Voice Assistant Coordination for Cross-Device Request Routing
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Solution Overview
Problem
The proliferation of personal assistants and connected devices creates challenges for users and OEMs, including device incompatibility, the need to remember which assistants are compatible with which devices, and the difficulty in accessing all personal assistants across different environments, leading to a fractured user experience.
Innovation Solution
A platform that arbitrates user requests to appropriate personal assistants and smart devices, analyzing inputs to route them to the best-suited assistant, eliminating the need for users to remember which assistant to use and allowing OEMs to control equipment-specific assistants without additional user interaction.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If multiple personal assistants are used to control different smart devices, then device compatibility is improved, but user complexity increases as users must remember which assistant is compatible with which device
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a coordination service that acts as an intermediary between the user and multiple personal assistants. This service receives user requests, determines which personal assistant is best suited to handle each request, and routes the request accordingly. This eliminates the need for users to remember which assistant controls which device, as the coordination service automatically manages this mapping.
Solution Approach 2:
The coordination service provides a universal interface that works with multiple different personal assistants and smart devices simultaneously. Instead of requiring users to learn multiple assistant-specific interfaces and compatibility rules, a single coordination service handles all interactions across the ecosystem, making the system universally accessible regardless of which specific assistant or device is involved.
2Adaptability or versatility
If OEMs create equipment-specific personal assistants, then equipment control capability is improved, but system fragmentation increases making it difficult for users to access all assistants
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple equipment-specific personal assistants into a unified coordination framework. The coordination service consolidates the functionality of various OEM-specific assistants while maintaining their individual capabilities. This allows users to access all assistant functionalities through a single unified interface rather than needing to switch between multiple fragmented assistants across different environments and devices.
3Measurement precision
If wake words are made distinctive to avoid accidental triggering, then accuracy is improved, but ease of operation decreases as users must remember multiple different wake words
Solution Approach 1:
The coordination service acts as an intermediary that receives wake words and user requests from any personal assistant and routes them to the appropriate assistant. This allows the use of distinctive wake words for each assistant to maintain high recognition accuracy, while the coordination service ensures users don't need to remember which wake word corresponds to which assistant, as it automatically routes requests based on the coordination logic.
Data Source
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AI summary
A method for managing interactions between users of an interface and a number of voice assistants associated with the interface includes receiving a voice command from a user of the interface, determining a voice assistant of the number of voice assistants for servicing the command, and providing a representation of the voice command to the voice assistant for servicing.