Voicemail Greeting Automation via Social Status Detection

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Solution Overview

Problem

Voice mail greetings do not provide information about the current status of the owner, such as social networking status, and updating them is time-consuming and inconvenient, leading to a lack of relevant information for callers.

Innovation Solution

A method that automatically updates voice mail greetings based on the callee's status information, using a voice mail server that processes incoming calls and generates greetings using status indication arrangements, text-to-speech conversion, or indexing into a greeting repository, allowing callers to hear relevant status-based greetings.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Loss of information

If voice mail greetings are manually updated to provide status information, then information relevance is improved, but time consumption and operational complexity increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvestatus informationVSAvoidtime to update greeting

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of informationVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The voice mail system automatically retrieves status information from social networking services and updates greetings without requiring manual intervention from the user. The system serves itself by monitoring status changes and generating appropriate greetings automatically.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The system continuously monitors status information from external services and uses this feedback to dynamically adjust and update voice mail greetings in real-time, creating a closed-loop system that adapts to changing conditions.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

2Device complexity

If voice mail greetings remain static, then system complexity is reduced, but information relevance and usefulness deteriorate

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvegreeting update mechanismVSAvoidcurrent status information

Core Design Contradiction:

Device complexityVSLoss of information

Solution Approach 1:

The voice mail greeting transitions from a static, fixed message to a dynamic, adaptable message that automatically changes based on real-time status information retrieved from social networking services.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #15Dynamics

Solution Approach 2:

The system integrates multiple functions including status monitoring, information retrieval, automatic greeting generation, and real-time updates, allowing a single system to handle both traditional voice mail operations and dynamic status information delivery.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

3Productivity

If automatic status-based greetings are implemented, then information relevance is improved, but system complexity and processing requirements increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecommunication efficiencyVSAvoidvoice mail system

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system introduces an intermediary component that automatically retrieves status information from social networking services and translates it into appropriate voice mail greetings, bridging the gap between external status data and internal voice mail functionality.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The system pre-establishes connections and protocols for retrieving status information from social networking services, and pre-processes this information into greeting templates, so that when a call arrives, the appropriate greeting is already prepared or can be quickly generated.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentUS9438738B2Automatic updating of voicemail greetings based on networking status

Publication Date: 2016.09.06 CISCO TECHNOLOGY INC

AI summary

In one embodiment, a method includes determining when an incoming call from a caller to a callee is to be routed for processing by a voice mail arrangement, and obtaining status information associated with the callee when the incoming call is to be routed for processing by the voice mail arrangement. The method also includes generating a first greeting based on the status information, and processing the call. Processing the call includes causing the first greeting to be played for the caller.