EYESAFE VERSION 3.00 SHAREWARE 1. OVERVIEW Eyesafe is an easy to use utility which can be programmed to interrupt your computer activity at regular intervals for a certain time period. This forces you to take a break and give your eyes a well earned rest. Once the time period has expired you can continue with your former activity. Its that Simple! Most people acknowledge the UNHEALTHY nature of continuously sitting in front of a computer for extended periods. There is often however a lack of discipline in taking regular breaks. Although Eyesafe was developed primarily as a utility to relieve eyestrain, it can also be used by people who suffer from back pain or similar disorders that require forced reminders to get you up and mobile for a while. It has also been used with great success as a parental control utility to force children addicted to their PC's to STOP and take a break. Furthermore its automatic activation on PC start-up and the inclusion of a password facility enables one to fully control computer activity on one's PC. Eyesafe also has a very usefull TALKING CLOCK facility which will announce the time at specified intervals. See section 4 for more details on this. 2. INSTALLATION To install simply unzip the Eyesafe.ZIP file (extract it into a Temp directory so that you can delete the files after installation) and double click or run the setup.exe file. The install wizard does most of the hard work and once installation is complete you wil have the following files on your system: Eyesafe.Exe Readme.Txt DelsL1.isu _isreg32.dll _deisreg.isr All default to the C:\Program Files\Eyesafe\.. directory. To UNINSTALL simply go to the Windows Start | Settings | Control Panel and activate the Add/Remove programs application. Proceed with the removal of Eyesafe. 3. HOW TO USE To start Eyesafe proceed with the folowing steps: 1 - Double click either the file Eyesafe.exe or the desktop Eyesafe icon or execute via the windows Start|menu icon. 2 - Click the Options button and set the following parameters as required: - Shutdown options (Set the duration of shutdown, the interval period and if required a warning period. - Announce options (If required the time can be announced at specified intervals - see section 4) - Password option - Activation options (Eyesafe can be set to run on PC StartUp, it can then automatically activate the shutdown timer and minimize to the system tray.) 3 - Click the activate button Eyesafe will always STAY ON TOP of all other windows unless you minimize it or if you have ticked the Minimize checkbox in the Activation Options. The utility runs in the background and allows you to continue with your normal activities. Once the time interval has been reached the Eyesafe utility will take over and will only return control to you once the shutdown time has expired. You are then able to continue as normal until the interval time period is reached again whereupon the shutdown operation will repeat. When surfing the internet its best to activate the Warning Item in the Eyesafe Options so that you are warned before shutdown occurs. This will enable you to either terminate your online connection or, if you prefer, start a download that will run while you are on your rest break. Eyesafe minimizes to the system tray. Furthermore the tray icon has a usefull hint facility that allows users to check when the next shutdown will occurr. A right click to the tray icon enables a pop-up menu with some easy to use menu items. 4. TALKING CLOCK (MSAGENT) INFORMATION Microsoft Agent (MSAGENT) is an innovative interface technology that can be programmed to interact with a user. Eyesafe uses this technolgy to enable a MSAGENT character to pop up at specified intervals and announce the time. In order to have this capability the user must install the Microsoft Agent Core Components, A text-to- speech engine and one or more of the Microsoft Agent Characters. The best way to do this is to go to the Microsoft Agent Home Page and follow the instructions for installation and set up: http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/imedia/agent/ Another good web page for set up instructions is: http://www.msagentring.org/agentsetup.html. This page provides the system requirements as well as all the necessary software. Note if you do not wish to make use of the TALKING CLOCK feature the Eyesafe utility will still work as normal and none of the above needs to be carried out 5. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS Eyesafe will work on most PC's and screen resolutions. The only requirement is that the operating system must be Windows 95 or 98. Some anamolies can be experienced however if one is running dos based applications from within Windows 95/98. This is especially true for certain games that are not fully Windows95/98 compliant. Although I have not yet tested the software on NT4 and Windows 2000 operating systems, I have had feedback that the utility works on these platforms aswell. 6. TIPS I find the most convenient way to use Eyesafe is to make it automatically activate whenever you switch your PC on - see 3.2 7. DEVELOPERS DETAILS AND REGISTRATION To register Eyesafe please send US$5 to the address shown below. (The Delphi 3,4 and 5 source code is also available at a cost of US$10.) Developer : George Vrahimis 26 Harry De Stadler Close Fish Hoek 7975 South Africa Email : gvr@msi.imt.za All comments, bug reports and suggestions for future enhancements are most welcome.There is however no warranty or other guarantee of fitness for this software, it is provided solely "as is".