Cognitive Assistant for Message Criticality Assessment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users face challenges in determining the criticality of incoming communications, such as SMS messages, while engaged in important activities, as they need to visually attend to their devices to assess importance, which can be inconvenient, especially during meetings or driving.
Innovation Solution
A cognitive assistant tool analyzes incoming communications using situational pattern models to identify a criticality level, which is then translated into prompts displayed on a wearable device, using text, colors, or icons, allowing users to prioritize responses based on urgency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If users visually check their communication device to determine the criticality of incoming messages, then they can accurately assess the importance of communications, but they cannot focus on their current activities such as meetings or driving
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a wearable device as an intermediary between the communication device and the user. The wearable device receives the incoming communication data, analyzes its criticality using situational pattern models, and presents the results through prompts (text, color, icon) that the user can perceive without looking at the communication device. This mediator enables accurate assessment while allowing the user to maintain focus on their current activity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical action of visually checking the communication device with a sensory perception system. Instead of requiring the user to look at and interpret message content on a screen, the system translates criticality information into perceptible signals (text prompts, color codes, icons) that can be perceived at a glance or through other senses, substituting the mechanical visual inspection process with an automated analysis and presentation system.
2Loss of information
If users visually attend to their communication device to determine message criticality, then they can make informed decisions about response priority, but it interrupts their current activities and reduces productivity
Solution Approach 1:
The wearable device serves as an intermediary that preserves the criticality information while allowing the user to continue their current activity uninterrupted. The device captures the essential information (criticality level) and presents it in a format that does not require the user to switch attention to the communication device, thus retaining information while maintaining activity continuity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs only the necessary action of determining criticality without requiring the user to perform the excessive action of reading and analyzing the entire message content. By providing partial information (criticality assessment) rather than complete information (full message content), the system enables informed decision-making while minimizing interruption to the user's current activity.
3Loss of information
If the system provides detailed message content to users, then users can fully understand the communication, but it increases the time required to process and respond to messages
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts only the essential information needed for decision-making (the criticality level) from the incoming communication, separating it from the rest of the message content. This extracted criticality information is then presented to the user through prompts, allowing them to understand the communication's importance without investing time in reading the entire message, thus reducing processing time while retaining sufficient understanding.
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides partial information (criticality assessment) rather than complete information (full message content). This partial action is sufficient for the user to determine response priority and make informed decisions about which messages require immediate attention, thereby reducing the time required to process messages while maintaining adequate communication understanding.
Data Source
AI summary
Approaches presented herein enable managing an incoming communication on a communication device from a communication channel. Specifically, the incoming communication is received and analyzed to determine, based on a context of the incoming communication, a situational pattern from among a plurality of situational pattern models. Based on the determined situational pattern, a criticality level is identified. One or more prompts from among a plurality of prompts are transmitted to a wearable device based on the criticality level for display to provide notification to a user of the criticality of the incoming communication.