Smart Speaker Audio Alerts With Priority Queue Playback
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Solution Overview
Problem
Smart devices often fail to effectively notify users of alerts, especially when the user's mobile device is powered off, silenced, or distracted, and there is a need for a system to communicate alert notifications across different smart devices and playback systems.
Innovation Solution
A playback device is configured with an API to receive alert communications from smart devices, prioritize notifications, and output audio alerts, adjusting existing audio content to ensure the user is notified, even if their mobile device is unavailable or distracted.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If alert notifications are sent only to the user's mobile device, then the notification system remains simple, but the user may not receive critical alerts when the mobile device is powered off, silenced, or distracted
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a smart speaker device as an intermediary notification system. The smart speaker receives alert communications from various sources (mobile device, wearables, other smart devices) and outputs audible notifications through its speaker system. This intermediary approach ensures users receive critical alerts even when their mobile device is unavailable, while maintaining relative system simplicity by leveraging existing smart speaker infrastructure.
2Reliability
If the smart speaker interrupts audio content to play alerts, then alert priority is emphasized, but the user experience of continuous audio playback is degraded
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic alert priority handling where the smart speaker's response to alerts depends on the current playback state and alert characteristics. The system can interrupt audio content for high-priority alerts (such as emergency notifications) while maintaining playback continuity for lower-priority alerts. This dynamic approach allows the system to adapt its behavior based on situational context, ensuring critical alerts are noticed while minimizing disruption to the user's audio experience.
3Area of stationary object
If multiple smart devices communicate alerts through a centralized system, then notification coverage across rooms is improved, but the system complexity and communication overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent leverages the smart speaker's existing multi-functionality to serve as a universal notification hub. The same device that plays music, answers questions, and controls smart home devices also handles alert notifications from multiple sources. This universal approach allows the system to expand notification coverage across multiple rooms without proportionally increasing system complexity, as the smart speaker already possesses the necessary communication and processing capabilities for various functions.
Data Source
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.