Playback Audio Alerts With Priority Queueing Across Rooms
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing media playback systems struggle to effectively notify users of smart device alerts across multiple rooms and devices, especially when users are distracted or their mobile devices are silenced or out of range.
Innovation Solution
A method and system where a playback device is configured with an API to receive alert communications from smart devices, prioritize notifications, and output audio notifications accordingly, allowing for synchronized alert notifications across multiple rooms and devices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If alert notifications are sent only to mobile devices, then users can receive notifications when their mobile devices are available and not in silent mode, but users cannot receive notifications when their mobile devices are silenced, out of range, or unavailable
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a media playback system as an intermediary device that receives and plays alert notifications from smart devices. This mediator allows notifications to be delivered through alternative channels (audio playback system) when the primary channel (mobile device) is unavailable, thus improving notification reliability without requiring complex multi-device synchronization protocols
Solution Approach 2:
The media playback system is designed to perform multiple functions: it serves as both an audio playback device for media content and as a notification delivery device for smart device alerts. This multi-functionality allows the system to improve notification reliability by utilizing existing infrastructure rather than requiring dedicated notification hardware
2Reliability
If audio notifications are played across multiple rooms and devices, then users are more likely to hear important alerts, but the system complexity increases for managing synchronized playback
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple notification delivery functions into a single media playback system. By merging the notification delivery capability with the existing audio playback infrastructure, the system can distribute notifications across multiple rooms through synchronized playback without requiring separate complex synchronization protocols for each device
Solution Approach 2:
The system employs periodic polling or event-driven updates to synchronize notification state across multiple playback devices. Rather than continuous complex synchronization, the system uses periodic status checks or event-triggered updates to maintain coordinated notification delivery across distributed devices
3Reliability
If the playback system interrupts media content to play notifications, then important alerts can be delivered promptly, but the user experience of media playback is degraded
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic notification delivery that adapts to the current playback state and user context. The system can dynamically choose between interrupting media content for urgent notifications or using alternative delivery methods for less critical alerts, allowing timely notification delivery while minimizing disruption to user experience based on real-time conditions
Data Source
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Figure 1C~1E
AI summary
Systems and methods for a playback device outputting an audio alert from a network- enabled device include (i) while the playback device is playing back audio content, receiving an alert communication from the network-enabled device, the alert communication including (a) an audio notification identifier that identifies an audio notification and (b) a priority identifier that identifies a priority level of the audio notification; (ii) responsive to receiving the alert communication, adding the audio notification to a notification queue at a particular queue position, where the particular queue position of the audio notification in the notification queue is based on the priority level of the audio notification relative to other audio content in the notification queue; (iii) adjusting playback of the audio content for playing back the audio notification; and (iv) the playback device playing back the audio notification.