Our approach to user interface animation involves simulating the interaction of a user with the interface by synthetically generating the input events that drive the session. The interaction is made explicit by displaying the behavior of input devices audio-visually. We describe the construction of a general purpose tool for animating user interfaces - the animation server.
Clients drive the server with textual scripts that describe the interaction.
These may contain constructs for obtaining application context information at runtime and synchronizing with other media servers. We present a few potential applications for animation servers, including a groupware package for loosely coupled collaboration. Visit our FAQ and Feedback Pages.