Free AI-Assisted

Floor Time — Lab Meeting Clock

Split lab meeting time fairly across participants with a projector-friendly chess clock, custom splits, and speaking-time summaries. Built-in AI agent assistant support.

Open tool workspace

Need help with bioinfo analysis? See our bioinformatics services.

Key facts

Key facts about Floor Time — Lab Meeting Clock
FactValue
Participants1+ names; equal or weighted time slots; shuffle speaking order
Duration15, 30, 45, or 60 min presets, or custom minutes; optional Group Q&A buffer
Live controlsTap Pass → or Spacebar; P to pause; fullscreen projector mode
Visual alertsGreen → yellow → red background ramp; optional soft audio chime
CarryoverOptional pool rolling unused seconds into final slot
SummaryAllocated vs actual speaking time table; copy text or download CSV
Setup linksBookmarkable URL hash encoding participant names and duration
Runs in browserYes — client-side timer, no audio recording or cloud storage
Account requiredNo
AI assistantBuilt-in; validates setup and formats summary exports via API

What it does

In lab meetings, senior voices often crowd out junior researchers while manual stopwatches are too tedious to sustain. Corporate equity tools require recorded video calls and paid accounts—unsuitable for in-person discussions of unpublished data.

Floor Time — Lab Meeting Clock is a browser-only meeting timer that auto-splits total session duration into equal or weighted speaking slots for lab members, featuring a projector-friendly chess clock, tap-to-pass controls, visual color alerts, and an exportable post-meeting time summary.

On the Setup tab, enter participant names, select total meeting duration using quick presets (15, 30, 45, or 60 minutes) or custom numeric input, and choose equal time allocation or relative weighting (such as assigning 2× time to a primary presenter). Facilitators can toggle an optional Group Q&A buffer, enable carryover to pool unused seconds into final slots, turn on soft audio chimes, and click Shuffle Order to randomize speaking sequence and prevent structural bias against late speakers.

Clicking Start Meeting opens the Clock tab in full-viewport projector mode with a 48 px speaker label, an 80 px countdown timer, and a background color ramp (green above 40%, yellow at 20–40%, and red below 20%). Any participant can tap Pass → or press the Spacebar to transfer the floor, or press P to pause during technical interruptions. When the meeting ends, the Summary tab generates a table comparing allocated versus actual speaking time per person with overtime highlighting, copyable as text or downloadable as a CSV.

Why researchers use it

  • Enforce fair speaking time in weekly lab meetings without verbal interruption
  • Project a high-contrast countdown visible from across the seminar room
  • Randomize speaking order to eliminate structural position bias in recurring meetings
  • Bookmark setup permalinks to launch weekly agendas without retyping names
  • Review actual speaking time per person with copyable text and CSV summaries
  • Protect privacy using client-side execution with zero audio recording or cloud storage

Best for

  • Weekly progress updates from graduate students, postdocs, and research assistants
  • Journal club presentation slots with dedicated student Q&A buffer time
  • Thesis defense practice sessions with strict timed presentation and questioning blocks
  • Grant proposal brain-storming sessions requiring balanced input from all collaborators
  • Hybrid lab meetings where in-room and remote members need visible time equity

When to use this vs alternatives

Choose Floor Time when you need an in-person, projector-optimized meeting timer with tap-to-pass chess clock control, live color alerts, and post-meeting summaries without creating accounts or recording audio. For scheduling presentation dates and paper assignments across future weeks, use Journal Club Shuffle. Phone stopwatches lack shared visual cues, while enterprise call bots require invasive audio recording and calendar integration.

What makes it different

Commercial equity tools require recorded video calls and subscription fees, while generic event timers lack turn-based participant tracking. Floor Time combines auto-split slot math, projector-friendly tap-to-pass controls, color-ramp alerts, and post-meeting summaries into a free, browser-only tool with zero audio recording.

Researchers switch to Floor Time because manual stopwatches get abandoned mid-meeting, and enterprise equity bots mandate invasive audio recording of confidential research. Floor Time delivers dead-simple speaking fairness on a projected screen, providing instant visual accountability with complete privacy and zero setup friction.

How to get started

  1. Open the workspace on the Setup tab and enter participant names into the list.
  2. Select Total duration (minutes) using quick presets (15m, 30m, 45m, 60m) or enter a custom duration.
  3. Optionally toggle Equal time split, set Group Q&A buffer, enable Carry unused time, or click Shuffle Order.
  4. Click Start Meeting to open the Clock tab, then click the fullscreen button (⛶) for room projection.
  5. Tap Pass → (or press Spacebar) to transfer the floor to the next speaker, or press P to pause.
  6. Click End Meeting, then switch to the Summary tab to Copy Summary or Download CSV.

Frequently asked questions

How is speaking time divided among participants?
By default, total meeting duration minus any Group Q&A buffer is split into equal seconds across entered participant names. Unchecking Equal time split opens relative weight fields per person, allowing facilitators to assign longer allocations (such as 2× time to a primary presenter). Any remainder seconds from rounding are automatically assigned to the final speaker slot.
What keyboard shortcuts work during the live clock?
During an active session on the Clock tab, press Spacebar to pass the floor to the next speaker, P to pause or resume the countdown timer, and Esc to exit fullscreen mode. Shortcuts are active whenever focus is outside text input fields, allowing any attendee near the computer to manage floor transitions easily.
What happens when a speaker exceeds their allocated time?
When a slot runs out of time, the countdown display transitions to red and counts upward as overtime (formatted as +MM:SS). The timer does not emit jarring alarm sounds or forcibly cut off speakers. Attendees can tap Pass → at any point to transition to the next turn, and overtime is recorded in the final summary.
Can I save and reuse setup parameters for weekly lab meetings?
Yes. Click Copy Setup Link on the Setup or Summary tab to copy a shareable URL encoding participant names, duration, Q&A buffer, and split settings in the URL hash (for example, #names=Alice,Bob&mins=30&qa=5). Bookmark the link in your browser to launch recurring weekly meetings instantly without retyping participant lists.
Is meeting audio or participant data stored on external servers?
No. Floor Time runs entirely client-side in browser memory using performance.now() timing. No microphone permissions are requested, no audio is recorded, and no participant names or meeting metrics are sent to cloud servers. All calculation data clears when the tab is closed unless saved via a setup URL.
Can I use an AI agent with Floor Time — Lab Meeting Clock?
Yes. The built-in assistant panel can validate setup configurations and answer questions about meeting rules. External AI agents can call the tool over [API & MCP](/tools/developers) using pepkio_floor-time-lab-meeting-clock to compute time allocations, validate setup inputs, or generate CSV summaries programmatically.

Client source code & registry

Open tool workspaceBack to tools

Last updated . Pepkio builds free lab calculators alongside bioinformatics CRO services.