Record Your Regular Household Activity - Guidelines

1. Project Overview

In this project, you will be asked to record first-person videos of yourself doing everyday household tasks. These recordings help train AI to understand hand movements at home.

• Timeline: this project runs for 4 months (June to September).

• No cap: there's no limit on how many tasks you can complete — the more you do, the more you earn, and the more tasks will be made available to you.

• Getting started: review these guidelines, register in both required apps, mount your phone, and start recording.

Who & Where You Can Record

• Record in your own private residence, or that of a trusted, consenting friend or family member. Private outdoor spaces (your yard, a friend's yard) are fine too — public streets, commercial spaces, or workplaces are not.
• You’ll need to obtain consent before recording anyone else who appears on camera, including friends and family. However, to avoid PII violations, please do not record people’s faces. More details about PII violations can be found below. 
• Don't record non-consenting people or children — keep them out of frame entirely.

• Never record screens or passwords, mail or documents with legible personal details, license plates, or ID/bank cards.

2. Registering, Installing & Using the Apps

Is Your Device Supported?

Is Your Country Eligible?

This project is currently available only to contributors located in the following countries:

• Argentina
• Bolivia
• Brazil
• Chile
• Colombia
• Costa Rica
• Dominican Republic
• Ecuador
• El Salvador
• Guatemala
• Honduras
• Jamaica
• Mexico
• Panama
• Paraguay
• Peru
• Trinidad and Tobago
• Uruguay

If your country isn't listed, you're not eligible to participate in this project at this time.

⚠️Before recording, make sure any VPN or proxy is turned off. Your device's location must reflect where you actually are at all times. Using a VPN, proxy, or any other tool to mask or change your location — whether to appear as though you're in an eligible country or for any other reason — is forbidden and will result in removal from the project. 

Is Your Device Supported?

⚠️Confirm your phone is on the supported list before registering. This is not optional — recordings from unsupported ("non-spec") devices will not even be considered for review. 

If your account is disabled or you can’t record for this reason, it will automatically re-enable once you switch to a supported device — no need to contact Support.  

Platform	Supported models
iOS	iPhone 12 through 17 (Pro / Max / Plus / Mini all fine)
Pixel	Pixel 6 through 9, including all submodels (base, a-series, Pro, XL, Fold)
Galaxy S	Galaxy S21 through S26, including all submodels (base, 5G, Plus, Ultra)

• Not supported: iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 16e, iPhone 17e, and Galaxy S FE models. 

• Lens condition: your camera lens must be clean and crack-free, or clips may be rejected.

Only the device families listed above are supported — all other brands and models (including Motorola, Xiaomi, Honor, Huawei, Galaxy A-series, and iPhone SE) are not accepted. You will be able to see in the Minute app if your phone model is supported or not. Please take note before you start recording!

Registration Is a Two-Step Process

Two Apps, Two Roles

This project runs across two apps, and each does something different:

• Mindrift — where you register for the project and where your payments appear once a video is approved. Mindrift will not show any tasks for this project — there's no task list or recording flow here.
• Minute — the client app where the tasks actually live. This is where you'll find your task list, record your videos, and see your review results (Quality score and Diversity score) once reviewed.

You still need to complete both registration steps below, but day to day, you'll be working in Minute for tasks and recording, and checking Mindrift for your payments.

⚠️ Important: Register on Mindrift first. Then use that exact same email to register on Minute/Minute Data. Videos recorded under a different email will not be reviewed or paid. 

Both registrations are required before a recording can be paid. Always keep both apps updated to the latest version.

Step 1: Register in Mindrift

Download the app here:

iOS

Google Play Store

1. Log in using Microsoft, Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, Apple, or GitHub.

2. Select the project “Earn money recording videos.”

3. Review the Project Instructions, good and bad video examples, and the “DIY: Head-Mounted Camera Options” guide.  

4. Update the app to the latest version and grant camera and microphone permissions.

⚠️ Note: Mindrift won't display a task list for this project — that lives in Minute  (Step 2 below). 

Step 2: Register in Minute Data

Download the app here:

iOs

Google Play Store

1. Download Minute Data from the App Store or Google Play (or scan the QR code from your invite).
2. From the login screen, tap "Have an invite code? Create an account."
3. Enter your 8-character invite code (Code: 33XPEMV5), then create your account using the exact same email you registered with on our platform (Mindrift) — a different email means lost payment.
4. Set and confirm a password, then create your account.
5. Allow both Camera and Microphone permissions when prompted — tapping "Don't Allow" on either will block recording.
6. Confirm you joined the right organization, HUB - Residential, by checking Settings.

3. Recording Your Video

Once registered and mounted, here's what you should see:
 

Here are the recording workflow and technical requirements:

1. Grant camera and microphone permissions if prompted.

2. Lock your screen to landscape (horizontal) orientation. Videos recorded in portrait will be rejected. In Settings, you can also toggle two optional recording aids under Advanced Feature Recording: Hand Detection (warns you if both hands aren't visible before you start recording) and Auto-Dim Screen (dims your screen during recording to save battery). Neither is required, but they can help you avoid rejections. 

3. Use the 0.5x / wide-angle (ultrawide) camera. This is mandatory — it helps keep both hands visible throughout. Standard 1x recordings may be rejected.

4. Record in 1080p or better.

5. Make sure lighting is bright and consistent throughout — avoid rapid transitions between dark and bright areas.

6. Select a task to record. Open your task list in the Minute app and choose the task category you want to record. You must select a task before you're able to start recording — recording isn't available until a task has been chosen. Make sure the task you select matches what you're about to film (see Section 6, Valid Task). 

7. Start recording, then perform your task naturally, in one continuous take — no stopping and no editing. Montage-style recordings (multiple clips edited or spliced together) are not allowed. Submit one continuous, unedited take. 

8. When finished, stop the recording. You'll see a preview screen with a playback scrubber — tap Save to keep it or Discard to delete it and start over. If you tap Save, confirm in the follow-up dialog by tapping Save again — your video then uploads automatically. Use the preview to catch obvious problems (wrong task, bad lighting, portrait orientation) — it's not a substitute for following the Quality and Diversity criteria while recording, since the preview doesn't show your score. Feel free to keep recording new tasks while previous videos are being reviewed. 

⚠️ ⚠️ Videos shorter than 1 minute will not be reviewed — they won't be scored or paid, no matter how good the footage is. The app now shows a quick-tip reminder about this before you record, but double-check your recording is at least 1 minute before saving. The app automatically stops recording at 30 minutes — if your task needs longer, split it into separate recordings/sessions. 

Head-mounted recording workflow: rotate the phone, record an activity, review the recording, save and upload it, then access it later in your session gallery. 

4. Head-Mounting Options 

Your phone must be mounted for a first-person, top-down view — like looking through your own eyes. Chest-mounted or fixed-position cameras are not acceptable, even if the footage happens to look downward.

Recommended: a dedicated head strap or mount. A purpose-built mount (example below) tends to outperform DIY setups — it holds a steadier frame, keeps the downward angle consistent, and skips the retaping you'd otherwise redo before every session. Steadier footage means fewer rejections —  so more of your recording time gets paid.

Don't have one yet? No problem — take a look at our DIY: Head-Mounted Camera Options  guidelines for ideas you can put together with things you already have at home.

5. Payment Process

Pay is calculated per accepted hour of footage, not simply per submission or per video length:

1. Base rate: $4 per accepted hour of recorded video. All payouts are made in USD. If you withdraw to a local currency, the amount you receive depends on the exchange rate at the time of payout, which can vary. 

2. Payment is proportional: shorter or longer videos are paid based on accepted footage — there's no minimum length required to get paid.

3. Only accepted footage is paid. A submission must meet the expectations in the Quality Criteria (Section 6), and both its Quality score and Diversity score must be at or above 50 — if either falls below 50, the footage is rejected. Separately, recordings under 1 minute are not reviewed at all — the app won't stop you from recording one, so double-check your video's length before you stop recording.

4. Both scores are visible to you in your app after review.

5. Correct email required: on the Minute Data app, payment goes to the email you registered with on our platform — a mismatched email means lost payment.

   If your Minute Data email ever differs from your Mindrift email, contact Support and select “Change Email Address” to request an update — we use the same email across both apps (Minute Data and Mindrift) to process automatic payments for your approved hours. 

6. Review time is up to 48 hours.

Balance Updates

Once a video session is accepted, its earnings are added to your Mindrift balance automatically, once per day. You'll typically see this reflected the next morning — usually between 8am and 10am your local time.

Each accepted session is credited separately. Example: If you have 5 accepted sessions in a day, you'll see 5 individual line items added to your balance, not one combined total.

Note on timing: the daily balance update runs on UTC time, not your local time zone, so the cutoff for "yesterday" may not match your local sense of the day — this can make your accepted task count and balance updates seem briefly out of sync.

This does not change your withdrawal schedule. Seeing an amount added to your balance daily is separate from when that money is actually paid out — payouts follow the existing twice-monthly Mindrift schedule: tasks completed 1–15 are paid on the 20th, tasks completed 16–end are paid on the 5th of the next month.

Referral bonuses are processed separately and may take a little longer to appear in your balance.

Incentives

Incentive	Details
Successful referral bonus	+$15 for every person you refer, once each referral submits their first accepted hour of recorded content. There's no limit to how many people you can refer.

If you experience any issues with a reward or incentive listed above, contact Support and select “Incentive Payment” option — we'll help investigate and resolve it. 

How to Refer a Friend

Earn +$15 for every person you refer, with no limit on referrals. To get your referral link, open the task "Earn $15 for Every Toloker You Refer" on your Mindrift dashboard. Confirm how you joined (on your own, or referred by someone else — referred users wait 48 hours before their link unlocks), then share your link anywhere: social media, messaging apps, online communities, or people you know. The reward pays out once your referral completes their first accepted hour of recorded content.

6. Quality Criteria

Every submission is individually scored on two separate measures — a Quality score and a Diversity score (0–100). If either falls below 50, that submission is rejected. 

The Minute app doesn't show these per-video scores; instead it shows an overall average, broken down into three Quality factors — Clarity, Variety, and Task. 

The table below lists our quality requirements for a submission; see "Understanding Your Scores" below for how these connect to what you see in the app. 

🎥 For good and bad recording examples, see Good vs. Bad Video Examples - Record Your Regular Household Activity.

Criteria	Description
Horizontal Orientation	Video is recorded in landscape format (horizontal/wider than tall). The frame width is greater than the frame height throughout the entire recording.
Footage Stability  Stable, watchable footage	Natural movement (walking, head turns, reaching) is fine as long as the image stays clear enough to see what your hands are doing. Constant or heavy shaking, trembling, or bouncing that makes it hard to follow the action will fail. This also includes smoothness of playback: choppy movement, stutter, or a low frame rate "glitchy" look will fail.
Lighting Bright, consistent lighting	The task area must be brightly and consistently lit throughout the recording so your hands and the task are clearly visible. Avoid dim lighting, backlighting, or rapid transitions between dark and bright areas.
Hand Visibility Both hands visible	Both hands (wrist to fingertips) should be visible for at least 90% of the task. It's fine if one hand briefly leaves the frame while reaching or resting — just don't let the camera crop hands at the edges or lose the core action for extended stretches.
Valid Task Recording shows a genuine household task, matching what was selected before recording	The recording must be of a valid household task, not an unrelated activity — this includes eating, grooming, phone or computer use, and watching TV, none of which count as household tasks. It must also match the task category you selected in the Minute app before recording (see Section 2, Step 3: Selecting a Task to Record).    Example: "Tidying a small room" is selected Recording: Tidying a small room ✅ Recording: Grocery shopping ❌ Recording: Washing the dishes ❌
Diversity/Realism Task is executed naturally, with enough variation	The task should be carried out in a natural, realistic way with enough diversity of action — not idle time, staged or fake task performance, or one repeated motion on the same object for most of the video. For example, in food preparation: washing, peeling, and chopping, rather than just chopping alone. Or when washing dishes: stacking dirty dishes, rinsing, soaping, rinsing again, placing on the drying rack, drying with a dish cloth, and cleaning the sink — rather than one repeated motion.
Natural Environment Residential	Record indoors or outdoors in a normal home setting (kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, living room, yard, garage, patio, etc.) — not a public street, commercial space, or workplace.
Camera Angle Top-down view	The camera must be worn on your head, pointing straight down at your hands and workspace — as if looking through your own eyes. Your head, face, and shoulders should never be visible. This fails if the camera is chest-mounted, fixed to a surface instead of worn, angled from the side or front, or positioned behind you. The footage must be recorded and uploaded right-side up. Video that is inverted/upside-down automatically receives a Quality score of 0 and is rejected, regardless of how well the task itself is performed.
Lens Condition  Clean, unobstructed lens	Your camera lens must be clean and free of smudges, grease, or cracks. A dirty or damaged lens that blurs or obscures the footage will be rejected.
No personal information (PII)	No visible human faces anywhere (including reflections, screens, or photos — faces on product packaging or media are fine), no children in frame, no screens showing passwords or personal accounts, no mail or documents with legible names/addresses, no visible license plates, and no ID or bank cards.
Original recording	Your footage must be an original, real recording of you performing the task. Submit one continuous, unedited take. The following are unacceptable: ❌A recording of another video playing on a screen (even with the screen edges cropped out to disguise it). ❌AI-generated or synthetic video.  ❌Montage-style recordings (multiple clips edited or spliced together).

Quality Requirement	✅Accept	❌Reject
Horizontal orientation: Video must be in landscape mode — wider than tall.	✅ Phone locked to landscape; frame is wider than tall throughout.	❌Recorded in portrait (taller than wide).
Footage Stability	✅Steady, smooth footage; hands and objects stay clear at a consistent frame rate.	❌Constant shaking, trembling, or bouncing; or choppy/stuttery playback and low frame rate that makes it hard to see what the hands are doing.
Lighting	✅ Task area is brightly and evenly lit throughout; hands and objects are clearly visible.	❌ Lighting is too dim, inconsistent, or changes drastically during the recording, making it hard to see the task.
Hand Visibility	✅Both hands in frame 90% of the time.	❌Only 1 hand is in the frame mosy of the time.
Valid Task	✅Recording shows a genuine household task from an accepted category, matching the task selected in the app before recording.	❌Recording is of an unrelated activity, or of a different valid household task than the one selected (e.g., eating, grooming, phone/computer use, watching TV, grocery shopping, driving).
Diversity/Realism	✅ Task performed naturally with real variation in actions.	❌ Idle time, staged or fake task performance, or the same single motion repeated on the same object for most of the video with no real progression/diversity.
Natural Environment	✅Natural home setting with normal lighting, surfaces, and clutter. No evidence it's non-residential.	❌Non-residential location unrelated to household activities (e.g., public street, commercial space, workplace)
Camera Angle (Top-Down View)   💡Most rejections happen due to wrong angles. The camera must be on your head — never across from you or held by someone else.	✅Camera looks down; hands and work surface are centered and clearly visible. ✅Footage is right-side up throughout	❌Camera shows hands front-facing angle (not top-down). ❌ Camera shows hands from a side/third-person angle.  ❌Footage is upside-down/inverted
Lens Condition	✅ Lens is clean and crack-free; footage is sharp and clear.	❌ Lens is smudged, greasy, or cracked, causing blurry or obscured footage.
No Personal Information (PII)	✅ No faces (including reflections/photos), no ID or bank cards, no legible names/addresses.	❌ Any visible face, child in frame, ID or bank card, screen showing a password/account, mail or document with readable personal details, license plate, or full name/address/account number.
Original Recording	✅Original and real recording without pauses or any editing.	❌Recording of another video playing on a screen. ❌AI-generated or synthetic video. This includes videos where background/setting is changed with “real recorded” hand activity. ❌Montage-style recordings (multiple clips edited or spliced together).

Understanding Your Scores - Minute

Two different things happen after you submit: each video is reviewed and scored individually, and the app shows you an overall picture of your work so far.

⚠️It can take up to 48 hours for a video to be reviewed. If a submission is still "Pending" after 48 hours, treat it as rejected.

How each video is reviewed

Every video is scored on two independent measures, each from 0 to 100:

• Quality score — based on all of our quality requirements except Diversity/Realism.
• Diversity score — based on the Diversity/Realism requirement.

Both must be at least 50 for the video to be accepted and paid. They are not averaged together — a strong score on one does not make up for a weak one on the other.

What you see in the app

The app's Quality screen shows an Overall result, which is an average across your reviewed videos, broken down into three Quality factors: Clarity, Variety, and Task.

The app groups all three factors under "Quality," while in our scoring Diversity/Realism is measured separately as your Diversity score. The app's Overall result therefore covers all of our requirements, including diversity.

You won't see a score for an individual video — only this overall average and the three factors. To understand why a specific video was rejected, use the Quality Criteria table above as a checklist.

What the three factors relate to

Use these as a general guide for understanding the quality requirements:

• Clarity — how clearly and consistently the recording captures the task: Horizontal Orientation, Footage Stability, Lighting, Hand Visibility, Camera Angle, Lens Condition.
• Variety — how varied the content of your recording is: Diversity/Realism. This is the same requirement your Diversity score is based on.
• Task — whether what you recorded qualifies: Valid Task, Natural Environment, No PII, Original Recording.

Keeping your Diversity score high

A low diversity score is likely due to a lack of diversity within the activity itself — one repeated motion on the same object for most of the video, rather than a genuine range of actions. This is what the Diversity/Realism requirement above is meant to help you avoid, so if this score comes in low, that's the requirement to revisit first.

To keep it as close to 100 as possible:

1. Work at a normal speed: tasks completed in the expected time, with no lingering.

2. Avoid repetitive or unnecessary actions.

3. Within your single task category, vary the specific actions, objects, or tools you're using — for example, within “Kitchen Organization,” alternate between arranging shelves, sorting groceries, and labeling containers rather than repeating one motion on one object. Aim for a meaningful change roughly every 3–5 minutes.

⚠️ Avoid: Long, extremely repetitive motions with little variation — for example, polishing or sharpening the same object for minutes on end.

Single-focus recordings are not automatically penalized: a full session of washing dishes or folding laundry can still score well, as long as it's genuinely productive and not just one repeated motion with no progression.

⚠️After your 3rd reviewed recording, your account's quality and diversity scores must both stay at 50 or higher. These scores are recalculated as you submit more recordings, so it's important to maintain quality and diversity consistently. If either score drops below 50, you risk being removed from the project. 

Vary Your Submissions (Across Videos)

This is separate from the Diversity score above, which looks at variety within a single recording. This is about variety across your different submissions over time. Avoid repeating the same setup across submissions — try to vary environments, objects, specific tasks, surfaces/layouts, and lighting conditions.

Accepted Task Categories

Task	Image
Kitchen Tasks — pantry shelves, utensils, groceries, labeling containers, restocking supplies, food preparation (chopping, kneading, etc.), building a sandwich/salad or plating a dish, fridge and pantry audits, brewing coffee or resetting a beverage station, putting groceries away, collecting dishes to the sink, loading/unloading the dishwasher, and baking (kneading, rolling, cutting dough).
Home Organization — closets, drawers, unpacking groceries, packing boxes, shoes, tools, holiday decoration setup, packing/unpacking a room for a move, loading the car for a trip, toy pickup and organization, tidying a room, organizing a junk drawer or garage, shelving books by size or color, and making the bed (changing sheets, duvet cover).
Repair & Assembly — shelves, screws, light bulbs, pictures, batteries, outdoor furniture, fence panels, sanding, furniture assembly/disassembly, replacing a showerhead or faucet aerator (water off), drilling into a workpiece, hanging curtains, patching and painting walls, tightening cabinet and door hardware, and basic car maintenance (changing a tire with a jack, checking/adding engine oil on a cool engine, checking tire pressure and adding air).
Desk & Office Tasks — filing, packaging, opening mail, stapling, binding, sorting paperwork (no PII visible), desk tidying and cable management, and mail/package sorting.
Craft / Hobby Fine Manipulation — sewing, beads, gift wrapping, threading, decorations.
Bathroom Organization — organizing cabinets, folding towels, cleaning grooming tools, restocking supplies, and restocking first-aid/medicine supplies (no legible labels or personal medical details visible).
Dining Table Tasks — setting/clearing the table, folding napkins, arranging flowers, outdoor dining setups, party setup, patio/balcony furniture arrangement, and bar/drink station setup.
Plant Care — watering (indoor and outdoor), repotting, pruning, planting seeds/flowers, harvesting, transplanting, and general gardening.
Cleaning — vacuuming, sweeping, mopping, windows, sinks, toilets, washing/detailing a car or bike, taking out the trash or recycling, cleaning out a car's interior, gutter cleaning, post-event cleanup, washing dishes in the sink, deep-cleaning appliances or the kitchen, cleaning the bathroom, and dusting/surface wipe-down.
Laundry & Garment Care — folding, hanging, loading/unloading the washing machine, ironing, sorting, packing a suitcase, collecting clothes into a hamper, stain treatment and hand-washing, and rearranging a wardrobe.
Miscellaneous Object Interaction — setting up electronics, polishing shoes, sorting coins, untangling cords, labeling containers, and sorting hardware (screws, nails, etc.) into a divided tray.
Animal Care — preparing feed, refilling water, brushing animals, collecting eggs, preparing bedding, scooping a litter box, and pet grooming/bathing.
Yard & Landscaping — mowing, raking, edging, mulching, trimming hedges/bushes, full yard maintenance, pool skimming, sweeping the porch/patio/deck, pressure-washing a patio or driveway, pulling weeds by hand, and stacking firewood.

Tasks Not Allowed

1. Petting animals on its own.

2. Recording while seated.

3. Long, highly repetitive motions with little variation (e.g., polishing or sharpening the same object for an extended period).

4. Starting mid-task with no context.

7. Getting Help

Chatbot: AI Project Helpdesk

An AI chat assistant is available. It has the full context of this project's guidelines and can answer questions about setup, mounting, capture, and task categories right where you're working.

Ask it about anything covered in this guide — mounting options, camera settings, task categories, or what counts as an accepted video.

Find "💬Ayuda — Project Video Data Collection " on your Mindrift dashboard. 

Tap the chat icon to open the AI Project Helpdesk. 

Ask the AI Project Helpdesk your question — it's available in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Human Support

If the AI Project Helpdesk can't resolve your issue, you can still reach out through the support linked in the Help Center.

You can also check out our FAQ page!