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Tracking

In a collaborative environment it is beneficial to know if people are really looking at the information in the document. It is easy to find out how long a document was open on a desktop, but it is much more difficult to know if people really read it. In an attempt to answer these kinds of questions, CASCADE keeps track of user navigation throughout a document. CASCADE has the capability to record Mouse Clicks, Scrolling, keypresses, and other user motions. This information is currently kept in a file named ``mymainlog.dat'' in the user's personal directory. In future implementations, this information could be used to make statistical inferences in order to determine how actively a document is being looked at. As patterns are detected in these movements, it may even be possible to tell when an inexperienced user needs assistance.



Michael Spring
Mon Dec 16 14:42:32 EST 1996