Voice Assistant Behavioral Rule Enforcement for Polite Interaction

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Solution Overview

Problem

Individuals, especially children, may adopt inappropriate interaction behaviors with voice assistants due to observing adults omitting polite phrases, which can lead to a decline in practicing positively viewed behaviors like using 'please' and 'thank you'.

Innovation Solution

A voice assistant system that configures behavioral rules, receives verbal requests, and provides responses to teach and reinforce preferred behavioral skills by analyzing tone and sentiment, utilizing a corpus of observed behaviors to improve user interactions.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Ease of operation

If voice assistants respond to all verbal requests without behavioral analysis, then user convenience and interaction speed are improved, but inappropriate behaviors are reinforced and positive behavioral skills deteriorate

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveinteraction convenienceVSAvoidbehavioral appropriateness

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The voice assistant analyzes the user's verbal request against configured behavioral rules and provides feedback responses that reinforce appropriate behaviors or gently correct inappropriate ones. The system evaluates tone, sentiment, and language patterns, then responds in a way that encourages polite language and positive behavioral skills while maintaining interaction convenience.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

2Reliability

If voice assistants implement behavioral rule analysis, then positive behavioral skills are reinforced, but system complexity and processing time increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvebehavioral appropriatenessVSAvoidsystem complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

Behavioral rules are configured and established before interactions occur. The system pre-defines appropriate behavioral expectations, tone guidelines, and sentiment thresholds, allowing it to quickly evaluate user requests against these predetermined criteria without adding significant processing complexity during actual interactions.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

3Reliability

If voice assistants implement behavioral rule analysis, then positive behavioral skills are reinforced, but response time increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvebehavioral appropriatenessVSAvoidresponse time

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system applies behavioral analysis selectively based on the situation and user profile. For established users with known behavioral patterns, the system may use simplified evaluation. For new users or borderline cases, more comprehensive analysis is applied. This partial application of behavioral rules maintains appropriateness while minimizing unnecessary processing time.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #16Partial or excessive action

Data Source

PatentUS11308949B2Voice assistant response system based on a tone, keyword, language or etiquette behavioral rule

Publication Date: 2022.04.19 INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINE CORPORATION

AI summary

A method, computer system, and a computer program product for voice assistant responses is provided. The present invention may include configuring a behavioral rule. The present invention may include receiving a verbal request from a user and comparing the received verbal request to the behavioral rule. The present invention may then include determining that the received verbal request does not comply with the behavioral rule. The present invention may lastly include providing a response to the user based on determining that the received verbal request does not comply with the behavioral rule.