Context-Aware Content Navigation for Wearable Displays

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative Solutions
Generate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

In industrial settings, users face inefficiencies when navigating and accessing large volumes of technical documentation, requiring manual navigation and frequent task interruptions, which hampers productivity.

Innovation Solution

A context-aware command-driven navigation system utilizing digital tags on wearable devices, allowing users to efficiently access specific content or portions of content through voice commands and location/orientation-based contextual determinations, enabling hands-free operation and seamless navigation within large documentation sets.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Loss of time

If manual navigation or touch-based systems are used to access technical documentation, then users can access documentation content, but users experience time loss and task interruptions

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvetime to access documentationVSAvoidoperation convenience
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of timeVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The system pre-loads and caches documentation content and digital tags into local memory before they are needed. When a user arrives at a physical location, the context is determined and relevant content is already available locally, eliminating network latency and enabling instant access without task interruptions

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The patent replaces manual navigation and touch-based interaction with voice command recognition. Users can issue hands-free voice commands to navigate documentation, transforming mechanical hand operations into acoustic field interactions, which reduces time loss while maintaining ease of operation

Inventive Principle:
Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

2Productivity

If users navigate through large volumes of documentation manually, then all documentation content is accessible, but productivity decreases due to frequent task interruptions

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveworkflow efficiencyVSAvoidtime spent searching
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system extracts only the relevant documentation content and digital tags needed for the current context and location into local memory. This selective extraction eliminates the need to search through entire documentation sets, reducing search time while maintaining access to all necessary information, thereby improving productivity

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

Digital tags serve as intermediaries between physical locations and documentation content. Each digital tag encodes contextual information about a location and links to relevant documentation portions. Users interact with these tags through voice commands rather than manually searching documentation, eliminating task interruptions and improving workflow efficiency

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

3Speed

If context-aware navigation with digital tags is implemented, then content access speed improves, but device complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecontent access speedVSAvoidsystem complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
SpeedVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system segments documentation into discrete portions, each associated with specific digital tags and contexts. This segmentation allows the wearable device to load and manage smaller, more manageable units of content locally, improving access speed while keeping the overall system complexity manageable through modular organization

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

Digital tags serve multiple functions: they identify physical locations, encode contextual information, link to documentation content, and enable voice command recognition. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate systems for each function, achieving fast content access without proportionally increasing device complexity

Inventive Principle:
Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Data Source

PatentEP3559777B1Context based content navigation for wearable display
Publication Date: 2023.10.04 REALWEAR INC
  • EP3559777B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3559777B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP3559777B1 patent drawingFigure 3A~3C

AI summary

Systems and methods provide for content navigation based on an identified context. A wearable device is initiated and loaded with content from a content repository. The loaded content comprises one or more digital tags. The wearable device is configured to provide for display, content associated with a digital tag. A context is determined for the wearable device, and based on the determined context a digital tag can be presented to a user for selection, the digital tag associate with a piece of content or a portion of content. A command can be received to select the digital tag or perform an action associated with the digital tag. A piece or portion of content associated with the selected digital tag is provided for display. A second digital tag can be presented along with the display of a piece or portion of content to enable further navigation through the content.