Text Story Reading Detection With Context-Aware Physical Effects

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative Solutions
Generate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Traditional virtual assistants struggle to accurately detect when a user has finished reading a text source aloud, leading to unnecessary resource consumption and potential recording of private conversations due to non-linear reading behaviors such as skipping, repeating, or adding content.

Innovation Solution

A method that enhances virtual assistants by comparing audio data with text source data using phoneme analysis and fuzzy matching to determine when a user has discontinued reading, allowing for the deactivation of audio processing and resource conservation.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Measurement precision

If the virtual assistant continuously monitors and processes audio data to detect reading discontinuation, then the accuracy of detecting when reading has stopped is improved, but the power and resource consumption increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvedetection accuracy of reading discontinuationVSAvoidpower consumption of audio processing
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSUse of energy by moving object

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs audio processing at periodic intervals rather than continuously. The processor compares audio data to text source data at specific intervals, enabling detection of reading discontinuation while reducing overall processing time and power consumption compared to continuous monitoring.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #19Periodic action

Solution Approach 2:

The system performs preliminary comparisons of audio data segments against the text source data before determining whether reading has discontinued. By pre-processing and comparing audio segments in advance, the system can quickly identify when reading has stopped without requiring continuous heavy processing.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

2Reliability

If the virtual assistant continuously records audio data to ensure no private conversations are missed, then the reliability of privacy protection is improved, but the risk of recording private conversations increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveprivacy protection reliabilityVSAvoidrecording of private conversations
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSObject-generated harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The system uses feedback from the comparison between audio data and text source data to dynamically control recording. When the comparison indicates the user is still reading (audio matches text), recording continues. When the comparison shows a mismatch (reading discontinued), recording stops, thus protecting privacy without missing relevant content.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #23Feedback

Solution Approach 2:

The system automatically detects reading discontinuation through self-monitoring of the audio-text correspondence and autonomously controls the recording state. This self-service mechanism ensures privacy protection without requiring external intervention, reliably stopping recording when appropriate while maintaining continuous monitoring capability.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

3Productivity

If the system processes audio data in real-time to provide synchronized special effects, then the user experience is improved, but the computational complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvereal-time processing efficiencyVSAvoidcomputational complexity of audio analysis
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system segments audio data into discrete segments or frames for processing. By dividing the continuous audio stream into manageable segments and comparing each segment against corresponding text portions, the system achieves real-time processing with reduced computational complexity compared to analyzing the entire audio stream simultaneously.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Data Source

PatentEP4191561B1Augmenting text story reading by physical effects
Publication Date: 2025.10.15 GOOGLE LLC
  • EP4191561B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP4191561B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP4191561B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

The disclosure provides technology for enhancing the ability of a computing device to detect when a user has discontinued reading a text source. The disclosures also provides techniques for initiating a physical effect corresponding to a text source being read aloud by a user. When determining that a match exists between a spoken word of the user and the text source, a physical effect is initiated in response to the determined match and corresponding to the text source, based on contextual data indicative of a user context. The contextual data including sound data, light data of an environment of the user. The contextual data also including a time data, weather data, calendar data or user profile data including an age of a child user.