Channel Recommendation System Context-Aware Bias

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Solution Overview

Problem

Unified communication systems lack the ability to effectively recommend the most suitable communication channel for users, relying on guesswork or trial and error, and often fail to consider the preferences and context of the recipient, leading to lower response rates.

Innovation Solution

A channel recommendation system that predicts the optimal communication method based on current and historical context, applying a bias in favor of the recipient's communication profile and context to increase the likelihood of a successful communication attempt, by utilizing a recommendation engine that considers channel information, user preferences, and situational factors.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Productivity

If users manually select communication channels using guesswork or trial and error, then the system maintains simplicity, but communication efficiency and response rates deteriorate

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecommunication efficiencyVSAvoidsystem complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary actions by collecting communication preferences and contextual information about users in advance, storing this data in communication profiles. When a communication request is made, the recommendation engine retrieves and analyzes this pre-collected information to predict the optimal channel, eliminating the need for users to manually trial different channels and significantly improving communication efficiency without requiring complex real-time analysis

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The recommendation engine acts as an intermediary between the user's communication request and the available channels. It processes the request by analyzing communication profiles and contextual information, then provides a predicted optimal channel recommendation. This intermediary layer handles the complexity of channel selection logic centrally, keeping the user interface simple while improving productivity through intelligent automation

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Ease of operation

If the system recommends channels based on sender's preferences only, then the recommendation process is simple, but the recipient's response rate deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveease of channel selectionVSAvoidresponse rate
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of operationVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The system applies local quality by differentiating between sender and recipient communication profiles. The recommendation engine retrieves both the sender's communication profile and the recipient's communication profile, then analyzes them differently - using the sender's profile to understand communication context and the recipient's profile to predict preferred channels. This localized differentiation ensures recommendations are tailored to recipient preferences, improving response rates while maintaining ease of operation through automated processing

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

Solution Approach 2:

The system performs preliminary action by pre-collecting and storing communication preferences for both senders and recipients in their respective communication profiles. This advance preparation of user preference data allows the recommendation engine to quickly match sender intent with recipient preferences, generating reliable channel recommendations that consider both parties' communication habits without requiring complex real-time negotiations or user input

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentEP3533185B1Channel recommendation system and method
Publication Date: 2023.03.01 HUAWEI TECH CO LTD
  • EP3533185B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3533185B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP3533185B1 patent drawingFigure 3A

AI summary

Provided are a channel recommendation system and method. Included is a non-transitory memory comprising instructions and a plurality of communication profiles including a first communication profile associated with a first user and a second communication profile associated with a second user. Each of the communication profiles includes channel information associated with a plurality of channels for communication between the first user and the second user. Also included is one or more processors in communication with the memory. The one or more processors execute the instructions to receive an indication to communicate with the second user from the first user. Further, a first current context of the first user, and a second current context of the second user are determined substantially when the indication is received. Still yet, at least one of the channels is selected utilizing: the first communication profile, the second communication profile, the first current context, and/or the second current context. To this end, a user interface is presented to the first user for initiating communication with the second user via the selected at least one channel.