Contact-Specific Emergency Bypass for Mobile Phone Silent Mode
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Solution Overview
Problem
Wireless communications devices in silent mode may fail to notify users of important or emergency messages, disrupting the user's ability to receive timely communications.
Innovation Solution
A mobile phone with contact-specific silent mode disabling capabilities, allowing users to toggle an emergency bypass switch for each contact, enabling audible notifications for selected contacts even in silent mode.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If the device is set to silent mode to reduce noise disturbance, then sleep quality is improved, but the ability to receive timely emergency notifications deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by creating different notification behaviors for different contacts. Each contact can have an individual setting that overrides the global silent mode setting. Contacts marked as emergency contacts will trigger audible notifications even when the device is in silent mode, while other contacts remain silenced. This allows the system to have different 'qualities' of notification behavior depending on the contact relationship.
2Reliability
If audible notifications are enabled for all contacts to ensure timely communication, then communication reliability is improved, but noise disturbance increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the notification system into different categories based on contact relationships. Users can designate specific contacts as emergency contacts, and the system segments the notification behavior accordingly. Emergency contacts receive audible notifications regardless of device mode, while non-emergency contacts are silenced in silent mode. This segmentation allows selective audible notifications without universal noise disturbance.
3Ease of operation
If a global silent mode setting is used to simplify operation, then ease of operation is improved, but flexibility in emergency communication deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces dynamic override capability where individual contact settings can dynamically change the global silent mode behavior. While the global setting remains simple (silent or audible), the system dynamically adapts to emergency contact exceptions. When a contact is marked as emergency, the system dynamically switches from silent behavior to audible behavior for that specific contact, providing flexibility without complicating the basic operation.
Data Source
AI summary
A mobile phone includes a speaker configured to emit audible notifications responsive to incoming calls. A memory is configured to store profiles relating to a plurality of contacts with each profile including an emergency bypass switch that is shiftable between a first position to enable audible notifications in a silent mode of the mobile phone and a second position to disable audible notifications in the silent mode. A touch screen is configured to receive user input to toggle the emergency bypass switch between the first position and the second position on a contact by contact basis. In the silent mode, the speaker emits audible notifications responsive to incoming calls from contacts with the emergency bypass switch in the first position but does not emit audible notifications responsive to incoming calls from contacts with the emergency bypass switch in the second position.