Virtual Assistant Relaying Availability Information
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing mechanisms for informing others of a person's whereabouts are often ineffective, as individuals may forget to leave away messages or recipients may forget to receive them, leading to wasted time and effort in locating the person.
Innovation Solution
A virtual assistant system that allows users to provide and retrieve availability information, including location and timing details, through voice commands, using a networked service that personalizes responses based on the identity of the requesting user and utilizes other services like calendars for automatic data population.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional away message mechanisms (emails, sticky notes, text messages) are used, then people can inform others of their whereabouts, but the messages are often forgotten to be sent or received, leading to loss of information
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a virtual assistant as an intermediary system between users and their contacts. The virtual assistant receives availability information from users and automatically relays it to relevant contacts, eliminating the need for users to manually distribute messages and ensuring reliable delivery without human forgetfulness.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables automatic message distribution where the virtual assistant independently manages the delivery of availability information to multiple contacts without requiring user intervention for each recipient. The system self-manages the information relay process, ensuring consistent delivery.
2Productivity
If manual away message distribution is used, then people can leave messages, but valuable time and effort are wasted trying to find people who are away
Solution Approach 1:
The virtual assistant allows users to pre-configure availability information and automatically distribute it to contacts before they are needed. When users are away, their contacts can immediately query the virtual assistant for updated availability information without requiring manual search or intermediate inquiries.
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides real-time feedback mechanisms where contacts can query the virtual assistant for current availability status, and the system responds with up-to-date information. This feedback loop eliminates the need for contacts to manually search for or guess user availability.
3Reliability
If a virtual assistant system is implemented, then availability information can be effectively relayed, but the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The virtual assistant is designed as a universal system that can handle multiple functions: receiving availability information, storing it, distributing it to multiple contacts, and responding to queries. This multi-functionality consolidates what would otherwise require multiple separate systems into a single platform, managing complexity through consolidation.
Solution Approach 2:
By positioning the virtual assistant as an intermediary layer between users and contacts, the system abstracts away the complexity of direct user-to-user communication. The intermediary handles all message routing, storage, and retrieval operations, shielding users from system complexity while maintaining high reliability.
Data Source
AI summary
Technologies are disclosed for relaying availability information using a virtual assistant. The virtual assistant can serve as a personal assistant to a user and receive and provide availability information associated with a user. The availability information may include information such as, but not limited to location information about the user, timing information, (e.g., a time the user left), message information (e.g., a message left by the user, a message left by a person looking for the user, . . . ), and the like. The availability information that is provided by the virtual assistant may be different depending on the identity of the requesting user. The virtual assistant may also record messages from requesting users that may be provided to the user upon return and/or while the user is away (e.g., via email, text message, instant message, phone call, and the like).