External Assistance Channel for Voice User Interface Visual References
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users engaging with Voice User Interfaces (VUIs) often lack sufficient visual reference images for objects or products identified by digital assistants, leading to an inadequate user experience.
Innovation Solution
Establishing a separate communications channel distinct from the VUI channel to provide users with images and additional information related to objects of interest, thereby enhancing the user experience and conserving bandwidth on the VUI channel.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If visual reference images are provided through the VUI channel, then user experience is improved, but bandwidth consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the information delivery system into two separate channels: the VUI channel for voice-based interaction and an external assistance channel for visual reference images. This segmentation allows visual information to be delivered through a dedicated channel, preventing bandwidth consumption on the VUI channel while ensuring complete information delivery to the user.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an external assistance channel as an intermediary between the digital assistant system and the user's visual needs. This intermediary channel handles the transmission of visual reference images, allowing the VUI channel to focus solely on voice processing and interaction, thereby optimizing bandwidth utilization across the system.
2Loss of information
If additional information channels are established, then user experience is enhanced, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The external assistance channel is designed to work with existing VUI infrastructure, leveraging the same server architecture and communication protocols. This multi-functionality approach allows the system to handle both voice and visual information delivery without requiring entirely separate systems, thereby enhancing information completeness while controlling complexity through shared components.
Data Source
AI summary
A user interacts with a Voice User Interface (VUI) software application such as a digital assistant on a first user device such as a smart phone to access information about different products by communicating with a VUI server over a first communications channel. The VUI server relays indications of the products to an assistance server, for example a server in a wireless telecommunications network of a telecommunications service provider for the user device, and the assistance server provides additional information regarding the different products including images to the first user device and/or one or more additional user devices such as a smart television connected to the wireless telecommunications network user device via at least a second communications channel that is distinct from the first communications channel.