Smart Home Hazard Detection Event Prioritization

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing hazard detection systems in smart-home environments often overwhelm occupants with excessive information, and there is a need for concise and intelligent presentation of event status through spoken messages, which current systems fail to address effectively.

Innovation Solution

The development of a hazard detection system that prioritizes event status and uses various speaking paradigms to compile and present audible messages concisely, integrating multi-criteria state machines and a speaking logic engine to manage alarming and pre-alarming states, ensuring cognitive overload is avoided while providing essential information.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Loss of information

If hazard detection systems provide comprehensive event status information to all occupants, then information completeness is improved, but cognitive overload increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveinformation completenessVSAvoidcognitive overload
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of informationVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The system applies local quality by delivering customized information to different occupants based on their specific needs and locations. Each occupant receives tailored notifications rather than uniform comprehensive information, reducing cognitive overload while maintaining information completeness for each user context.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

Solution Approach 2:

The system segments the hazard detection network into multiple zones with designated focal occupants. Event status information is divided and routed to specific focal occupants in each zone, preventing any single occupant from receiving overwhelming amounts of information while ensuring comprehensive coverage across the entire network.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

2Loss of information

If hazard detection systems notify all occupants of every event, then information dissemination is improved, but message complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveinformation disseminationVSAvoidmessage complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of informationVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system implements local quality by assigning specific notification responsibilities to focal occupants in different zones. Each focal occupant receives and processes information locally for their zone, simplifying the message structure for individual recipients while maintaining comprehensive information dissemination across the entire network.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

Solution Approach 2:

The notification system is segmented into zone-based units with focal occupants acting as local information handlers. This segmentation divides complex network-wide information dissemination into simpler local interactions, reducing message complexity for each occupant while preserving overall information coverage.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

3Measurement precision

If hazard detection systems use detailed spoken messages, then information accuracy is improved, but cognitive processing load increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveinformation accuracyVSAvoidcognitive processing load
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The system applies partial action by providing focal occupants with detailed accurate information about their local zone events, while other occupants receive summarized or filtered versions. This ensures information accuracy for those who need it most (focal occupants) while reducing cognitive processing load for others who don't require full details.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #16Partial or excessive action

Solution Approach 2:

Information delivery uses local quality by tailoring the level of detail to the recipient's role and location. Focal occupants receive comprehensive accurate information for their zones, while other occupants receive appropriately scaled information, maintaining accuracy where needed while minimizing cognitive processing load elsewhere.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

Data Source

PatentEP3298597B1Event prioritization and user interfacing for hazard detection in multi-room smart-home environment
Publication Date: 2020.06.03 GOOGLE LLC
  • EP3298597B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3298597B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP3298597B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

Systems and methods for providing spoken messages that reflect event status of one or more hazard detection systems within a smart-home environment are described herein. The messages can inform occupants in concise manner that does not overload cognitive recognition of those occupants. For example, the messages may be prioritized to limit the amount of information that is spoken and intelligently condense information in as concise a manner as possible. This may be accomplished by using one or more speaking paradigms to compile audible messages to be played back through a speaker of the hazard detection system.