Activating options on background programs

Hello there,
I have an application which minimizes to the System Tray.  There is inotion 
in that program that gets launched by pressing f3 when the program is in the 
foreground.  I would like to have this option available to me without having 
to:
1.  Double-clicking on the icon to bring the program out to the foreground.  
2.  Then pressing f3.  
Is there a way with autoit to send the f3 command to the minimized program 
without having to bring the main application to the foreground.  The f3 key 
brings up its own little window, so I think it is possible, I just don't know 
how to proceed.  
Any ideas?
Cheers,
Martin