Audio notifications

• US 9,313,317 B1
• Filed: 07/21/2014
• Issued: 04/12/2016
• 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:
  US14/336,102
• Time in Patent Office: 631 Days
• Field of Search: 704/270.1, 704/275, 704/270, 709/206, 709/200, 709/201, 709/204, 709/207, 709/220, 379/88.13, 379/37, 379/45, 707/999.102, 715/800
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 computer-implemented method, comprising:

determining, by a computing system, that a first pre-defined event has occurred;

generating, by the computing system and responsive to having determined that the first pre-defined event has occurred, a first notification message that is to be presented on a display;

determining, by the computing system, that a second pre-defined event has occurred;

generating, by the computing system and responsive to having determined that the second pre-defined event has occurred, a second notification message that is to be presented on the display;

determining, by the computing system, that a conflict exists between presentation of the first notification message and presentation of the second notification message;

applying, by the computing system and responsive to having determined that the conflict exists between the presentation of the first notification message and the presentation of the second notification message, one or more conflict resolution rules to determine an order in which the first notification message and the second notification message are to be presented on the display;

providing, by the computing system and responsive to having applied the one or more conflict resolution rules, the first notification message for presentation by the display before a presentation of the second notification message by the display; and

providing, by the computing system and responsive to having applied the one or more conflict resolution rules, the second notification message for presentation by the display after the first notification message has been presented by the display.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

the first pre-defined event includes a first application program receiving a first message that was transmitted over a wireless network; and

the second pre-defined event includes a second application program receiving a second message that was transmitted over the wireless network.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein:

the first message is a first Short Message Service (SMS) message, and

the second message is a second SMS message.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein applying the one or more conflict resolution rules to determine the order in which the first notification message and the second notification message are to be presented on the display includes determining the order based on having determined that messages received by the first application program are to be prioritized over messages received by the second application program, and thus that the first notification message is to presented for display before the second notification message.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

providing the first notification message for presentation by the display includes transmitting the first notification message for receipt and execution by a computing device; and

providing the second notification message for presentation by the display includes transmitting the second notification message for receipt and execution by the computing device.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein determining that the conflict exists between the presentation of the first notification message and the presentation of the second notification message includes determining that the first notification message is to be transmitted for receipt by the computing device concurrent with transmission of the second notification message for receipt by the computing device.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising placing, by the computing system, the first notification message and the second notification message into a queue, wherein an order of the first notification message and the second notification message in the queue is determined by the one or more conflict resolution rules.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

presenting the first notification message includes audibly outputting the first notification message; and

presenting the second notification message includes audibly outputting the second notification message.

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

determining, by a computing system, that a first pre-defined event has occurred;

generating, by the computing system and responsive to having determined that the first pre-defined event has occurred, a first notification message that is to be presented on a display;

determining, by the computing system, that a second pre-defined event has occurred;

generating, by the computing system and responsive to having determined that the second pre-defined event has occurred, a second notification message that is to be presented on the display;

determining, by the computing system, that a conflict exists between presentation of the first notification message and presentation of the second notification message;

applying, by the computing system and responsive to having determined that the conflict exists between the presentation of the first notification message and the presentation of the second notification message, one or more conflict resolution rules to determine an order in which the first notification message and the second notification message are to be presented on the display;

providing, by the computing system and responsive to having applied the one or more conflict resolution rules, the first notification message for presentation by the display before a presentation of the second notification message by the display; and

providing, by the computing system and responsive to having applied the one or more conflict resolution rules, the second notification message for presentation by the display after the first notification message has been presented by the display.

10. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 9, wherein:

the first pre-defined event includes a first application program receiving a first message that was transmitted over a wireless network; and

the second pre-defined event includes a second application program receiving a second message that was transmitted over the wireless network.

11. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 10, wherein:

the first message is a first Short Message Service (SMS) message, and

the second message is a second SMS message.

12. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 10, wherein applying the one or more conflict resolution rules to determine the order in which the first notification message and the second notification message are to be presented on the display includes determining the order based on having determined that messages received by the first application program are to be prioritized over messages received by the second application program, and thus that the first notification message is to presented for display before the second notification message.

13. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 9, wherein:

providing the first notification message for presentation by the display includes transmitting the first notification message for receipt and execution by a computing device; and

providing the second notification message for presentation by the display includes transmitting the second notification message for receipt and execution by the computing device.

14. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 13, wherein determining that the conflict exists between the presentation of the first notification message and the presentation of the second notification message includes determining that the first notification message is to be transmitted for receipt by the computing device concurrent with transmission of the second notification message for receipt by the computing device.

15. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 9, wherein the operations further comprise placing, by the computing system, the first notification message and the second notification message into a queue, wherein an order of the first notification message and the second notification message in the queue is determined by the one or more conflict resolution rules.

16. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 9, wherein:

presenting the first notification message includes audibly outputting the first notification message; and

presenting the second notification message includes audibly outputting the second notification message.