How Big are SmartAss™ Guides?

There are quite a few factors impacting the data size of the guides. Which in turn affect load times and bandwidth usage.

We created a guide with nine steps in it – all to be played back in 800x600 pixels. All except the last one is about 15 seconds long and show how to open the control panel, devices and printers and then change the default printer.

1. A reference step – screen resolution 1024x768, shrinked to 800x600, no audio
2. Recorded in 800x600 (no stretch). No audio.
3. Recorded in 800x600 (no stretch). Mid-quality audio
4. Recorded in 1024x768. Low quality audio.
5. Recorded in 1024x768. Mid-quality audio
6. Recorded in 1024x768. High quality audio
7. Recorded in 1024x768. No audio. Windows Aero Transparent Glass.
8. Recorded in 1024x768. No audio. Windows Aero without Transparent Glass.
9. A longer step - recorded in 1024x768. No audio.

The guide was published both to Rich Media and Flash:

Sizes

The following table shows the data size of the steps in the two test guides:

Step	RichMedia	Flash	Length	Comment
1	265 450	453 929	15	1024x768, shrinked to 800x600, no audio
2	291 318	367 993	15	Recorded in 800x600. No audio.
3	367 894	422 945	15	Recorded in 800x600. Mid-quality audio
4	302 936	501 857	15	Recorded in 1024x768. Low quality audio.
5	341 487	520 291	15	Recorded in 1024x768. Mid-quality audio
6	359 837	542 829	15	Recorded in 1024x768. High quality audio
7	848 959	1 168 815	15	Recorded in 1024x768. No audio. Windows Aero Transparent Glass.
8	836 771	1 186 451	15	Recorded in 1024x768. No audio. Windows Aero without Transparent Glass.
9	429 697	775 640	28	A longer step - recorded in 1024x768. No audio.

Observations

Total data size. The Rich Media guide is 31% smaller than the Flash one. Using Rich Media is a quick way to save bandwidth. Conclusion: Rich Media guides are smaller.

Audio (medium quality) adds 26 % of size to Rich Media Guides and 15 % to Flash guides. Conclusion: Audio adds 15-25%.

Audio quality does not affect data size too much. Starting from medium - using low quality audio decreases the size with 11 % for Rich Media guides and 3.5% for flash. Using high-quality audio adds 2 % for both Rich Media and Flash guides. Conclusion: Audio quality has no great effect.

Recording vs. playback size ratio affects the size of the movies very differently for Rich Media and Flash guides. In the case of Rich Media Guides, using1024x768 recording size instead of 800x600 for a 800x600 playback step the step increases 1 % in size. Doing the same for flash increases the size with 19 %. Conclusion: Stretching adds approx. 20% to flash guides.

Windows Transparent Glass and Windows Aero implicates less compression on the recorded media as it does not contain the same repetition of screen elements. For Rich Media guides the size increases with 220 % when Transparent Glass / Windows Aero is activated. For Flash guides the ratio is 150%. Conclusion: Do not create guides using the Transparent Glass / Aero effect as this increases guide size tremendously.

In general - guides are about 15 to 30 kBytes per second.

SmartAss™ for iPhone

The SmartAss™ for iPhone application is a proof of concept implementation for using SmartAss™ on mobile devices.

Overview
The SmartAss™ iPhone app makes it possible to search, view and create guides using an iPhone. It consists of the Video Add-ons to the SmartAss™ and a piece of client software to be installed on the phone. The client software is currently in testing, so you need to get it from InfoCaption rather than from the AppStore.

All guides on the SmartAss™ server connected with the iPhone app is available to the user, however in text format if not published from the iPhone. The position of the user can be used to suggest guides of relevance as guides may be geo-tagged when created on the device. Guides can also be downloaded onto the phone for access without network coverage.

Components

Search
The search is performed on the SmartAss™ server and locally in downloaded guides. Searches can be refined based on text, topic and location.

Playback
Guides are shown in different ways depending on guide type and how the guide was originally produced. Standard guides are shown in an iPhone-adjusted condensed text mode with still images, suitable to the device. Guides produced on the iPhone are shown in an integrated player.

Offline Support
Guides can be selected for download using the search interface and stored locally for later offline use.

Geo-tagging
The position of the user (using the built-in GPS of the Device) may help suggest guides relevant to current context. As an example installation or configuration procedures of a specific piece of equipment or information related to a specific site.

Creating Guides
A new guide type is introduced to support quick and efficient creation of guides using the iPhone – Quick Guides. This type of guide consists one or more steps each made up by a text, a still image with potential illustrations on and an optional audio track. This makes it possible to create guides on site, describing processes not necessarily linked to application usage. The position of creation is automatically saved.

LiveCam
LiveCam is the iPhone equivalent of DeskCam making it possible for the user to send images to the recipient in real time. The viewer follows displays the image from the remote phone camera using a simple web interface. This may be used to save time when for example supporting users of various types of equipment in much the same way as DeskCam helps supporting users of applications.

SmartAss™ File Types

Here is a summary of SmartAss™ file types

.OMC

Original Media Container. A compressed archive containing original media files for a step when stored on a SmartAss™ server.

.RPC

Rich Media Player Compiled. This is a complied version of a step if you have published it to the Rich Media format, rather than Flash. It is the Rich-Media equivalent of the SWF file. The RPC file contains the RPX for the step and all resources needed to display it in a compressed format.

.RPX

Rich Media Player Xml. This XML contains a description of how the media is used in a step. It basically tells when to do what to a specific image, arrow, movie or sound. You find the RPX files for every step of the guide if you show data files for the current guide and look in the StepXX.res folders.

.SAM

SmartAss Movie. The actual movie file recorded from the screen including screendumps, mouse cursor and clicks. The SAM does not include highlighting elements or audio, only the screen. In GE go to “show data files” on the tools menu and then open one of the StepXX.res folders to find the sam file for each and every step.

.SAG

SmartAss Guide. Contains all the steps and related information for a guide. You can import/export SAG files using the import/export items on the File menu of the Guide Editor or you can find SAG file sfor currently open projects under %user%\My SmartAss Guides\...

SCORM.ZIP

This file is created by the Guide Mover for import into a SCORM 1.2-compliant LMS system.

.SQR

SmartAss Quick Recording. This file contains a step of a guide, or a standalone recording of the screen made using e.g. Incident Recorder or QuickRecorder. It contains all media used by the step including audio. If you hold down SHIFT and CTRL and drag a step from GE onto the desktop you get a SQR file with only that step in it. You may copy steps across between guides this way. SQR files can be imported as steps into the GE and played back using Quick Recorder.