

Click on a few dots and our program will guess your age - vyrotek
http://kgajos.eecs.harvard.edu/ag/

======
edanm
My guess - this experiment has nothing to do with the clicks, but rather is
trying to measure something else. Something like the amount of time people
take on breaks, plotted against the amount of time people spent reading the
instructions. Or something like that.

~~~
ahoge
It could, for example, be used to demonstrate that people are more willing to
reveal some private information if you make them jump through a few hoops to
gain this "privilege".

~~~
qb45
Interesting idea, but if this was the case I'm sure they wouldn't bother
writing javascript which ajaxes timestapms of your clicks to their server.

~~~
ahoge
Why not? Placebos also look like the real thing, don't they?

Anyhow, in cases like this it's always nice to save all the data you can get.
The correlation you'd like to demonstrate might not exist at all. However, if
there are many parameters, you might be able to find something else.

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bitboxer
Does that thing just throw random numbers between 28 and 33 ? Looks like that
if I read the comments :D .

~~~
charonn0
Probably has more to do with the age of your average HN reader.

~~~
qb45
For me it also said 30 although I'm few years younger actually.

~~~
tibbon
For a friend that's 29, it said he was 10.

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tptacek
I'm 36, it says I'm 31. I feel like an atomic superman. Also my fingers hurt.

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alarge
Not very close. Said 32. I'm 47. From the other comments, seems like a pretty
narrow range of guesses.

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Fuzzwah
I'm 35. It gave me 55 on my 1st attempt using the trackpad on my brand new
laptop which I'm still getting used to (I turned on momentum yesterday and am
not used to it yet). I then plugged in a mouse and got 30. The sensitivity on
the mouse wasn't what I was used to, I felt hampered. I'll try it again at
home on the machine + mouse set up I use when playing starcraft 2 and hope
that I get at least a few years younger.

------
dlsym
return 30 if referer == '<https://news.ycombinator.com/>

Is it close?

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tibbon
Kinda shocked that at the end it didn't give a debriefing like most study
tests do.

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Echo117
Age 29 the first with regular speed of clicks. Age 53 the second time taking
lots of time between clicks and being more careful to click the center of the
circle.

------
TiagoPT
Said 40, I'm 21, really off!

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Urgo
Just put up a video on my youtube channel asking my subscribers to try this
out. Looks like it does predict the 29-31 range much more then others. Anyway
check out the comments over there for results of a much different demographic
then here: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K6bSVKao5I>

------
atesti
It looks like it even transmits mouse move events on the canvas via ajax to
the server. Too bad we don't know the calculations over there.

I used a Thinkpad tracking point which is extremely accurate and fast (Lenovo
will hopefully not remove them from the next ThinkPad after the T431 :-( ),
yet the page guessed I was 10.

------
brixon
It thought I was 2 years younger, so not bad. Gamers will probably get rated
much younger than they really are.

------
bengyusf
Not even close - guessed 44 and I'm 25.

~~~
jere
Thank god I'm not the only person that it guessed _older_.

------
joe_bleau
I used a MS trackball (thumb operated) and it read me as 9 years younger than
my actual age. I expected the trackball to be a significant handicap, but
maybe it's not? It certainly felt like I was struggling to hit the targets,
with plenty of overshoot.

~~~
qb45
I also used MS TBO but in my case it guessed few years too much. I'd say it's
interesting if there was a single person here who didn't get answer between 25
and 35.

And TBO definitively _is_ a handicap, try playing Quake with it if in doubt.

------
jivid
Despite being about 10 years off my actual age, I think this is pretty cool. I
wonder if there's any other information they're taking apart from speed
between clicks? Geo-location might help to narrow down the range of possible
ages.

~~~
prg318
I wonder if the duration of a "quick break" is taken into account for their
calculations?

------
IbJacked
Broken for me. The question page at the end didn't have a submit button (just
oddly quoted: Preparing results..."), and when I submitted by pressing <enter>
in an input box I got a "connection reset" error from Firefox.

------
danielweber
And just when I finally get it to load and to my test:

    
    
        The following error was encountered:
    
        Connection to 140.247.61.57 Failed
        The system returned:
    
            (60) Connection timed out

------
MattGrommes
I'm almost 35, it said 32. Close enough. I wonder if it just uses time to
click or if there's something involving extraneous clicks or noticing the
patterns. Interesting in any case.

------
dmastylo
It said I was 28, I'm 19.

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edwintorok
Off by only 1 year for me.

BTW the site seems to be under high load, it timed out, and had to reload the
results page quite a few times, but eventually I got the result.

------
hmottestad
It's probably a privacy test to see if they can get personal information out
of test takers online simply by making you feel it's relevant to the test.

------
dangoldin
Is this just a clever way to collect survey data? Based on the guesses being
in a pretty narrow range I suspect that's the real goal.

------
uslic001
Not even close. Said I was 29 and I am 48.

------
sqqqrly
I got only the "preparing results"... I think I took the site down! Now none
of my three browsers can connect.

------
legalbeagle
Not accurate for me. I'm 51 and it guessed 32. I'd be interested in what the
key factors are.

------
jpollock
It was off by a good decade for me.

------
david927
That is amazing. It was spot on.

~~~
IanDrake
How old are you?

~~~
david927
45

~~~
IanDrake
Hmmm. That's pretty cool it guessed correctly then.

------
vesbot
Most of the numbers are around 30~ I don't think there is anything accurate
about it.

------
DanBC
Calls me 52. I'm 43. Using (badly) a touchpad.

I have terrible co-ordination.

------
infoman
Firefox: I am 10 years old Chrome: I am 30 years old IE: crashed in the end

------
Scryptonite
It guessed that I was 33. Divide that in half and it would pretty spot on.

------
trueluk
>> Our best guess is that you are 10. Is it close?

Nope, I'm 28.

------
peterwwillis
Says i'm 37, but really i'm 906. That's weird.

~~~
dennisgorelik
What country were you born in?

~~~
qu4z-2
I'm gonna guess he put down Gallifrey.

------
aroberge
31 ... I'm over 50. And I don't feel particularly dextrous.

------
jdwissler
It thinks I'm 42.

I'm 21. Something must be wrong with me.

~~~
brk
You/are are almost directly inverted in terms of age/score.

------
jere
Guessed 31. I'm 26. Crap. I must have awful motor skills.

~~~
dennisgorelik
Guessed 30 (I'm on regular mouse/desktop). I'm 38.

------
tremendo
not even close, but now I do feel like bragging, so thanks for that ;)
Actually the next position of the dot was pretty predictable in most cases.

------
eterps
It said 33, I am 40.

~~~
th
It told me I was 33 also and I'm 25.

The survey at the end was fairly short. I wonder what factors they might be
missing. I type most of the day in a terminal and rarely use my touchpad
except for scrolling and occasional clicks on websites. I also don't play
video games often. It seems like both of those facts could have affected my
speed.

------
charonn0
It said 29 and I don't turn 30 for a few more weeks.

~~~
disbelief
I also got 29, but I'm 33. You click like a 33 year old! ;)

------
regularfry
Not far off, but not amazing - 29 vs 33.

------
mrgreenfur
Got it right on the money. Spooky.

------
housel
I'm 46, and it said 46. Uncanny.

------
devopstom
It said 31. I'm 27. Who knows.

------
asdf333
this has very deep and far reaching implications for pro-level starcraft
players!!! :p

------
IanDrake
It said I'm 36. It guessed 30.

------
mjt0229
I click like a younger model.

------
wglb
Way off. Like, by half.

------
tony_landis
It got me within 4 years

------
Yhippa
Off by a year. Not bad.

------
eclipxe
Spot on for me too. Wow.

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tpabla
Said 29 for me, I'm 24.

------
victorhn
I am 29 and it said 29.

~~~
tibbon
30/30 here

------
vtbassmatt
I'm 30, it guessed 10.

~~~
maxerickson
I'm 33, also got 10.

------
rsl7
said 31, I'm 41. yay?

------
amalakar
Guessed 30, I am 28.

------
igreulich
I got 39, I am 35

------
fl0w
Bang on for me.

------
netcraft
said 33, im 30.

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__mtb__
right on the number for me. 33.

------
ollysb
28 for 33

