International Business Machines Corporation

Kevin Laverne Schultz

Ronald A Smith

David Frederick Champion

Philip E Grady

Luis Ernesto Elizalde Rodarte

Ravi Shankarnarayan Adapathya

Alan Joseph Happ

Paul A Hakenewerth

Kursad Urungu Oney

Brad Michael Lawrence

Brad Matthew Johnson

Daniel Paul Kelaher

Timothy Andreas Meserth

Robert Edward Steinbugler

David Todd Nay

Bradley Michael Lawrence

In various embodiments, changing the function involves disabling an input device, disabling an output device, changing a display mode of the output device from portrait to landscape, or increasing volume of the output device. In an embodiment, the change of the function is delayed by a time period, and the delay for changing the output device is longer than the delay for changing the input device. If the electronic device is upright, the input device and the output device are enabled. The tilt is sensed by a sensing device, signals from the sensing device are filtered, and a delay is introduced. In this way, premature disabling or enabling of the electronic device is avoided.

Changing a function of a device based on tilt of the device for longer than a time period

A carrier for a portable device having a shoulder strap having a padded region and a cord region. The padded region is adapted to rest on a superior portion of a person's shoulder. A shoulder strap catch is adapted to be coupled at an end thereof to a portable device; and the shoulder strap catch defines an opening through which the cord region of the shoulder strap is slidably retained. The portable device may be moved from a carry to a use position, along the shoulder strap, without dislodging the padded region. In addition or alternatively, the carrying apparatus is a hand strap coupled at a first end to side of a portable device at substantially a center portion thereof. The second end of the hand strap is removably coupled to a strap attachment bracket positioned proximate the opposite side of the portable device, and having a bracket attachment area that can be reversed to support a right or left-handed orientation.

Carrier for a portable device

The invention describes a method and apparatus for audible error code detection and identification. The method and apparatus allow an operator, user, or customer to automatically identify an error condition within an electronic device, such as a workstation computer or network server. The apparatus is configured to output an error message without the need for paper or electronic copies of manufacturer error code lookup tables, except as contained within the apparatus itself, thus simplifying the error detection and identification process. Additionally, the method and apparatus allow an operator to select various output modes so that the apparatus may report either a representation of the generated error code or a representation of the corresponding error condition.

Method and apparatus for audible error code detection and identification

Media center home control system

A system and method in accordance with the present invention allows blind and visually impaired users to quickly identify links to relevant material when 'viewing' web pages that consist primarily of either plain text or images. By generating an aural or visual index to the links on the page being 'viewed', blind and visually impaired users can quickly jump to interesting sites that are linked from the current page without having to wait for the entire page to be voiced by a screen reader application.

Method and system for providing an index to linked sites on a web page for individuals with visual disabilities

Wireless handheld computer enclosure

A system and method for minimizing essential tremor effects while utilizing a pointing device on a computer system is disclosed. The system and method comprises obtaining an individual's tremor characteristics and calculating the frequency components of the tremor to obtain digital filter coefficients. The method and system further includes creating a calibration profile comprised of digital filter coefficient that plugs into a pointing device driver; and utilizing the modified device driver to eliminate the effects of the essential tremors. The system and method includes a software tuning algorithm used to obtain an individual's tremor characteristics. A spectral analysis system will calculate the frequency components of the tremor and digital filter coefficients will be saved as a profile. The appropriate filter coefficients will be passed to a device driver via the profile. The modified device driver will filter the pointing device input data based on the filter coefficients and eliminate tremor effects from the on-screen pointer. Because the profile is transferable, if a device driver capable of accepting the profile plug-in were already installed on a computer, the profile could be loaded and used immediately on the computer without the need for re-calibration.

Device driver system for minimizing adverse tremor effects during use of pointing devices

Growing community of inventors

Raleigh, NC, United States of America

Kevin Laverne Schultz