Digital Assistant Session Interruption Prediction and Notification Delay

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Solution Overview

Problem

Digital assistants often disrupt user interactions with unwanted notifications during sessions, such as reminders, which can be inconvenient and interrupt conversations.

Innovation Solution

The system predicts the length of a digital assistant session based on topic and user data, detects potential interruptions, and either delays or alerts the user to manage these interruptions, allowing for smoother interactions by minimizing disruptions.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If notifications are provided to users during digital assistant sessions, then users receive useful information, but user conversations are interrupted

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvenotification deliveryVSAvoidconversation continuity

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary actions by predicting the duration of the digital assistant session before it starts, and proactively delaying notifications that would occur during this predicted time period. This prevents interruptions before they can happen, maintaining conversation continuity while ensuring notifications are delivered after the session concludes.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

2Ease of operation

If notifications are delayed until after digital assistant sessions, then conversation continuity is maintained, but timely notification delivery is reduced

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveconversation continuityVSAvoidnotification timing

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system uses feedback mechanisms to assess the importance and time-sensitivity of each notification. Based on this feedback, the system intelligently decides whether to delay a notification until after the digital assistant session or to allow it to proceed, thereby balancing conversation continuity with timely notification delivery for urgent matters.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

3Ease of operation

If the system predicts session length and delays notifications, then interruptions are minimized, but system complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveinterruption managementVSAvoidsession prediction mechanism

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system employs self-service mechanisms by automatically analyzing historical session data, predicting future session durations, and autonomously making decisions about notification timing without requiring user intervention. This automation manages interruptions effectively while the complexity is handled by the system itself rather than requiring complex user-side solutions.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

Data Source

PatentUS20240021200A1Systems and methods for addressing possible interruption during interaction with digital assistant

Publication Date: 2024.01.18 ADEIA GUIDES INC

AI summary

Systems and methods are described for handling interruptions during a digital assistant session between a user and a digital assistant by detecting if an interruption event is to occur during the digital assistant session. In response to detecting that the interruption event is to occur, an operation that addresses the interruption event may be caused to be performed.