S-Keys for Windows

If you wish to use the Eyegaze Edge as a keyboard and mouse interface to your own PC, software is required on the second computer to translate commands from the Eyegaze Edge into system (keyboard and mouse movement) commands.

The Eyegaze Edge uses a program called SKEYS on your PC which accepts commands via a serial port connection. SKEYS uses the General Input Device Emulating Interface (GIDEI) from the Trace R&D Center.

Click here to download the SKeys installation program for Windows. (364KB)
The installer will ask you which language version you wish to install. The following languages are currently available:

    * US English
    * French
    * German
    * Norwegian
    * Spanish
    * Swedish

NOTE: To use this installation program on Windows 2000, you must have Service Pack 1 or later installed. Otherwise an error in the Windows File Protection will cause the Windows version of the SKeys program to overwrite the LC Technologies version of the program. (See Microsoft Knowledgebase Q262002)

The installation program will also prompt you for which start-up option you want. The Automatic option places a short-cut in the Start-up directory. That will cause SKeys to run every time the computer is booted. The Desktop option will place an icon on the desktop. You can manually start SKeys by double clicking on this icon. The Start-menu option will place a short-cut in the Windows Start menu. You can manually start SKeys by dragging the cursor through that Start button on the lower left side of your screen and then up until you locate the SKeys entry. Click to start SKeys. (You can run the installation program more than once if you want to create more than one shortcut.)

If you receive error messages about missing DLL files when you run SKEYS, you may need some of the files in the following archive.

    * Installation program with the supplemental DLLs required on some systems to run SKEYS. (784KB)

NOTE:
We are happy to make this software available as freeware to anyone who can use it. Please keep in mind however that we do not have the resources to provide support for this software to the general public. Feel free to contact us with comments.

INSTALLING SKEYS TO CONTROL A WINDOWS COMPUTER USING EYEGAZE

Using Eyegaze connected to a PC you can operate the keyboard and mouse functions of the PC using only the eye-driven keyboard and mouse functions on the Eyegaze Edge.

Links to the different language versions of SKEYS are listed above. SKEYS is intended for use on a PC controlled by the Eyegaze Edge. SKEYS is a replacement for the Microsoft Windows (Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, and 2000) SerialKeys functions. SerialKeys, which is a portion of the Accessibility Options included with Windows, has a number of known problems that are fixed in the SKEYS program.

To install SKEYS on your Windows computer:

   1. Download and run the InstallSKeys.exe program. (The installation program now automatically creates a Windows shortcut to the SKEYS program.)
   2. The last step of the SKEYS installation program allows you to start SKeys. You will probably want to go ahead and run it to configure Skeys for your serial port.
   3. Configure the Eyegaze Edge to operate your PC.

To manually run the SKEYS program and configure it for your serial port.

   1. If SKeys isn't running, press the Start button, then Programs, then Startup (in the lower grouping of programs -- on Windows NT & Windows 2000, there are two startup folders), then Shortcut to skeys.exe. This will run the SKEYS program. (You can safely ignore the error messages and simply dismiss the error messages by clicking on OK.)
   2. Select File, then Change Serial Port. In the following dialog you can select the serial port for SKEYS. The serial port you select should correspond to the port you have the cable connected to on the back of your Windows PC (and is unrelated to the port number you set using the EcsSettings program on the Eyegaze Edge.

Configure the Eyegaze Edge

The last thing you need to do is configure the Eyegaze Edge to communicate with your Windows computer and SKEYS. You do this by running the EcsSettings program on the Eyegaze Edge.

   1. On the Eyegaze Edge, run the EcsSettings program.
   2. Select the PC Access settings tab.
   3. Set the Comm Link to Skeys/TTAM.
   4. The serial port name should be set to the port name of the port on the Eyegaze System where the cable to the Windows computer is connected. This has nothing to do with the port name selected in the SKEYS program on the Windows computer you wish to operate.
   5. The third number should be set to the SKEYS communication speed which is fixed at 19200.


PLEASE NOTE: When running the SKEYS program with a Windows screen saver, when the screen saver activates SKEYS loses control of the second PC. After installing SKEYS, please disable any screen savers on the second PC.

S-Keys for Mac

Download S-Keys for Mac