SYSTEMS, METHODS, AND APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING PROVISIONING OF NOTIFICATIONS BASED ON SOURCES OF THE NOTIFICATIONS

• US 20190158447A1
• Filed: 11/20/2017
• Published: 05/23/2019
• 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
• Granted Patent: US 10,498,685 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3608 using speech input, e.g. using speech recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3626 Details of the output of route guidance instructions traffic control systems for road vehicles involving transmission of navigation instructions to the vehicle G08G1/0968
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0813 characterised by the conditions triggering a change of settings
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/224 providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/027 using movement velocity, acceleration information
• 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 4/30 Services specially adapted for particular environments, situations or purposes
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/18 Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, systems, and computer-readable media are provided for minimizing distractions caused by notifications. Notifications can be limited by scoring sources of notifications according to an activity that a recipient is involved in, previous interactions between a user and the source, and/or any other data that can be associated with a notification. For example, a user that is driving can limit the sources from which notifications can be received, unless a score for a particular sources satisfies a notification threshold while driving. Otherwise, if the score fails to satisfy the notification threshold, the user can be presented with the notification at a different time or via a modality that is less distracting than a typical modality for presenting the notification. As a user indicates preferences for receiving notifications from particular sources, the scores for those sources can be dynamically adapted to a user'"'"'s predilection for particular sources and/or notifications.

Claims

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

receiving, at a first computing device, notifications from a remote server device that is accessible to applications from which the notifications are based;

identifying a first source of a first notification of the notifications and a second source of a second notification of the notifications, wherein the first source corresponds to a first entity that controls a first application of the applications and the second source corresponds to a second entity that controls a second application of the applications;

determining that a first score for the first source satisfies a notification threshold and a second score for the second source fails to satisfy the notification threshold, wherein the first score is based on first previous instances of interaction between a user of the first computing device and the first source, and wherein the second score is based on second previous instances of interaction between the user and the second source;

receiving, from a second computing device, contextual data that is based on one or more properties of an activity in which the second computing device is participating, wherein the second computing device is configured to provide certain notifications according to scores of sources associated with the notifications;

modifying the second score based on the contextual data;

determining that the modified second score satisfies the notification threshold; and

causing the second computing device to provide the first notification and the second notification based on the first score and the modified second score satisfying the notification threshold.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second computing device is a vehicle computing device that is integrated in a vehicle and that is paired with the first computing device, and wherein the activity is navigating a vehicle that includes the vehicle computing device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the one or more properties on which the contextual data is based identify how the vehicle is navigating.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein navigating the vehicle includes navigating the vehicle through a route that is dictated at an audio interface of the vehicle computing device, and the vehicle computing device includes a navigation application corresponding to a third score that satisfies the notification threshold.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the second score based on the activity further causes the second score to temporarily satisfy the notification threshold until the second computing device ceases participating in the activity.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the notification threshold is associated with a particular modality through which the first notification and the second notification are provided, the particular modality comprising one or both of:

an audio modality and a visual modality.

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

receiving, at a client computing device of a user during performance of an activity by the user, a notification;

identifying, at the client computing device, a source of the notification;

determining, at the client computing device and based on the source of the notification, that the notification is a candidate for providing to the user during the performance of the activity;

in response to determining that the notification is a candidate for providing to the user during the performance of the activity;

transmitting, by the client computing device to a remote server device, notification data that is based on the notification;

receiving, from the remote server device in response to the transmitting, provisioning data that indicates whether to provide the notification; and

causing, by the client computing device and based on the provisioning data, notification content, that is based on the notification, to be provided to the user during the activity, wherein causing the notification content to be provided comprises causing the notification content to be provided via at least one of;

the client computing device and an additional computing device paired with the client device.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving, at the client computing device during performance of the activity, an additional notification;

identifying, at the client computing device, an additional source of the additional notification;

determining, at the client computing device and based on the additional source of the additional notification, that the additional notification is not a candidate for providing to the user during the activity;

based on determining that the notification is not a candidate for providing to the user;

suppressing transmission of additional notification data to the remote server, wherein the additional notification data is based on the additional notification; and

suppressing provision of the additional notification during the activity.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein transmitting the notification data to the remote server device is further based on determining, at the client device, that the user is engaged in the activity.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the provisioning data received from the remote server device in response to the transmitting further indicates a particular modality via which to provide the notification, and wherein causing the notification content to be provided further comprises:

causing the notification content to be provided via the particular modality based on the provisioning data indicating the particular modality.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the particular modality is one of:

an audio only modality, a graphical only modality, and a combined audio and graphical modality.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the particular modality indicates whether the notification content is to be provided via the client computing device only, the additional computing device only, or both the client computing device and the additional computing device.

13. The method of claim 7, wherein the activity is related to a vehicle, wherein the additional computing device is integral with the vehicle, and wherein causing the notification content to be provided comprises:

controlling, by the client device, the additional computing device to cause the additional computing device to provide the notification content.

14. The method of claim 7, wherein the notification is a message from a source and includes natural language content formulated by the source;

wherein determining, at the client computing device, that the notification is a candidate for providing to the user is based on the source of the notification and is independent of the natural language content; and

wherein the provisioning data is determined at the remote server device based on the natural language content.

15. The method of claim 7, wherein the notification content comprises a subset of the notification or a rewrite of the notification, and wherein the provisioning data received from the remote server device further comprises the notification content.

16. The method of claim 7, wherein the provisioning data comprises a score for the notification, and wherein causing the notification data to be provided based on the provisioning data comprises causing the notification data to be provided based on the score satisfying a threshold.

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

receiving one or more pre-activity messages in a messaging session between participants, wherein the participants include a user and one or more additional users, wherein each of the participants engages in the messaging session using a corresponding messaging application of a corresponding computing device, and wherein the pre-activity messages are received prior to the user engaging in a particular activity;

determining, after receiving the one or more pre-activity messages, that the user is engaged in the particular activity;

in response to determining that the user is engaged in the particular activity;

activating a modified notification mode that selectively suppresses provisioning of electronic notifications to the user;

receiving, while the user is engaged in the particular activity and while the modified notification mode is activated, an additional message provided in the messaging session by one of the one or more additional users;

determining a score for the additional message based on at least one of;

recency of the one or more pre-activity messages, and a quantity of the one or more pre-activity messages;

causing, based on the score, content that is based on the additional message to be rendered via at least one computing device of the user.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein causing, based on the score, the content to be rendered via the at least one computing device comprises:

determining, based on the score, to provide the content in lieu of suppressing the content.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein causing, based on the score, the content to be rendered via the at least one computing device comprises:

selecting the computing device, or a modality for rendering of the content, based on the score.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

receiving, while the user is engaged in the particular activity and while the modified notification mode is activated, an additional notification that is not part of the messaging session;

determining an additional score for the additional notification based on a source of the additional notification; and

suppressing, based on the additional score, provision to the user of any additional content that is based on the additional notification.

determining to wherein the score is also generated using interaction data that identifies an instance when the user previously received a prior notification from the participant while formerly engaged in the activity.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein causing, based on the score, the content that is based on the additional message to be rendered via the at least one computing device of the user comprises causing the content to be audibly rendered, and further comprising:

receiving, while the user is engaged in the particular activity and while the modified notification mode is activated, an additional notification that is not part of the messaging session;

determining an additional score for the additional notification based on a source of the additional notification; and

causing, based on the additional score, additional content that is based on the additional notification to be graphically rendered via the at least one computing device, without being simultaneously audibly rendered.