Braille Reader-Integrated Keyboard

ABSTRACT Systems, devices and methods of providing braille reader-integrated keyboard for use by both visually impaired and sighted users are disclosed. The keyboard is provided with a braille reader of 10 mm or less width, above the function keys of a normal laptop keyboard. Buttons are provided on the side of a regular QWERTY keyboard layout, that allow navigating the menus. The method envisages swapping the existing off-shelf keyboard of any laptop or other computing device for the braille reader-integrated keyboard. The integrated keyboard has several functions including being detectable by the system, and other accessible-friendly features such as audio feedback

Mount

This disclosure relates to a mount that allows a user to attach an electronic device such a camera, speaker, set top box, or specialized video conferencing system to another electric device or fixture. The mount may be affixed under a screen, to a wall, on the floor, or behind a screen inside a wall. The mount may include a screw hole for use with a screw to attach the mount to an electronic device. A user may insert a device such as a camera inside the U-shaped outwardly protruding portions of the mount prior to mounting. The user may remove and replace items from within the mount as desired

MOUNTING SCREW BASED SYSTEM IDENTIFICATION

A mounting screw identification system can be used to determine a software configuration for an electronic device based on a type of electronic device chassis. A Printed Circuit Board (PCB), having screw holes with an open electrical circuit formed upon them, is placed in an electronic device chassis with mounting screw receiving threads. Conductive mounting screws are then inserted through the aligned PCB screw holes into the mounting screw receiving threads of the chassis to hold the PCB in place with the device chassis and also fill the electrical gap in the PCB screw holes to close the electrical circuit. A processor in the electronic device reads values on general purpose input/output (GPIO) pins, which can be either high or low, that are connected to the PCB screw holes to determine which screw holes have inserted screws that complete the electrical connection. Subsequently, the processor decodes the GPIO pin values to identify a binary code for the device chassis and determines the corresponding software configuration for the electronic device

Dynamic framerate adjustment

Presentation of content from a computer or other device on a large screen, such as a projector or a television, is a common activity. The computer is connected to the large screen via a wired or a wireless connection. The content to be presented can include documents and presentation slides with static content such as text and graphics, or content that includes motion such as videos. Default encoders that target high frame rates do not account for content type. The content of a document or slide may appear blurry or include undesirable artifacts if presented at a high frame rate. If the default encoder is configured with a low frame rate, videos may appear jerky and unpleasant to view. This disclosure describes techniques to select an appropriate content presentation mode that targets a suitable frame rate. The selection is based on encoder statistics, e.g., the percentage of blocks that change in successive frames of the video content from the computer. The selected mode uses a suitable framerate based on the type of content for display on the large screen

CHARGE DIRECTION INDICATING USBC CABLE

A hardware based solution is proposed for indicating charging direction in a USB-C cable. The solution comprises of bi-color red/green LEDs attached to the connector of the USB-C cable. The LEDs are electrically connected and will glow when the USB-C supportive device is connected to the USB-C supportive system either for receiving or providing power. The device which is providing power or receiving power is identified by the color of the glowing LED at the specific end of the connector of USB-C cable, for example green could indicate providing end and red the receiving end. The LEDs are always connected in the opposite orientation on each end of the cable such that they always have opposing color

Operational rules to manage power consumption for content display

The display is often responsible for a large proportion of the overall power consumed by a device. The total power consumption of a display depends on a number of factors such as the number of pixels that need to be switched on, the color and brightness of the pixels, and the rate at which the on-screen content is updated. Displays that draw high amounts of power can deplete the available power resources of a device relatively quickly, thus shortening the amount of time a user can operate the device without needing to charge or replace the device battery. This disclosure describes techniques to specify and enforce a system of rules that dictate the operation of display pixels while rendering the content to be displayed. The rules describe upper or lower bounds for various pixel-related parameters such as switched on state, color, brightness, refresh rate, etc

Meeting room personalization

Hardware for teleconferencing and videoconferencing is installed in meeting rooms. Typically, such hardware has several settings, e.g., microphone sensitivity, speaker volume, display contrast, etc. Such settings are manually entered or changed upon entry of participants in a meeting. Settings change frequently based on the preferences of different users of the meeting rooms. Each change requires participants to perform manual actions during a meeting. It is also possible that multiple meeting participants in a room disagree on settings. Techniques of this disclosure enable automatically setting meeting room equipment parameters based on user preferences. Personal meeting room settings are stored locally on a mobile device of meeting participants. These settings are automatically applied to meeting room equipment when a user is present in the meeting room. Further, the techniques can automatically resolve conflicting settings across multiple participants. Settings for meeting room equipment are seamlessly personalized for meeting participants

Catching Element Formation In The Act

Gamma-ray astronomy explores the most energetic photons in nature to address some of the most pressing puzzles in contemporary astrophysics. It encompasses a wide range of objects and phenomena: stars, supernovae, novae, neutron stars, stellar-mass black holes, nucleosynthesis, the interstellar medium, cosmic rays and relativistic-particle acceleration, and the evolution of galaxies. MeV gamma-rays provide a unique probe of nuclear processes in astronomy, directly measuring radioactive decay, nuclear de-excitation, and positron annihilation. The substantial information carried by gamma-ray photons allows us to see deeper into these objects, the bulk of the power is often emitted at gamma-ray energies, and radioactivity provides a natural physical clock that adds unique information. New science will be driven by time-domain population studies at gamma-ray energies. This science is enabled by next-generation gamma-ray instruments with one to two orders of magnitude better sensitivity, larger sky coverage, and faster cadence than all previous gamma-ray instruments. This transformative capability permits: (a) the accurate identification of the gamma-ray emitting objects and correlations with observations taken at other wavelengths and with other messengers; (b) construction of new gamma-ray maps of the Milky Way and other nearby galaxies where extended regions are distinguished from point sources; and (c) considerable serendipitous science of scarce events -- nearby neutron star mergers, for example. Advances in technology push the performance of new gamma-ray instruments to address a wide set of astrophysical questions.Comment: 14 pages including 3 figure

Abstracts from the NIHR INVOLVE Conference 2017

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Clinical Sequencing Exploratory Research Consortium: Accelerating Evidence-Based Practice of Genomic Medicine

Despite rapid technical progress and demonstrable effectiveness for some types of diagnosis and therapy, much remains to be learned about clinical genome and exome sequencing (CGES) and its role within the practice of medicine. The Clinical Sequencing Exploratory Research (CSER) consortium includes 18 extramural research projects, one National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) intramural project, and a coordinating center funded by the NHGRI and National Cancer Institute. The consortium is exploring analytic and clinical validity and utility, as well as the ethical, legal, and social implications of sequencing via multidisciplinary approaches; it has thus far recruited 5,577 participants across a spectrum of symptomatic and healthy children and adults by utilizing both germline and cancer sequencing. The CSER consortium is analyzing data and creating publically available procedures and tools related to participant preferences and consent, variant classification, disclosure and management of primary and secondary findings, health outcomes, and integration with electronic health records. Future research directions will refine measures of clinical utility of CGES in both germline and somatic testing, evaluate the use of CGES for screening in healthy individuals, explore the penetrance of pathogenic variants through extensive phenotyping, reduce discordances in public databases of genes and variants, examine social and ethnic disparities in the provision of genomics services, explore regulatory issues, and estimate the value and downstream costs of sequencing. The CSER consortium has established a shared community of research sites by using diverse approaches to pursue the evidence-based development of best practices in genomic medicine