Speech-Aware Spoken Notifications to Reduce User Interruption
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing systems fail to provide spoken notifications at appropriate times, often interrupting users when they are speaking, and require manual user interaction for response, leading to inefficiency and increased power consumption.
Innovation Solution
An electronic device determines whether a user is speaking or not, and provides spoken notifications only when the user is not speaking, allowing efficient user response by sending speech inputs to external devices for task initiation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If spoken notifications are provided continuously, then notification delivery is improved, but user interruption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The notification system dynamically adjusts its behavior based on real-time detection of user speech states. The system transitions between different notification delivery modes (continuous vs. interrupted) based on whether the user is currently speaking, making the notification behavior adaptive rather than static.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses speech detection feedback to control notification delivery. The speech detection module continuously monitors user speech and provides feedback signals to the notification module, which then adjusts notification delivery accordingly - suppressing notifications when speech is detected and enabling them when speech is absent.
2Measurement precision
If manual user interaction is required for notification response, then response accuracy is improved, but operation efficiency deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables self-service notification responses through speech recognition. Instead of requiring manual interaction (typing, button pressing), the system automatically processes user speech inputs to generate and send notification responses, allowing the system to serve itself in handling routine notification tasks.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces mechanical interaction methods (keyboard typing, button pressing) with speech-based interaction. The speech recognition system converts spoken commands into digital signals that can be processed and used to generate notification responses, substituting physical mechanical actions with acoustic field-based interactions.
3Loss of time
If speech detection is continuously monitored, then notification timing is improved, but energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The speech detection operates periodically rather than continuously. The system checks for user speech at regular intervals sufficient to capture notification-relevant speech events, rather than maintaining constant monitoring. This periodic sampling reduces computational load and power consumption while maintaining adequate timing accuracy for notification delivery.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2A
Figure 2B
AI summary
An example method includes, at an electronic device: receiving an indication of a notification; in accordance with receiving the indication of the notification: obtaining one or more data streams from one or more sensors; determining, based on the one or more data streams, whether a user associated with the electronic device is speaking; and in accordance with a determination that the user is not speaking: causing an output associated with the notification to be provided; determining whether the user has interacted with the notification; and in accordance with a determination that the user has interacted with the notification: forgoing causing the output associated with the notification to be provided.