Digital Assistant for Private Audio Response in Talk Groups

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Solution Overview

Problem

In public safety communication systems, critical information may be missed by team members in loud or noisy environments due to the need for repeated transmissions of conversations across talk groups, increasing traffic and workload for dispatchers and other members.

Innovation Solution

An electronic digital assistant is implemented to automatically detect audio inquiries within a talk group and establish a private channel with the requesting member, providing individual audio responses to reduce group communication traffic and improve user experience.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If repeated transmissions of conversations are used to ensure critical information reaches all team members, then information reliability is improved, but communication traffic and dispatcher workload increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveinformation delivery reliabilityVSAvoidcommunication traffic volume
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSQuantity of substance

Solution Approach 1:

An automatic speech recognition system acts as an intermediary between the audio communication and team members. The system transcribes spoken words into text, identifies keywords and entities, and automatically generates follow-up questions or information requests, eliminating the need for manual repetition by dispatchers while ensuring critical information is captured and distributed.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The system enables self-service by automatically processing audio communications through speech recognition, keyword extraction, and entity recognition. The automated generation of follow-up questions and information requests allows the system to serve itself without human intervention, reducing dispatcher workload while maintaining information reliability.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

2Loss of information

If repeated transmissions are used to ensure information reaches all team members, then information completeness is improved, but time consumption increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveinformation completenessVSAvoidcommunication time
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of informationVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary action by continuously transcribing audio communications and pre-identifying keywords, entities, and potential information gaps in real-time. This allows the system to proactively generate follow-up questions before the conversation ends, ensuring information completeness without requiring time-consuming repeated transmissions.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The patent replaces the mechanical system of manual repeated transmissions with an automated speech recognition and natural language processing system. This substitution eliminates the time-consuming manual process of repeating conversations while maintaining complete information delivery through automated transcription and analysis.

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

3Measurement precision

If manual monitoring and repetition by dispatchers is used, then information accuracy is improved, but device complexity and operational burden increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveinformation accuracyVSAvoidsystem operational complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs self-service by automatically transcribing audio, extracting keywords and entities, and generating follow-up questions without human intervention. This automation maintains information accuracy through sophisticated speech recognition and natural language processing while eliminating the operational burden on dispatchers.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The automatic speech recognition system serves as an intermediary that handles the complex tasks of audio transcription, keyword extraction, and question generation. This intermediary absorbs the system complexity, allowing dispatchers to operate simpler interfaces while maintaining high information accuracy through automated processing.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Data Source

PatentEP3656104B1Method and device for responding to an audio inquiry
Publication Date: 2021.05.19 MOTOROLA SOLUTIONS INC
  • EP3656104B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3656104B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP3656104B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

Method and device for responding to an audio inquiry. The electronic computing device monitors audio communications transmitted between communication devices that are members of a talk group on a talk group channel. The electronic computing device detects an audio inquiry from a first communication device and generates an audio content response to be provided in response to the audio inquiry. The electronic computing device determines based on one or both of the audio inquiry and the audio content response, and as a function of the context information, that the audio content response is to be individually provided to the first communication device. The electronic computing device then establishes a private call with the first communication device and provides the audio content response to the first communication device via the private call.