Voice communication targeting user interface

• US 10,572,107 B1
• Filed: 06/23/2017
• Issued: 02/25/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 06/23/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Beebe, Blair Harold, Baker, Katherine Ann, Rowell, David Michael, Chin, Peter
• Primary Examiner(s): Titcomb, William D
• Application Number:
  US15/632,279
• Time in Patent Office: 977 Days
• Field of Search: 715752
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/167 Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/083 Recognition networks G10L15/142, G10L15/16 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/223 Execution procedure of a spoken command
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/228 of application context
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/006 Call diverting means
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2535 adapted for voice communication over an Internet Protocol [IP] network Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network equipment and services H04M7/006; implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP] H04L69/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/271 controlled by voice recognition
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/27453 Directories allowing storage of additional subscriber data, e.g. metadata
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72415 for remote control of appliances
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

User interfaces may enable users to initiate voice-communications with voice-controlled devices via a Wi-Fi network or other network via an Internet Protocol (IP) address. The user interfaces may include controls to enable users to initiate voice communications, such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls, with devices that do not have connectivity with traditional mobile telephone networks, such as traditional circuit transmissions of a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). For example, the user interface may enable initiating a voice communication with a voice-controlled device that includes network connectivity via a home Wi-Fi network. The user interfaces may indicate availability of devices and/or contacts for voice communications and/or recent activity of devices or contact.

Claims

1. A computing device comprising:

one or more processors; and

computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the one or more processors to generate a user interface comprising;

a first section configured to present a device representation of a device associated with a user profile, the computing device associated with the user profile, the device representation selectable to initiate a synchronous communication session with a user-selected device using an Internet Protocol, the device representation indicating an availability of the device and including a visual indicator of a user interaction with the device within a threshold amount of time; and

a second section configured to present a contact representation associated with a contact profile that differs from the user profile, the contact profile indicating permission to allow the computing device to establish a synchronous communication session with an automatically-selected device using the Internet Protocol, the contact representation selectable to initiate a voice communication.

2. The computing device as recited in claim 1, wherein the user interaction is determined based at least in part on an indication of a user voice command received by the device.

3. The computing device as recited in claim 1, further comprising a control bar that indicates availability to initiate the voice communication based on a signal received from a communication system, the control bar including an indication based at least in part on the signal from the communication system indicating that at least one device has recent activity associated with user presence.

4. The computing device as recited in claim 1, wherein the device is associated with the computing device based at least in part on receipt of permission data from the device.

5. The computing device as recited in claim 1, further comprising a filter control that, when activated by the communication system, suppresses presentation in the user interface of representations of devices that at least one of lack recent activity or are not available while retaining representations of devices having recent activity associated with user presence.

6. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the one or more processors to generate a graphical user interface, the graphical user interface comprising;

a representation associated with a device, the representation indicating an availability of the device and a visual indicator of a user interaction with the device within a threshold amount of time, and wherein the representation is selectable to cause the system to initiate a synchronous communication session that is accepted by the device based at least in part on a previously-configured permission setting associated with the device.

7. The system as recited in claim 6, wherein the availability indicates that the device at least one of received a user input or detected visual presence of a user within a last threshold amount of time.

8. The system as recited in claim 6, wherein the representation comprises a first representation, the device comprises a first device, and the graphical user interface further comprises a second representation of a second device, the second representation indicating a lack of availability associated with the second device, the lack of availability being indicated based at least in part on the second device being used to perform another voice communication.

9. The system as recited in claim 8, wherein the first representation is displayed with at least one of a different color, different text, or a different icon than the second representation to indicate the user interaction.

10. The system as recited in claim 6, further comprising a first section to display first device representations associated with a user account and a second section to display second device representations associated with contacts of the user account.

11. The system as recited in claim 6, further comprising a control bar that indicates an ability to initiate the synchronous communication session.

12. The system as recited in claim 11, wherein the control bar includes a first indication of devices indicating recent activity and a second indication of devices indicating lack of recent activity.

13. The system as recited in claim 6, further comprising a filter control that, when activated, suppresses presentation of representations of devices that lack recent activity, are not available, or both.

14. The system as recited in claim 6, wherein the device includes connectivity to the system via a Wi-Fi communication network, the device being a voice controlled communication device.

15. The system as recited in claim 6, wherein the representation is associated with one or more devices that are associated with one or more permissions that allow a user device to initiate the voice communication with available devices of the devices.

16. A method comprising:

determining that a user interaction with a microphone associated with a first device has occurred within a threshold amount of time;

generating a graphical user interface for a second device, the graphical user interface having a representation that is selectable to initiate a synchronous communication session with a contact using an automatically-selected device associated with the contact, the graphical user interface including a contact representation of a contact associated with the first device, the contact representation including a first visual indicator of an availability of the first device and a second visual indicator of the user interaction with the first device;

receiving selection of the contact representation via the graphical user interface; and

initiating the synchronous communication session between the second device and the first device.

17. The method as recited in claim 16, further comprising receiving a permission from the first device to authorize the second device to initiate the synchronous communication session.

18. The method as recited in claim 16, further comprising causing the graphical user interface to indicate a lack of user interaction based at least in part on an elapse of time with a lack of a signal received from the first device that indicates user interaction with the microphone associated with the first device.

19. The method as recited in claim 16, further comprising generating a control bar that indicates an ability to initiate the synchronous communication session.

20. The method as recited in claim 16, further comprising filtering representations of contacts that lack recent activity, are not available, or both.