How to use an Matlab-coded experiment for online data collection.

Hi, 

I currently have an experiment that has been coded in Matlab. I'm hoping to be able to deploy the experiment online, so that I can just send people a link to the experiment. What's the best way to do this?

I'm not sure if this is right, but so far I've found that I would have to 'compile it and make the executable available' using the MATLAB Coder.

Thanks in advance!

[Walter Roberson]

Do you want people to be able to download the executable and run it themselves, not interacting with others?

Do you want people to be able to download the executable and run it themselves, but it should communicate with some kind of central system that does things like gathering statistics or sharing datasets but the calculations are done on the user systems?

Do you want people to be able to download an executable that acts as a user interface and pulls files from the user or interacts with user hardware to send data to a central system that does the calculations?

Do you want to provide a web page interface the user can use to upload / download files to a central system that does the work, with the user just using a browser and not downloading an executable (and therefore would not need to be running the same operating system as the executable was built for)?

Do you want to provide an app for iOS or Android that does user interface and data collection and sends it to a central system for processing?

Is this something where the user would be streaming data over an extended period (Fitbit for example) rather than dealing with files or data that was pre-recorded or fairly short data collection times?

What hardware does this assume that the user has?

[Joshua Kugel]

Hi Walter,

Ideally they wouldn't even have to download a file. Just click on a link from their computer (without a MATLAB licence). This doesn't have to be iOS/Android compatible.

The task is just a task where they are presented with stimuli (splashes in a pond) and need to guess the location of where the rock that caused the splashes (by moving a vertical line left or right). And yes, I would like to have participants responses recorded somewhere accessible so I can later analyse the data. No physiological data (eg. fitbit type) will be recorded.

I hope this is enough to answer your questions.

Thanks

[Walter Roberson]

What is being recorded, the position or the time? If I understand correctly, it is not difficult to get relatively accurate position information of clicks just using JavaScript, but accurate times could be tough.

[Joshua Kugel]

Just the position is recorded, not time.

I've been told that re-building the experiment in Javascript is basically the go to option if I can't get deploy the experiment as currently coded in Matlab...but hoping to avoid that.

Thanks again!

[Walter Roberson]

You might be able to use a Web App; https://www.mathworks.com/help/compiler/web-apps.html

However,

"Web apps are designed to run only within a trusted intranet environment, not in the open Internet. For more information, see Potential Risks."

I have not used App Designer myself, so I am not up to speed about whether it can track cursor or clicks.