Audio notifications

• US 8,805,690 B1
• Filed: 08/31/2011
• Issued: 08/12/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/05/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Lebeau, Michael J., Jitkoff, John Nicholas
• Primary Examiner(s): Chawan, Vijay B
• Application Number:
  US13/222,386
• Time in Patent Office: 1,077 Days
• Field of Search: 704/275, 704/235, 704/270.1, 709/206, 709/207, 379/88.13, 379/88.01, 715/800
• US Class Current: 704/275
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/176 Support for shared access to files; File sharing support
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/165 Management of the audio stream, e.g. setting of volume, audio stream path
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/167 Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/08 Text analysis or generation of parameters for speech synthesis out of text, e.g. grapheme to phoneme translation, prosody generation or stress or intonation determination
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/223 Execution procedure of a spoken command
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/224 providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6058 involving the use of a headset accessory device connected to the portable telephone
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6091 including a wireless interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/7243 with interactive means for internal management of messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/533 Voice mail systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/005 Transmission of information for alerting of incoming communication

Abstract

A computer-implemented method of determining when an audio notification should be generated includes detecting receipt of a triggering event that occurs on a user device; generating, based on detecting, the audio notification for the triggering event; receiving, from the user device, a user voice command responding to the audio notification; and generating a response to the user voice command based on one or more of (i) information associated with the audio notification, and (ii) information associated with the user voice command.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

detecting a notification condition, the notification condition comprising an event that occurred on a client device with which a server is configured to communicate;

identifying a first application that is stored at the client device, wherein the first application is configured to generate data for rendering a first notification message related to the notification condition;

generating the first notification message for the notification condition, the first notification message comprising one or more attributes, the one or more attributes at least specifying how the first notification message is to be presented by the first application at the client device;

detecting a conflict between transmittal of the first notification message at a time that is concurrent with transmittal of a second notification message, wherein a second application is stored at the client device and is configured to generate data for rendering the second notification message and the first application differs from the second application;

applying one or more conflict rules to the first notification message and the second notification message;

selecting, based on application of the one or more conflict rules, the first notification message for transmittal to the client device;

transmitting the first notification message to the client device;

receiving, from the client device, a response to the first notification message, the response comprising data corresponding to audio input to the client device; and

performing an action specific to the first application based on the response.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first notification message comprises an indication that a communication has been received by the client device, and wherein the action comprises:

generating a reply to the communication received by the client device, the reply being formatted for sending by the first application; and

sending the reply to the client device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the response comprises an indication of the action, the method further comprising:

making a determination that the action is an acceptable action.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, based on the one or more conflict rules, a priority associated with the first and second notification messages;

wherein the first notification message is sent to the client device in accordance with the priority.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting the notification condition comprises analyzing ambient noise from a device that caused the event.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting the notification condition and identifying the first application are performed by analyzing information provided by the client device or an application server.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more attributes specify an audible presentation of the first notification message by the client device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more attributes specify how the first notification message is to be presented based on an environment associated with the client device.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining an overlapping condition between the first notification message and the second notification message;

determining, based on one or more overlapping notification rules, a first priority value for the first notification message and a second priority value for the second notification message;

wherein the first priority value comprises information indicating that the first notification message should be sent to the client device before the second notification message is sent to the client device;

sending the first notification message to the client device; and

placing the second notification message in a queue of audio notification messages.

10. One or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media storing instructions that are executable by one or more processing devices to perform operations comprising:

detecting a notification condition, the notification condition comprising an event that occurred on a client device that is configured for communication with the one or more processing devices;

identifying a first application that is stored at the client device, wherein the first application is configured to generate data for rendering a first notification message related to the notification condition;

generating the first notification message for the notification condition, the first notification message comprising one or more attributes, the one or more attributes at least specifying how the first notification message is to be presented by the first application at the client device;

detecting a conflict between transmittal of the first notification message at a time that is concurrent with transmittal of a second notification message, wherein a second application is stored at the client device and is configured to generate data for rendering the second notification message and the first application differs from the second application;

applying one or more conflict rules to the first notification message and the second notification message;

selecting, based on application of the one or more conflict rules, the first notification message for transmittal to the client device;

transmitting the first notification message to the client device;

receiving, from the client device, a response to the first notification message, the response comprising data corresponding to audio input to the client device; and

performing an action specific to the first application based on the response.

11. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 10, wherein the first notification message comprises an indication that a communication has been received by the client device, and wherein the action comprises:

generating a reply to the communication received by the client device, the reply being formatted for sending by the first application; and

sending the reply to the client device.

12. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 10, wherein the response comprises an indication of the action, and the operations further comprise:

making a determination that the action is an acceptable action.

13. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining, based on the one or more conflict rules, a priority associated with the first and second notification messages;

wherein the first notification message is sent to the client device in accordance with the priority.

14. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 10, wherein detecting the notification condition comprises analyzing ambient noise from a device that caused the event.

15. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 10, wherein detecting the notification condition and identifying the first application are performed by analyzing information provided by the client device or an application server.

16. An electronic system comprising:

one or more processing devices; and

one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media storing instructions that are executable by the one or more processing devices to perform operations comprising;

detecting a notification condition, the notification condition comprising an event that occurred on a client device that is configured for communication with the one or more processing devices;

identifying a first application that is stored at the client device, wherein the first application is configured to generate data for rendering a first notification message related to the notification condition;

generating the first notification message for the notification condition, the first notification message comprising one or more attributes, the one or more attributes at least specifying how the first notification message is to be presented by the first application at the client device;

detecting a conflict between transmittal of the first notification message at a time that is concurrent with transmittal of a second notification message, wherein a second application is stored at the client device and is configured to generate data for rendering the second notification message and the first application differs from the second application;

applying one or more conflict rules to the first notification message and the second notification message;

selecting, based on application of the one or more conflict rules, the first notification message for transmittal to the client device;

transmitting the first notification message to the client device;

receiving, from the client device, a response to the first notification message, the response comprising data corresponding to audio input to the client device; and

performing an action specific to the first application based on the response.

17. The electronic system of claim 16, wherein the first notification message comprises an indication that a communication has been received by the client device, and wherein the action comprises:

generating a reply to the communication received by the client device, the reply being formatted for sending by the first application; and

sending the reply to the client device.

18. The electronic system of claim 16, wherein the response comprises an indication of the action, and the operations further comprise:

making a determination that the action is an acceptable action.

19. The electronic system of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining, based on the one or more conflict rules, a priority associated with the first and second notification messages;

wherein the first notification message is sent to the client device in accordance with the priority.

20. The electronic system of claim 16, wherein detecting the notification condition comprises analyzing ambient noise from a device that caused the event.