Selectable Graphical Elements for Automated Assistant Invocation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users often fail to utilize the full capabilities of automated assistants due to unfamiliarity with invocation phrases and language barriers, leading to missed features and privacy concerns in noisy environments.
Innovation Solution
Providing selectable graphical elements that convey invocation phrases, allowing users to initiate automated assistants without speaking, and adapting these phrases based on user preferences and trends to introduce them to the assistant's capabilities.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If users are required to speak invocation phrases to initialize automated assistants, then the assistants can be activated, but users may not be aware of available phrases or able to pronounce them correctly
Solution Approach 1:
The system displays selectable elements containing invocation phrases before the user needs to speak them. These elements are presented in context of relevant content, allowing users to learn and select phrases they can later speak to initialize the automated assistant. This preliminary exposure resolves the contradiction by preparing users with knowledge of available phrases without requiring immediate verbal activation.
Solution Approach 2:
Selectable visual elements serve as an intermediary between the automated assistant system and the user. These elements convey invocation phrases in a tangible, selectable form that users can interact with before speaking. The intermediary bridges the gap between the user's lack of awareness and the system's requirement for verbal invocation, allowing users to learn and then correctly pronounce phrases.
2Productivity
If users speak queries in noisy environments, then the automated assistant can process requests, but user privacy may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by displaying selectable elements with invocation phrases and relevant content before requiring user speech. Users can review, select, and prepare their requests visually in private, then speak only when ready. This preliminary visual interaction allows users to compose their thoughts without exposing them in noisy public environments, resolving the contradiction between productivity and privacy.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the range of functions possessed by computing devices is expanded, then more capabilities are available, but users lack convenient resources for learning available functions
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies local quality by displaying selectable elements with invocation phrases and contextual information precisely where and when it is relevant to the user's current activity. Rather than presenting a comprehensive manual of all device functions, the system locally enhances specific areas with actionable phrases related to the content the user is currently viewing or interacting with. This localized information delivery makes learning functions easier without requiring users to navigate through extensive documentation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by proactively presenting selectable elements containing invocation phrases before users need to utilize device functions. These elements are displayed in context of relevant content, allowing users to learn about available functions ahead of time. This preliminary exposure to function information resolves the contradiction by making versatile device capabilities discoverable and learnable without requiring users to search through comprehensive manuals.
4Loss of information
If selectable elements are provided to introduce users to automated assistant functions, then user awareness increases, but users must interact with additional interface elements
Solution Approach 1:
The system merges the invocation phrase information with existing contextual content that users are already viewing. Selectable elements are integrated into the current display context rather than appearing as separate, standalone interface components. This merging approach conveys assistant capabilities without adding significant interface complexity, as the information is combined with content users are already engaged with.
Solution Approach 2:
The selectable elements serve multiple functions simultaneously: they convey invocation phrases, provide contextual information about assistant capabilities, and act as interactive triggers. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate interface elements for each purpose, thereby increasing user awareness without proportionally increasing interface complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods, apparatus, systems, and computer-readable media are provided for using selectable elements to invoke an automated assistant at a computing device. While operating the computing device, a user may not be aware that the automated assistant can be invoked according to certain invocation phrases. In order to inform the user of the functionality of the automated assistant, the user can be presented with selectable elements that can initialize the automated assistant when selected. Furthermore, a selectable element can provide an invocation phrase in textual form so that the user is aware of their ability to invoke the automated assistant by speaking the invocation phrase. The selectable element can be presented at different devices associated with the user, and the automated assistant can be initialized at a device that is separate from the device where the selectable element is presented.