Dragger™ is a utility for manipulating the left and right mouse buttons of a standard mouse or mouse emulator, such as the HeadMouse® Extreme. Dragger can be used to enter mouse clicks by movement and dwell of the on-screen mouse pointer. This dwell selection function is known as AutoClick™. When enabled, AutoClick watches the pointer and clicks the left mouse button when the pointer is brought to rest for the programmable dwell time. If the pointer remains motionless it will not click again. Using the Dragger toolbar this single left click can be turned into a Double Click, Right Click, and Left and Right Drag.

The purpose of Dragger is to assist those who either have trouble clicking mouse buttons and performing drag or double click operations, or who cannot actuate mouse buttons at all.

The first case usually involves someone who can move the mouse with their hand or foot, but has trouble clicking at the same time. The second case usually involves someone who must use their head to control the mouse pointer and needs a method that does not require additional head movement to actuate the mouse buttons.

For example, to Double Click an object using Dragger just hold the pointer over the Left Double Click button for the dwell time and the button will actuate. Then move the pointer to the object to Double Click and after the dwell time Dragger will Double Click the object. To perform a Left Drag, position the pointer over the Left Drag button for the dwell time and the button will actuate. Next, move the pointer to the object to drag and after the dwell time Dragger will Left Click and hold the mouse button. Then, move the pointer and the object to its new location and dwell again to drop it.

An essential feature of AutoClick (dwell-click) is the ability to easily turn it on and off. When AutoClick is active every time the pointer comes to rest, for the dwell time, a left click will occur. If a head pointer is being used to control the mouse pointer and the user is attending to a task apart from his computer, the head pointer will continue to move the mouse pointer and Dragger will perform unintended left clicks. Therefore, a button called AutoClick Rest is included on the Dragger toolbar to turn dwell-clicking on and off . When this button is down (actuated) the entire screen is dwell sensitive when it is up only the AutoClick Rest button is dwell sensitive.

Even though most users will need AutoClick some may only need assistance with clicking buttons on a standard mouse or trackball. For those, just disable AutoClick and use the toolbar to assist with Double Clicks and Drag operations.

HotZones
HotZones is a special capability that allows access to Dragger buttons that are hidden by full screen Windows applications. Typically, these so-called full screen applications are games. When the normal Dragger toolbar is hidden all features are disabled except for single Left Clicks using dwell. HotZones provides access to the standard Dragger toolbar and several additional features, designed specifically for playing games. The additional features provide the capability to enter arbitrary key combinations (for example, CTL-A), arbitrary character strings and real-time text using a simple pop-up keyboard. The key combinations and strings can be configured for specific games and saved in templates for re use.

Because HotZones are designed for applications that hide the standard Dragger toolbar they must be easily located without visual feedback. Therefore, eight areas (invisible buttons) of the screen are assigned a Dragger feature. These zones are at each corner and the mid point of the top, bottom, left and right screen edges. The sizes of these rectangular zones are user defined.

Entry into a zone is indicated to the user by an audible tone rising in frequency upon entry and falling in frequency when leaving. This tone in combination with fixed zone locations is used to locate each HotZone. After a short time, zone locations are easily remembered and actuation becomes second nature.

A note about time critical games. If dwell is used to actuate a HotZone then a game that relies upon "reflex" responses by a user will be difficult to play. For example, if the object of the game is to shoot an alien before he shoots you a 1/2 second dwell time for each of your shots will significantly reduce your chances of winning.

Dragger for Kids
Dragger for Kids is just Dragger using the simplified toolbar. This reduced functionality toolbar is designed for young children or people with limited cognitive ability. Children usually do not need the capability to perform Double Clicks, Right Clicks and Right Drags, so to limit confusion those buttons were removed. In addition, the configuration button was removed to eliminate the confusion caused by a child changing program parameters. The configuration menu is still accessible by clicking the Dragger icon in the Windows System Tray (area next to clock in lower right corner of the display). The Dragger for Kids toolbar and buttons can be displayed in four different sizes just like the regular Dragger toolbar.

Specifications:

·         IBM PC Compatible Computer running Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT 4.0 (service pack 3 or higher), Windows 2000 or Windows XP

·         Requires at least the Microsoft minimum required RAM per operating system

·         CD-ROM disc drive for installation

·         Input device such as a HeadMouse Extreme, mouse, trackball, or any Windows compatible pointing device

·         1 megabyte free hard drive space