Participant Guide
A passive background tool that measures how you type — not what you type. Every 15 seconds it computes timing patterns from your keystrokes and sends them to our research server. Every 20 minutes a short mood check-in pops up. That's it.
What It Actually Does
The program runs silently in your system tray while you work normally. It measures three things from your keyboard: dwell time (how long you hold each key), flight time (how fast you move between keys), and burst length (how long your continuous typing runs are). These patterns shift with stress, fatigue, and cognitive load — and that's what we're studying.
Every key is converted to a category number before anything is recorded. The logger sees 0 (a letter key was pressed), never which letter. Passwords, messages, and private text are structurally unrecoverable from the data, even if the files were stolen.
Download & Run
Download KeystrokeLogger.exe and config.json from the link Lucas sent you.
Keep them in the same folder — the config file tells the program where to send data.
Because this is a new, unsigned executable, your browser will flag it. See the section below for browser-specific steps.
Double-click KeystrokeLogger.exe. If Windows SmartScreen pops up saying
"Windows protected your PC," click More info → Run anyway This is normal for new unsigned software.
A small box will appear with your unique ID (something like 3a7f192b).
Screenshot it or write it down and send it to Lucas — this is how your data gets linked to you.
The program lives in your system tray (bottom-right corner of your taskbar). Just type normally. A mood check-in will appear every 20 minutes.
Why It Gets Flagged
Antivirus software and browsers flag any new, unsigned executable that hooks into keyboard input. This is a heuristic — it looks suspicious because keyloggers can be malware, even though this one is a research tool with published source code.
The source code is fully open at github.com/ricewas-mis-taken/keystroke-research. You can verify exactly what it does. If your antivirus quarantines it, you may need to add an exception.
After the download starts, a bar appears at the bottom of Edge. Click the three-dot menu (…) next to the file name.
Click Keep. A follow-up dialog will appear warning you about the file.
Hover over Delete — this reveals a secondary option below it.
Click Download anyway. The file will now save normally.
Note: On Chrome, click the download arrow → Keep dangerous file. On Firefox, click Keep file in the warning dialog.
The System Tray Icon
Once running, the program hides itself and lives as a small icon in your system tray — the row of small icons in the bottom-right corner of your taskbar, near the clock. You may need to click the ↑ arrow to expand hidden icons if you don't see it immediately.
Right-click the icon at any time to access these options:
The program does not show in your taskbar or Alt+Tab list — it's fully background. If you want to stop it, right-click the tray icon and choose Quit Logger. You can also press ESC at any time to exit immediately.
The Mood Check-In
Every 20 minutes a small window will appear on top of whatever you're doing. It takes about 10 seconds. You'll rate three things on a 1–7 scale and pick what you're mainly doing.
If you close the window without submitting, that check-in is skipped — no worries. You can also trigger one manually from the tray icon at any time.
Questions
Reach out to Lucas by his email: help.type_sense@lucastang.dev