Screen Identifier Library for Application Feedback Data Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Collecting and processing large amounts of screen-based application experience data across multiple users is resource-intensive and poses a risk of exposing personally identifiable information (PII), as it consumes memory, processor cycles, energy, and bandwidth, and requires the transmission of numerous images of captured application screens.
Innovation Solution
An application feedback system builds a reference screen library from initial screen captures and switches to capturing and transmitting screen identifiers instead of images once a baseline number of screens is reached, allowing for the reconstruction of user interactions using the library during playback.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If full screen image data is collected and transmitted for every user interaction, then complete user experience data is captured, but resource consumption (memory, processor cycles, energy, bandwidth) increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a reference library containing screenshots and metadata from multiple users performing various actions. Instead of transmitting full screen images, the system transmits only lightweight event data (event type, screen identifier, coordinates) that references this library. The reference library acts as a master copy that can be reused across multiple users and sessions, dramatically reducing data transmission requirements while preserving complete user experience information.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts only the essential, non-redundant elements from full screen captures—specifically event type, screen identifier, and interaction coordinates. By separating the invariant screen content (stored in the reference library) from the variable interaction data (transmitted in event data), the system transmits minimal information while maintaining complete user experience tracking capability.
2Measurement precision
If full screen image data is collected and transmitted, then accurate user interaction tracking is achieved, but network bandwidth consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The reference library serves as a reusable template that captures the visual and structural characteristics of screens. Instead of transmitting redundant screen images for every user, the system transmits compact event references that point to the library. This copying approach maintains precise interaction tracking while reducing network bandwidth consumption by orders of magnitude.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces expensive, large-screen-image transmissions with cheap, lightweight event data structures. Each event is represented by a small data object containing only essential information (event type, screen ID, coordinates), which can be generated and transmitted with minimal computational and network resources while preserving measurement precision.
3Loss of information
If screen captures are collected from all users, then comprehensive user experience insight is gained, but risk of exposing personally identifiable information increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and transmits only anonymized event metadata (event type, screen identifier, coordinates) while leaving out all personally identifiable information. The reference library contains aggregated, anonymized screenshots without user-specific identifiers. This extraction approach provides comprehensive user experience insight while inherently protecting user privacy by design.
4Loss of information
If full screen images are stored and transmitted, then detailed application performance metrics are captured, but data processing and storage costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The reference library stores master copies of screen images and metadata that can be reused across numerous users and sessions. Individual user interactions are represented as lightweight references to this library rather than duplicate full-screen captures. This copying strategy maintains detailed application performance metrics while reducing data volume by a factor proportional to the number of users.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments user experience data into two distinct components: invariant screen content (stored once in the reference library) and variable interaction events (transmitted as lightweight data). This segmentation allows the system to capture detailed performance metrics while minimizing overall data storage and transmission requirements by avoiding redundant storage of identical screen content.
Data Source
AI summary
To reduce the risk of exposing personally identifiable information (PII) and reduce resource consumption while still collecting helpful screen-based experience data, an application feedback system can build an application screen library from initial screen captures. When sufficient screens of an application have been captured for the library, the application feedback system can stop collecting actual screen captures. Instead, agents at the host devices (i.e., devices hosting the application) can capture screen identifiers instead of screens and transmit the screen identifiers along with other screen-based application experience data. For screen-based application experience playback, the application feedback system constructs a playback sequence with screens from the screen library as identified by the screen identifiers. Since a screen identifier can be implemented as a basic data type, storing and transmitting of the screen identifier consumes substantially less resources than storing and transmitting of image data for a captured screen.