AHEAD application manual Starting the application Make sure the PHANToM is initialized correctly by e.g. running the PHANToM test application. Start the drawing program. This will open a small command prompt window and a larger Reachin window with two cursors (green and orange). Draw mode and exploration mode The program has two modes drawing mode and exploration mode. You switch between these two modes using the Q-key on the keyboard. The program starts in drawing mode. Drawn lines can be felt with the PHANToM stylus as either raised lines or grooves. When a drawing is locked for editing (in explore mode) no lines can be added to the drawing. Drawing on the virtual paper, draw mode only Use the PHANToM stylus as you would an ordinary pen. Press the pen tip against the virtual paper positioned vertically in the work space. Press the PHANToM stylus switch (the front button on the OMNI), and make your drawing while maintaining contact with the virtual paper. When releasing the switch, the TTS will speak a generalized text (number and the word curve ). This text tag can be edited (see Text tag editing). Every time the PHANToM switch is pressed, a new vector object will be created, and the tag number will be incremented. When drawing with the mouse as input device, press the left mouse button to draw. Selecting a curve When hovering over a curve with the mouse or touching it with the PHANToM the TTS will speak the corresponding text tag. This will also select the touched curve, making it active (which is shown by making the curve with yellow color). Dragging the other device, exploration mode only When the application is used by two persons, one using PHANToM and the other using the mouse, each of the users can pull the other user s cursor to his or her own cursor position. The applications must be in exploration mode. The mouse user drags the PHANToM with the left mouse button, and the PHANToM user drags the mouse user with the front button on the stylus. Naturally, the PHANToM cursor and stylus is dragged to the mouse position by, but the PHANToM can only move the mouse cursor. Loading a previously drawn file Press F1 to open a standard file open dialog and choose a file with the extension.mcl. Remember to press Q if you want to lock the file for editing. Saving a drawing to a file
Press F to open a standard file save dialog. Loading a background Press B to open a standard file open dialog and choose a file with the extension.png that has exactly the size 256*256 pixels. Other sizes cannot be handled by the application as they are too detailed. The background can be felt as a relief drawing, but there are no vector objects and hence no text tags. Toggling the relief, draw mode only Press T to toggle between positive (outwards) relief, drawn in black, and negative (inward) relief, drawn in white. Text tag editing Select a curve. Press F4 to open an editing window. Write the new text tag for the curve in the window. The text tag can be as long as 512 characters, leaving space for detailed explanations if necessary. Turning sound on and off F3 turns the TTS on and off. There is also the possibility to turn a localizations sound on and off (by default it is off), by pressing F2. Editing drawn objects, draw mode only When an object is selected (marked in yellow, text tag spoken), that object can be handled in different ways: Back PHANToM button Right mouse button Drag marked object Drag marked object Erasing all Space Erase marked object C Copy marked object P Paste marked object L Resize object: make object larger S Resize object: make object smaller Z Scale object (dialog works best for sighted users) 1 Move object: left 2 Move object: up 3 Move object: down 4 Move object: right 6 Convert object: to rectangle 7 Convert object: to circle 8 Convert object: to line 9 Convert object: to horizontal line 0 Convert object: to vertical line
Press F5 to erase the whole drawing area. This will also reset the background to a neutral one (all gray). A different background must be reloaded after the erase all command. Using beacons Force beacons can be placed in the drawing. A beacon is used to be dragged back to a specific location. There is no limitation to the number of beacons that can be placed in a drawing. All beacons will be added in a beacon list that the user can parse through. The first beacon created will be the first in the list and the second will be the next and so on. To add a beacon, put the PHANToM pen at the exact location where you want the beacon, and then press F9. To turn on the beacon, press F8. If there is more than one beacon in the drawing, the beacons can be parsed through with the Tab key. They will be parsed through in the order they were created. To remove all beacons, press F7. The dragging that pulls the user to the beacon can be increased by pressing I and decreased by pressing D. Pressing R restores the s to their original values. Help command Press H to hear a spoken list of the keyboard commands. Editing help file You can make a personalized help file by editing the text file with the name cur_help.txt in the folder Help. Make sure you save the original file.
List of commands Draw mode Left mouse button Right mouse button Front PHANToM button Back PHANToM button draw drag marked object draw drag marked object Key Function C Copy Copy P Paste Paste L Enlarge Larger S Shrink Smaller Z Zoom dialog to get exact scaling Zoom T Change type of relief (black or white) Type of relief I Increase strength of pulling Increase D Decrease strength of pulling Decrease R Restore default pulling Restore Mellanslag F5 Erase curve Erase everything 1 Move left 2 Move up 3 Move down 4 Move right F4 Edit speech feedback for curve F1 Open file F Save file File (save) B Open background file Background 6 Convert to rectangle 7 Convert to circle 8 Convert to line
9 Convert to horizontal line 0 Convert to verticla line F9 F8 Tab F7 F2 F3 Add beacon Toggle beacons on/beacons off Activate next beacon Remove all beacons Toggle audio feedback Toogle speech feedback H Help Help Exploration mode Left mouse button Front phantom button pull PHANToM to mouse position pull mouse cursor to PHANToM position Key Function I Increase strength of pulling Increase D Decrease strength of pulling Decrease R Restore default pulling Restore F5 F4 Erase everything Edit speech feedback for curve F1 Open file F Save file File (save) B Open background file Background F9 F8 Tab F7 F2 F3 Add beacon Toggle beacons on/beacons off Activate next beacon Remove all beacons Toggle audio feedback Toogle speech feedback H Help Help