Variable notification alerts

• US 8,823,507 B1
• Filed: 09/19/2012
• Issued: 09/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Touloumtzis, Michael P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Swarthout, Brent
• Assistant Examiner(s): ALAM, MIRZA F
• Application Number:
  US13/622,810
• Time in Patent Office: 713 Days
• Field of Search: 340/501, 340/10.1, 340/500, 340/540, 340/539.13, 709/203, 709/206, 709/217, 709/219, 709/223, 709/224, 709/207, 455/456, 455/567, 455/575, 455/456.3, 455/414.1, 455/418, 455/566
• US Class Current: 340/501
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 1/08 using electric transmission ; transformation of alarm signals to electrical signals from a different medium, e.g. transmission of an electric alarm signal upon detection of an audible alarm signal
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 23/00 Alarms responsive to unspecified undesired or abnormal conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1895 for short real-time information, e.g. alarms, notifications, alerts, updates
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/10 Multimedia information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/18 Commands or executable codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/224 providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72454 according to context-related or environment-related conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2072 Schedules, e.g. personal calendars

Abstract

Approaches in accordance with various embodiments attempt to provide a user with less disruptive event notifications by being aware of a user'"'"'s context. Before a notification is sent to multiple computing devices associated with the notifying account, contextual information for each device is determined. The contextual information can be determined by querying each device for information. The information can include how close each device is relative to other devices associated with the same user, if at least one of the devices is moving, whether the user'"'"'s attention is focused on a particular device, whether the user is engaging multiple devices simultaneously, and the like. Once contextual information associated with each device is determined, an appropriate type of alert associated with the notification is determined for each device. Accordingly, upon determining the appropriate alert for the most probable context of each device, the notification is sent to each computing device with the determined appropriate type of alert.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of providing a notification to a user, comprising:

under the control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions,

receiving a notification to be provided to a plurality of computing devices associated with a user;

querying each of the plurality of computing devices for status information associated with the respective computing device;

determining, based at least in part on one or more responses to the querying, a first computing device of the plurality of computing devices with which the user is interacting;

sending first instructions for causing an active notification alert to be generated on the first computing device, the active notification alert, when generated by the first computing device, including a first visual component and a first audible component, the first visual component including a banner; and

sending second instructions for causing a passive notification alert to be generated on one or more of the plurality of computing devices other than the first computing device, the passive notification, when generated on the one or more of the plurality of computing devices, including a second visual component and a second audible component, the first audible component being at least one of higher in volume or longer in duration relative to the second audible component, the second visual component being displayed in response to determining a lack of user interaction on a respective computing device.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the second audible component of the passive notification alert is silent.

3. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

under the control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions,

receiving a notification to be provided to a plurality of computing devices associated with a user;

determining context information for each of at least a portion of the plurality of computing devices, the context information including determining a presence of the user using at least one of head tracking data, facial recognition data, or gaze determination data;

in response to receiving the notification, and based at least in part on the context information, determining a first type of notification alert to be provided to one or more of a first group of computing devices and a second type of notification alert to be provided to one or more of a second group of computing devices; and

providing, to the one or more of the first group of computing devices, first instructions for causing the first type of notification alert to be generated by the one or more of the first group of computing devices and providing, to the one or more of the second group of computing devices, second instructions for causing the second type of notification alert to be generated by the one or more of the second group of computing devices.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the first type of notification alert includes a visual component and an audible component.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the visual component includes at least one of a notification banner or a popup window and the audible component includes at least one of a ringtone, beep, or chime.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the second type of notification alert is silent and includes a visual component.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the context information includes a distance between computing devices of the plurality of computing devices.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein determining the context information includes detecting a presence of the user by capturing at least one image using an image capturing element of each computing device of the plurality of computing devices.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the context information includes orientation information from at least one of:

a gyroscope, an accelerometer, or an electric compass.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the plurality of computing devices includes at least one of:

a smart television, a smartphone, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, an electronic book reader, a desktop computer, or a videogame console.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein determining context information includes sending a query to each of the plurality of computing devices, the query requesting status information associated with the respective device.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein at least one of the first type of notification alert or the second type of notification alert is determined based at least in part on an alert capability of the respective group of computing devices.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein a server determines the type of alert to provide for display on each computing device.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein each computing device determines a respective type of alert to provide for display.

15. A computing system, comprising:

at least one processor; and

memory including instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computing system to;

receive a notification to be provided to a plurality of computing devices associated with a user;

determine context information for each of at least a portion of the plurality of computing devices, the context information including determining a presence of the user using at least one of head tracking data, facial recognition data, or gaze determination data;

in response to receiving the notification, and based at least in part on the context information, determine a first type of notification alert to be provided to one or more of a first group of computing devices and a second type of notification alert to be provided to one or more of a second group of computing devices; and

provide, to the one or more of the first group of computing devices, first instructions for causing the first type of notification alert to be generated by the one or more of the first group of computing devices and provide, to the one or more of the second group of computing devices, second instructions for causing the second type of notification alert to be generated by the one or more of the second group of computing devices.

16. The computing system of claim 15, wherein the notification is at least one of:

an email message, a calendar reminder, a social media message, a software update, or a news update.

17. The computing system of claim 15, wherein the plurality of computing devices are at least one of:

a smart television, a smartphone, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, an electronic book reader, a desktop computer, a videogame consul.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a computing device, cause the computing device to:

receive a notification to be provided to a plurality of computing devices associated with a user;

determine context information for each of at least a portion of the plurality of computing devices, the context information including determining a presence of the user using at least one of;

head tracking data, facial recognition data, or gaze determination data;

in response to receiving the notification, and based at least in part on the context information, determine a first type of notification alert to be provided to one or more of a first group of computing devices and a second type of notification alert to be provided to one or more of a second group of computing devices; and

provide, to the one or more of the first group of computing devices, first instructions for causing the first type of notification alert to be generated by the one or more of the first group of computing devices and provide, to the one or more of the second group of computing devices, second instructions for causing the second type of notification alert to be generated by the one or more of the second group of computing devices.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the context information includes a distance between computing devices of the plurality of computing devices.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the notification is at least one of:

an email message, a calendar reminder, a social media message, a software update, or a news update.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the first type of notification alert includes a visual component and an audible component, the visual component includes a banner and the audible component includes at least one of a ringtone, beep, or chime.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 21, wherein the banner is a visual message including text displayed on a display screen of each computing device.