OptiKey User Manual

Using the Icon Based Keyboard

Required Hardware: Any accepted eye tracker hardware or Standard Computer Mouse

Installation

By default the Icon Keyboard should be active on launch but if it is not there are two methods to activate it.

Activating the Icon Keyboard

Method One:

• Navigate via Mouse or Eyetracker the menu icon. ( The menu Icon will look like three horizontal lines and be in the top left hand corner)
• From the menu screen, navigate to the Language Button, near the left side of the keyboard
• From the language menu, navigate to the Icon Based Keyboard setting which should be near the bottom right.
• Return to the main menu using the back buttons and you will see the keyboard has changed to the Icon keyboard.

Method Two:

• In the Top-Right corner there is an icon that will automatically change the keyboard to the Icon Keyboard

The Menu

The Menu Button is located near the top-right corner on most keyboard layouts. From the Menu Screen you will be able to change settings such as:

• Keyboard Size
• On Screen Location
• Opacity
• Language

Using the Keyboard There are two ways of using the keyboard, the intended controller is an eye tracker but the keyboard can also be interacted with via mouse. Using either you only need to hover over the button on the on-screen keyboard. You will see a red circle start to fill around the button, this shows the key that you are selecting. You only need to hold the mouse, or your gaze on the desired button until the circle is complete. After you have used the button, a phrase matching the icon will appear at the top of the keyboard. You can delete anything from this bar using the backspace arrow on the right hand side.

The icons are to allow a user to communicate basic concepts though the use of an icon representing an object, emotion or felling when the user may be unable to type it normally on a keyboard. The icons are separated into categories such as Sport, Emotion, Weather and many others. Activating any of these icons will lead you to another keyboard with a group of icons that are related to that subject. Activating those icons will place text in the text box at the top of the keyboard showing what that icon is for.

Fast Access Icons The Left side of the keyboard is reserved for eight keys specifically for simple communications, such as yes, no, thank you, goodbye etc.

Auto Complete Upon entering letters into the keyboard, the keyboard will attempt to guess which word you are trying to type and will list suggestions at the top of the keyboard. You can pick one of these words simply by selecting it, in which case it will replace the letters you were typing with the word. You can also scroll through additional words by activating the arrow buttons next to the text box.

Speak

Activating the speaker icon in the top left corner will cause the program to narrate the text that is displayed in textbox at the top of the keyboard.

Delete

If you ever would like to erase a word or anything from the text bar there is an erase button located on the main keyboard screen. There is also a button on the left side of the text bar if you ever want to clear the whole text bar of text.

Adjusting the Window

By Default the window is maximized, it is possible to dock the window using the icons in the top right of the keyboard.

The size of the window can be adjusted if the keyboard is docked. This can be done from the menu screen.