MESSAGING IN ATTENTION CRITICAL ENVIRONMENTS

• US 20170048179A1
• Filed: 01/29/2016
• Published: 02/16/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/11/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Basson, Sara H., Bravin, Seth E., Huber, William B., Kanevsky, Dimitri, Noll, Alfred J., Skwersky, Adam
• Granted Patent: US 9,680,784 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/02 using automatic reactions or user delegation, e.g. automatic replies or chatbot-generated messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/18 Commands or executable codes

Abstract

A method, executed by one or more processors, includes receiving a message that is addressed to a user, determining, via one or more sensors, whether the user is occupied with an attention critical situation, and conducting a user-directed response process responsive to determining that the user is not occupied with an attention critical situation. In some embodiments, the user-directed response process includes conducting a text substitution process on the message, presenting an abbreviated version of the message and a list of response options to the user, determining a response option that is selected by the user, and sending a response to the message that corresponds to the response option that is selected by the user. In some embodiments, the list of response options includes a plurality of message-dependent formulated responses, a null response, and a spoken response. A corresponding apparatus and computer program product are also disclosed herein.

Claims

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

receiving a message that is addressed to a user;

determining whether the message is ignorable;

ignoring the message responsive to determining that the message is ignorable;

determining, via one or more sensors, whether the user is currently operating a vehicle;

automatically sending a message response in response to determining that the user is currently operating a vehicle and the message is not ignorable;

responsive to determining that the user is not currently operating a vehicle and the message is not ignorable, conducting a user-directed response process comprising;

conducting a text substitution process on the message to produce an abbreviated version of the message,

presenting the abbreviated version of the message and a list of response options to the user,

determining a response option that is selected by the user,

sending a response to the message that corresponds to the response option that is selected by the user, and

wherein the list of response options includes a plurality of message-dependent formulated responses and the response to the message includes an estimated time of arrival for the user.