Feature Phone Assistant Caching for Low-Latency Action Suggestions

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Solution Overview

Problem

Feature phones with limited hardware resources and operating systems face challenges in effectively implementing assistant client applications due to constraints such as limited network connectivity, resource usage, and background application execution, which hinder efficient rendering of assistant actions.

Innovation Solution

Proactive caching of transient assistant action suggestions at feature phones, where suggestions are prefetched from remote systems and stored locally with metadata, allowing for efficient rendering with minimal latency and reduced network reliance, even in poor connectivity conditions.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If transient assistant action suggestions are fetched from remote systems in real-time, then the assistant functionality is available, but network bandwidth is consumed and latency increases in poor network conditions

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveassistant functionality availabilityVSAvoidnetwork bandwidth consumption
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSLoss of energy

Solution Approach 1:

The system proactively prefetches and caches transient assistant action suggestions and their corresponding metadata to local storage before they are needed. This preliminary action ensures that when the assistant client application needs to provide suggestions, they are already available locally, eliminating real-time network dependencies and reducing bandwidth consumption in poor network conditions

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

A local cache storage system acts as an intermediary between the remote assistant system and the assistant client application. The cache stores both the transient action suggestions and their metadata locally, allowing the application to retrieve information without constant remote communication, thus reducing network bandwidth usage while maintaining functionality

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Loss of information

If full text content of transient action suggestions is transmitted to remote systems, then complete information is provided, but data transmission efficiency decreases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveinformation completenessVSAvoiddata transmission efficiency
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of informationVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The system extracts and transmits only the essential metadata portions of the transient action suggestions to remote systems, rather than transmitting the complete text content. This selective extraction maintains the functionality needed for action initiation while significantly reducing the amount of data that needs to be transmitted, thereby improving data transmission efficiency

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The system creates and uses local copies of the transient action suggestions and their metadata stored in the cache. These local copies allow the assistant client application to provide suggestions and initiate actions using cached information without requiring repeated transmission of full content to remote systems, improving transmission efficiency

Inventive Principle:
Principle #26Copying

3Extent of automation

If assistant actions require remote system communication for execution, then centralized control is maintained, but response time increases due to network latency

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecentralized controlVSAvoidresponse time
Core Design Contradiction:
Extent of automationVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system proactively caches both the transient action suggestions and their corresponding metadata locally before they are needed. This preliminary caching action enables the assistant client application to execute actions locally using cached metadata without requiring real-time remote system communication, thus reducing response time while maintaining centralized control through selective metadata transmission

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

4Adaptability or versatility

If feature phones with limited hardware resources implement assistant applications, then functionality is provided, but performance is constrained by processing power and memory limitations

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveassistant application functionalityVSAvoidhardware resource requirements
Core Design Contradiction:
Adaptability or versatilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system extracts and stores only the essential metadata portions of assistant actions locally on the feature phone, rather than storing complete action definitions or requiring full processing capabilities. This extraction approach reduces the computational burden and memory requirements on resource-constrained devices while maintaining the ability to provide assistant functionality

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

A local cache storage system acts as an intermediary that stores pre-processed metadata locally, reducing the computational workload on the feature phone's limited processing resources. The cache allows the device to function with reduced hardware requirements by handling data retrieval and basic processing locally rather than requiring powerful local computation

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Data Source

PatentEP3920025B1Proactive caching of transient assistant action suggestions at a feature phone
Publication Date: 2026.04.29 GOOGLE LLC
  • EP3920025B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3920025B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP3920025B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

Proactive caching, at a client device (e.g., a feature phone), of transient assistant action suggestions for selective rendering by an assistant client application of the client device. A transient assistant action suggestion, when rendered via an assistant client application and selected, causes the assistant client application to initiate performance of a corresponding assistant action. In various implementations, a prefetched transient action suggestion can be a time-constrained suggestion that includes at least associated rendering restriction metadata that defines one or more temporal windows to which rendering of the time-constrained suggestion is restricted. Proactive cache refresh rate metadata can also be associated with transient action suggestion(s) and defines a duration during which the assistant client application is to refrain from interfacing with a remote system to prefetch updated transient assistant action suggestions.