tablet performance.
- These devices test the time from being touched to the time that the phone registers that touch.
- We have tested dozens of phones so that we know over time which phones will work for our participants and which will not.
Smartphone Latency Bot Versions
Tappy (First Prototype)
Tappy 2.0
Tappy 3.0
Latency and Timing Assessment Robot (LaTAR Bot)
