RASCAL - Remote Activity Screen Capture And Logging

Overview:

Java Application / Applet for recording the screen activity and microphone audio and converting it to
a movie on a remote system.  This screen-recording system is a component of OpenVULab, and is used for
remote usability testing for web applications.

The current application is available in the RASCAL branch of the VULab trunk in the Fluid SVN.  A prebuilt jar
and applet functionality will be available shortly.

Program Usage:

In a console, type: java -jar -XmxMEM rascal.jar (in the directory where rascal resides).  Rascal can be run in 256MB of virtual memory, however 512MB leads to better performance.  Therefore appropriate values for MEM are 512m or 256m .

The program ends when a user presses <Enter> in the console.  The screenshots and audio are uploaded to the server
and converted to an mpeg4 video (with audio).  The program outputs a video id and terminates.  This video id must
be entered into the VULab web interface during the survey.

Output location:

All videos are temporarily stored at: http://filedump.silkwire.com/<video_id>.avi and accessible directly.

Compilation:

To compile the source from SVN, checkout all files into eclipse and add jvftplib.jar to the build path.

Release Timeline

September 29, 2008: Rascal 0.5B Beta
October 29, 2008: Rascal 0.5B Final

Goals for RASCAL 0.5B

1. Integration: get RASCAL to work with Vulab Web
2. Make RASCAL easier to use and deploy
   • applet-izing
   • documentation
3. Performance Improvement
   • improve video compression
   • seamlessly stream the data
4. Bug fixes and incremental improvement

Tasks and Deliverables