Application specific interaction based replays

Abstract

A user's interactions with an application may be recalled for a user upon the user's return to an application. Interactions including a point of gaze and input interactions by a user within an application may be recorded. A user may become distracted, no longer interacting with the application, and this can be detected. In response, a segment of the recorded interactions can be saved. This segment can determined based on a time period prior to the detection that the user is distracted. When the user's interaction returns to the application, this can be detected, and the saved segment of interactions can be replayed to the user.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for recalling a user's interactions with an application, the method comprising:
 recording the interactions of the user with the application, the interactions comprising point of gaze for the user on a display of the application, wherein the point of gaze for the user on the display is detected based on data received from a camera, and the interactions further comprising input interactions by the user with the application on a user interface, wherein the input interactions comprise mouse interactions and keyboard entries, and wherein the display of the application is on a screen of a laptop computer;   detecting an absence of interaction of the user with the application, wherein the detecting comprises:
 identifying a period of absence of interaction on the user interface, wherein the period of absence of interaction comprises an absence of visual contact with the application and a period of time between input interactions with the application; and 
 determining the period of absence meets a threshold period of time, wherein the threshold period of time is a predetermined period of time, based on a user-configurable setting; 
   saving, in response to the detecting, a segment of the recording of the interactions of the user with the application, the segment of the recording based on a particular time period prior to the detecting the absence of interaction of the user with the application, wherein the segment of the recording is saved to system memory;   detecting a returned interaction of the user with the application, wherein the detecting a returned interaction of the user with the application comprises analyzing data received from the camera and determining that the point of gaze for the user has returned to the application;   recalling, from the system memory, the segment of the recording of the interaction of the user with the application; and   displaying, on the user interface, the segment of the recording of the interaction of the user with the application, wherein the segment of the recording is displayed as an overlay over the application and before the user begins working in the application, and where the overlay comprises a set of dots which illustrate a set of recorded point of gaze interactions of the user in the segment of the recording and a set of points which illustrate a set of recorded user-application interactions in the segment of the recording.