Dynamically adapting provision of notification output to reduce user distraction and/or mitigate usage of computational resources

• US 10,368,333 B2
• Filed: 11/20/2017
• Issued: 07/30/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/20/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Aggarwal, Vikram, Gali, Moises Morgenstern
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Congvan
• Application Number:
  US15/818,310
• Publication Number:
  US 20190159166A1
• Time in Patent Office: 617 Days
• Field of Search: 4554041, 4554042, 4554561
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/08 related to drivers or passengers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/546 Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/46 for vehicle-to-vehicle communication [V2V]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/02 Arrangements for increasing efficiency of notification or paging channel

Abstract

Dynamically adapting provision of notification output to reduce distractions and/or to mitigate usage of computational resources. In some implementations, an automated assistant application predicts a level of engagement for a user and determines, based on the predicted level of engagement (and optionally future predicted level(s) of engagement), provisioning (e.g., whether, when, and/or how) of output that is based on a received notification. For example, the automated assistant application can, based on predicted level(s) of engagement, determine whether to provide any output based on a received notification, determine whether to suppress provision of output that is based on the received notification (e.g., until a later time with a decreased predicted level of engagement), determine whether to provide output that is a condensed version of the received notification, determine whether to automatically respond to the notification, and/or select an output modality for providing output that is based on the received notification.

Claims

1. A method implemented by one or more processors, comprising:

receiving, at an automated assistant application, an electronic message that is directed to a user that is on an excursion to a destination via a vehicle that includes a computing device,

wherein the automated assistant application executes on the computing device or communicates with the computing device, and

wherein the message is received during or before a first portion of a route of the excursion;

determining, before the user has completed the first portion of the route, a first predicted level of driving engagement for the user during the first portion of the route;

determining, before the user has begun a second portion of the route, a second predicted level of driving engagement for the user during the second portion of the route that is subsequent to the first portion of the route;

determining that the second predicted level of driving engagement indicates less driving engagement than the first predicted level of driving engagement; and

based on determining that the second predicted level of driving engagement indicates less driving engagement than the first predicted level of driving engagement;

determining to withhold output, of any content that is based on the message, while the vehicle is navigating the first portion of the route, and

causing the computing device of the vehicle to output, to the user while the vehicle is navigating the second portion of the route, content that is based on the message.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, based on the message, that the message corresponds to a category of messages that elicit explicit verbal content from the user subsequent to receiving the message.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein causing the computing device of the vehicle to output, to the user while the vehicle is navigating the second portion of the route, the content that is based on the message is further based on:

identifying a correspondence between the second predicted level of driving engagement and the category of messages that elicit explicit verbal content from the user.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein determining that the message corresponds to the category of messages that elicit explicit verbal content from the user is further based on historical interaction data associated with one or more previous interactions between the user and the automated assistant application.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the first predicted level of driving engagement and the second predicted level of driving engagement is based on route intricacy data for the route, wherein determining the route intricacy data comprises:

receiving map application data from a map application that is accessible to the computing device.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein determining the first predicted level of driving engagement for the first portion of the route comprises:

determining, based on the map application data, an amount of time between at least two maneuvers for navigating the vehicle during the first portion of the route.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, based on the second predicted level of driving engagement, an output modality for providing the content that is based on the message;

wherein causing the computing device of the vehicle to output the content that is based on the message while the vehicle is navigating the second portion of the route comprises causing the computing device to output the content using the determined output modality.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein determining the output modality for providing the content that is based on the message is further based on one or more properties of the message.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, based on the second predicted level of driving engagement, a type of message content to provide; and

causing the computing device to output the content of the message, based on the content of the message conforming to the type.