Roaming Electronic Assistant Command Mapping Across Environments
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing electronic assistants are not portable across different environments, requiring users to reconfigure and learn new voice commands when traveling, and lack seamless access to authorized entertainment services.
Innovation Solution
A system and method for a roaming electronic assistant that includes a technical layer to map user preferences and commands from a home environment to a destination environment, using a server application to interrogate home and destination electronic assistants, and a presentation layer to facilitate user interaction and control of smart devices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If electronic assistant is configured for a specific home environment, then it can control devices and provide convenience features in that environment, but it cannot be ported to different environments without manual reconfiguration
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by capturing voice command associations and user preferences at the home environment before traveling. The technical layer stores these configurations in advance, enabling the destination electronic assistant to be pre-configured with the user's preferred voice commands and device associations before arrival, eliminating the need for manual reconfiguration at the destination.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a technical layer that acts as an intermediary between the presentation layer (user interface) and the underlying device control systems. This technical layer captures and stores voice command associations and user preferences, then transfers them between different electronic assistants at home and destination environments. The intermediary layer enables seamless portability by mediating the transfer of configuration data without requiring user intervention.
2Adaptability or versatility
If electronic assistant uses environment-specific device commands, then it can control local devices effectively, but it cannot access or control devices in different environments
Solution Approach 1:
The technical layer is designed with universal functionality to capture, store, and transfer voice command associations across different environments and device types. It maintains a standardized data structure that can represent various device commands (lighting, entertainment, climate control) in a unified format, enabling the same voice commands to control different devices at home and destination environments without requiring environment-specific configurations.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes parameters by storing voice command associations as transferable data structures that can be instantiated in different environments. When the user travels, the technical layer transfers these parameterized command associations to the destination electronic assistant, which then maps them to local devices. This parameter change approach allows the same voice command framework to adapt to different device ecosystems without losing operational consistency.
3Ease of operation
If electronic assistant stores detailed environment configurations, then it provides personalized user experience, but it increases data complexity and transfer requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The technical layer extracts only the essential configuration elements needed for portability - specifically voice command associations and user preferences - from the complete environment configuration. It separates these transferable elements from environment-specific device details, storing only the necessary data structures that can be meaningfully transferred to a destination environment. This extraction reduces configuration complexity by focusing on portable elements while leaving destination-specific device mappings to be automatically generated.
Data Source
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AI summary
A method of controlling an environment using a roaming electronic assistant. The method comprises capturing a plurality of associations of voice commands to device commands coded for a first electronic assistant (EA) device by a home electronic assistant (EA) client application, where each association links a voice command to a corresponding device command coded for the first EA device, and where the first EA device takes action in a home environment based on the voice commands, sending the associations of voice commands to device commands coded for the first EA device to an EA client application executing on a computer system, and building a mapping of the associations for the first EA device to associations for a second EA device by the EA client application, where each association for the second EA device links a voice command to a device command coded for the second EA device.