System and methods for automatic time-warped playback in rendering a recorded computer session

Abstract

A background protocol engine receives a recorded session, said recorded session comprising a plurality of packets and representing display data. The background protocol engine determines a measure of complexity represented by at least some of the plurality of packets in the recorded session. The background protocol engine identifies an interval of time between the at least some of the plurality of packets in the recorded session. The background protocol engine modifies the interval of time, responsive to the measure of complexity represented by the at least some of the plurality of packets in the recorded session. The background protocol engine stores the modified interval of time. A foreground protocol engine renders the recorded stream responsive to the playback data structure.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] The present invention relates to a system and methods for time-warped playback and, in particular, for automatic time-warped playback in rendering a recorded computer session. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] Remote presentation protocols such as the ICA protocol manufactured by Citrix Systems, Inc., of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., the X protocol by the X.org Foundation, the Virtual Network Computing protocol of AT&T Corp., or the RDP protocol, manufactured by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash., are inherently stateful. In order to view a particular point in a stream of recorded presentation protocol data, playback of the stream must begin from the very beginning of stream and played back sequentially until the particular point is encountered. [0003] Many conventional methods for session recording operate by taking screen snapshots periodically, and some of these increase the snapshot frequency in response to indications of potential interest gleaned fr...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0006] The present invention provides a method for recording and playback of remote presentation protocols such as the ICA protocol manufactured by Citrix Systems, Inc., of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., the X protocol by the X.org Foundation, the Virtual Network Computing protocol of AT&T Corp., or the RDP protocol, manufactured by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash. The present invention reduces the time spent manually reviewing session recordings by reducing the time spent during playback rendering one or more sections of the recording where it can be algorithmically determined that the complexity of the recording or the importance of the recorded content is lower than normal. The present invention provides a directed playback, i.e. an alternative rendering of the recorded session. The invention enhances the off-screen rendering operation to generate a playback data structure that describes how to perform the directed playback, and uses that playback data structure to control the on-screen rendering process. Rather than provide solely user-selected multiples of real time, the present invention provides automatically varied context-sensitive playback rates additionally modulated by the reviewer. The present invention presents information to reviewers at an automatically chosen rate that approximates their comprehension rate.

Problems solved by technology

Many conventional methods lack the ability to reduce review time by eliminating sections showing interactions with certain windows or applications.

However, because the user is unaware of what is about to be rendered, they are prone to turning the speed up during sections of low interest and then missing details when sections of higher interest start.

Furthermore, even speeds many times faster than real time are subjectively slow when reviewing lengthy sections of insignificant user activity.

Some of these systems may suffer the drawback of losing state when inputs and state changes between snapshots are not captured.

Images