Abstract: A Braille mouse uses a character-code carrying member such as a disc, belt or drum to selectively raise Braille pins with a single solenoid. The Braille pins are provided with eccentric fingers which interact with a character-code carrying member, so that the character codes can be arranged in straight radial lines to allow all possible six-pin Braille symbols to be provided on a member of minimum size.

Abstract: Substantial pitch variations in artificial speech produced by dialing out a sequence of stored digital waveforms are made possible without significant distortion by varying pitch both by truncation or extension of pitch period waveforms, and by varying the dialout rate. In another aspect of the invention, pitch changes are made more natural by distributing each pitch change evenly over a large number of pitch periods during voiced phonemes.

Abstract: Artificial speech is produced with minimized memory requirements by using a bank of digital oscillators to produce voiced sounds by combining multiple harmonies of a fundamental-frequency sine wave, and using only one of these oscillators to reproduce stored nonsinusoidal waveforms for unvoiced sounds. Sufficient dynamic range is achieved with a minimum number of oscillators by generating only every other harmonic at the higher frequencies. All harmonics are derived from a single stored digitized sine wave by using stored sets of skip counts and amplitude codes corresponding to various voiced sounds to be produced.

Abstract: An inflow cannula for intraortic blood pumps has a curved, spring-loaded body for blind retrograde insertion through the aortic arch, and a soft, beveled foldable but resilient tip which properly positions the tip, if necessary, with respect to the aortic valve prior to retrograde insertion of the distal end of the cannula through the aortic valve. Auxiliary intake openings are provided in the side walls of the cannula adjacent its distal end to prevent suction from holding the tip in its collapsed state after insertion through the aortic valve.

Abstract: Improved speech sounds are produced from an all-software speech generating program on a computer which does not have a digital-to-analog converter by polling a first timer connected to the computer's speaker until a time-out is found, then applying a sample time value to a second timer so connected, and restarting the first timer. This results in the generation of a variable-duty-cycle carrier without interfering with the computer's operation. In an alternative embodiment, the first timer is used to generate an interrupt at regular intervals, and a sample time value from a storage buffer is then applied to the second timer.