Doorbell User Groups for Selective Suspicious-Visitor Sharing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing doorbell systems do not effectively enable sharing of visitor information among a group of users, limiting the ability to selectively share visitor data and coordinate responses across multiple locations.
Innovation Solution
A doorbell system that allows users to create a user group, sharing visitor information, including pictures and traits, across multiple remote computing devices, even if they are not directly communicatively coupled, through a database and network connectivity, enabling coordinated alerts and responses.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If doorbell systems share visitor information across all users in a neighborhood, then community safety and coordination improve, but user privacy control and selective sharing capability deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the user base into doorbell user groups, where each group can selectively share visitor information. Users can choose which groups to join and what information to share, creating segmented communities rather than universal sharing. This resolves the contradiction by enabling safety improvements within trusted groups while maintaining privacy control through selective participation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically allows users to adjust their sharing preferences and group memberships. Users can enter or leave doorbell user groups at any time and control what visitor information is shared. This dynamic adaptability resolves the contradiction by allowing the system to balance community safety needs with individual privacy requirements based on user choices.
2Productivity
If doorbell systems enable direct communication between all doorbells and remote devices, then coordination efficiency improves, but system complexity and communication overhead deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The system introduces doorbell user groups as intermediaries between individual doorbells and remote devices. Instead of direct peer-to-peer communication between all devices, information flows through the group structure, which manages and routes communications. This intermediary approach improves coordination efficiency within groups while reducing overall system complexity by centralizing management at the group level.
3Loss of information
If doorbell systems share all visitor data by default, then information availability improves, but user control and privacy management deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically allows users to control what visitor information is shared and with which groups. Rather than static default settings, users can adjust their privacy preferences, enter or leave groups, and control information flow in real-time. This dynamic user control resolves the contradiction by maintaining information availability to chosen groups while preserving user privacy management capability.
Data Source
AI summary
Doorbells can send data to each other to enable a first doorbell user to warn a second doorbell user regarding a suspicious visitor. A first user can indicate a first trait of a visitor via a first remote computing device. The first user can create a user group to enable the members of the user group to use their doorbells to take pictures of suspicious visitors and to send the pictures of the suspicious visitors to other members of the user group.