“Automatically Generating Personal Articles Insurance Data Based Upon Digital Images” in Patent Application Approval Process (USPTO 20210312557): Patent Application

2021 OCT 21 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent application by the inventors Engelhorn, Amy (Normal, IL, US); Knarr, Kathryn E. (Bloomington, IL, US); Taylor, Dwayne (Bloomington, IL, US), filed on January 15, 2016, was made available online on October 7, 2021, according to news reporting originating from Washington, D.C., by NewsRx correspondents.

This patent application has not been assigned to a company or institution.

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Personal articles insurance policies provide coverage for a wide variety of items including: jewelry, furs, cameras, musical instruments, sports equipment, computer equipment, guns, knives, tools, artwork, mobile telephones, toys, antiques, etc. Currently, insurance customers may not be able to obtain a quote for, or purchase a personal articles insurance policy, without assistance from an insurance provider, such as an insurance agent or insurance company representative.

“Some insurance representatives or agents may use a .pdf solution during current personal articles insurance underwriting processes. For example, a .pdf may be completed, photos of a personal article may be obtained, and supporting documentation associated with the personal article may be attached. However, due to current .pdf limitations, and the nature of the broad coverage provided under a personal articles insurance policy, closer review is required by underwriting (i.e., it is important to capture a detailed description of the personal article(s) and properly classify each personal article in order to collect the appropriate insurance premium for the associated exposure).

“Further, unlike other enterprise application (EA) solutions (e.g., renters insurance, condo insurance, homeowners insurance, etc.), a current personal article policy (PAP) .pdf processes may not connect to an insurance policy application decision support knowledge based system (KBA). As a result, the PAP .pdf processes, or other conventional techniques, may not be automatically pre-screened to identify areas that require underwriting/service review. In addition, available information within a PAP .pdf, or other conventional documents, may be insufficient for interactive fire streaming purposes.

“Automated streamlined transactions (ASTs) are written programs that may be used to automate human interaction with fire systems and provide the ability to process a high volume of items with significant speed and accuracy. The EA .pdf AST was developed to identify information on a .pdf application and stream it into the appropriate fields. The personal articles policy data being streamed (name, address, etc.) is not presently sufficient to automate the application, and not intended to verify that the information entered on the application is correct. Rather, insurance agents and/or underwriting associates must manually verify that personal articles data is accurate and appropriate for personal articles insurance policy issuance.”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent application, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent application: “The Systems and methods are provided that may automatically extract personal article information from digital images of documentation of a personal article and/or from digital images of the personal article itself. For instance, digital or other Object Recognition (OR) and/or OCR (Optical Character Recognition) techniques may be performed on digital or other images of the personal articles and/or associated documentation (such as an owner’s or user’s manual). The systems and methods may automatically generate personal articles insurance policy data and/or personal articles insurance policies, premiums, discounts, quotes, risk level analysis, and/or pricing based upon personal article information automatically extracted from digital images of documentation of one or more personal articles and/or from digital images of the personal articles themselves.

“In one aspect, a computer implemented method for automatically generating personal articles insurance data and/or insurance policies or quotes may be provided. The method may include (1) receiving, at a processor of a computing device, digital image data from an electronic device, in response to the processor executing a digital image data receiving module, wherein the digital image data may be representative of documentation for at least one personal article. The method may include (2) generating, using a processor of a computing device, personal article information data and/or a personal articles insurance policy (or quote, premium, rate, discount, risk, etc.), based upon the digital image data, in response to the processor executing a personal articles information data recognition module. In one embodiment, the personal articles information data may be representative of identifying characteristics of the at least one personal article. The method may also include (3) generating, using a processor of a computing device, personal articles insurance data and/or a personal articles insurance policy (or quote, premium, rate, discount, risk, etc.), based upon the personal articles information data, in response to the processor executing a personal articles insurance data generation module. The method may include additional, fewer, or alternate actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

“In another aspect, a system for automatically generating personal articles insurance data and/or insurance policies or quotes may be provided. The system may include a digital image data receiving module stored on a memory that, when executed by a processor of a computing device, causes the processor to receive digital image data from an electronic device, wherein the digital image data may be representative of documentation for at least one personal article. The system may further include a personal articles information recognition module stored on a memory that, when executed by a processor of a computing device, causes the processor to generate personal articles information data and/or a personal articles insurance policy (or quote, premium, rate, discount, risk, etc.), based upon the digital image data. In one embodiment, the personal articles information data may be representative of identifying characteristics of the at least one personal article. The system may also include a personal articles insurance data generation module stored on a memory that, when executed by a processor of a computing device, may cause the processor to generate personal articles insurance data and/or insurance policies, quotes, premiums, rates, discounts, etc. based upon the personal articles information data. The system may include additional, fewer, or alternate functionality, including that discussed elsewhere herein.

“In another aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor of a computing device, may cause the processor to automatically generate personal articles insurance data and/or insurance policies/quotes. The processor and/or instructions may include a digital image data receiving module that, when executed by a processor of a computing device, causes the processor to receive digital image data from an electronic device, wherein the digital image data may be representative of documentation for at least one personal article. The non-transitory computer-readable medium may further include a personal articles information recognition module that, when executed by a processor of a computing device, causes the processor to generate personal articles information data and/or a personal articles insurance policy (or quote, premium, rate, discount, risk, etc.), based upon the digital image data. The personal articles information data may be representative of identifying characteristics of the at least one personal article. The non-transitory computer-readable medium may also include a personal articles insurance data generation module that, when executed by a processor of a computing device, causes the processor to generate personal articles insurance data and/or an insurance policy, quote, premium, rate, discount, etc. based upon the personal articles information data.

“Advantages will become more apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description of the preferred embodiments which have been shown and described by way of illustration. As will be realized, the present embodiments may be capable of other and different embodiments, and their details are capable of modification in various respects. Accordingly, the drawings and description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature and not as restrictive.

“The Figures depict preferred embodiments for purposes of illustration only. One skilled in the art will readily recognize from the following discussion that alternative embodiments of the systems and methods illustrated herein may be employed without departing from the principles of the invention described herein.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A computer-implemented method for automatically generating personal articles insurance policy data, personal articles insurance policy quotes, personal articles insurance pricing, personal articles insurance discounts, personal articles insurance policies, any sub-combination thereof, or any combination thereof, the method comprising: receiving, at a processor of a computing device, digital image data from an electronic device, in response to the processor executing a digital image data receiving module, wherein the digital image data includes (i) an image relating to at least one personal article, (ii) a date/time stamp, and (iii) a geo-tag, and wherein the date/time stamp and the geo-tag are encoded within the digital image data via metadata; extracting, using a processor of a computing device, personal article identification data from the digital image data in response to the processor executing an object recognition algorithm, and extracting the date/time stamp and the geo-tag from the digital image data based on the metadata; generating, using a processor of a computing device, personal articles information data, based upon the personal article identification data, in response to the processor executing a personal articles information data recognition module, wherein the personal articles information data is representative of identifying characteristics of the at least one personal article, the date/time stamp, and the geo-tag; authenticating, using a processor of a computing device, a personal article based on a comparison of the personal articles information data with the digital image data, wherein the authenticating is representative of at least one of: whether the digital image data indicates use of an internet photo, whether the digital image data is detected to be prior to a date on a purchase receipt for the personal article, whether the digital image data is detected to be a prior submission of a same photo of the personal article, determining whether multiple documents match the personal article, or determining whether multiple images of the personal article match; and generating, using a processor of a computing device, personal articles insurance data, personal articles insurance policy quotes, personal articles insurance pricing, personal articles insurance discounts, personal articles insurance policies, any sub-combination thereof, or any combination thereof, based upon the personal articles information data and the authentication of the personal article, in response to the processor executing a personal articles insurance data generation module.

“2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the image relating to the at least one personal article is an image of alpha-numeric text related to the at least one personal article.

“3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the personal articles information data recognition module is an optical character recognition module that extracts personal article information data from the image of the alpha-numeric text.

“4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the image relating to the at least one personal article is a photograph of the at least one personal article.

“5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the personal articles information data recognition module is an object recognition module that extracts personal articles information data from the photograph of the at least one personal article.

“6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, at a processor of a computing device, insurance customer answer data, wherein the insurance customer answer data is representative of answers, provided by an insurance customer, wherein the answers are representative of at least one of: whether the personal article is kept in a safe, whether the personal article is kept in a vault, how long the personal article is kept in a safe, how long the personal article is kept in a vault, whether the personal article is gem-printed, whether the personal article is GEMOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF AMERICA (GIA) certified, whether the personal article is EUROPEAN GEMOLOGICAL LABORATORY (EGL) certified, whether insurance coverage for the personal article is desired when the personal article is unattended, whether the insurance customer has an alarm certificate, whether the personal article is for professional use, or whether the personal article is for non-professional use; and the personal articles insurance data is further based upon the insurance customer answer data.

“7. A computer system for automatically generating personal articles insurance policy quotes, pricing, discounts, policies, or any combination thereof, the system comprising: a digital image data receiving module stored on a memory that, when executed by a processor of a computing device, causes the processor to receive digital image data from an electronic device, wherein the digital image data includes (i) an image relating to at least one personal article, (ii) a date/time stamp, and (iii) a geo-tag, and wherein the date/time stamp and the geo-tag are encoded within the digital image data via metadata; an object recognition algorithm stored on a memory that, when executed by a processor of a computing device, causes the processor to extract personal article identification data from the digital image data; a metadata extraction module stored on memory that, when executed by a processor of a computing device, causes the processor to extract the date/time stamp and the geo-tag from the digital image data based on the metadata; a personal articles information recognition module stored on a memory that, when executed by a processor of a computing device, causes the processor to generate personal articles information data, wherein the personal articles information data is representative of personal articles insurance policy quotes, personal articles insurance pricing, personal articles insurance discounts, personal articles insurance policies, any sub-combination thereof, or any combination thereof, based upon the personal article identification data, and wherein the personal articles information data is further representative of identifying characteristics of the at least one personal article, the date/time stamp, and the geo-tag; a personal article location verification module stored on a memory that, when executed by a processor of a computing device, causes the processor to determine at least one of: whether the digital image data indicates use of an internet photo, whether the digital image data is detected to be prior to a date on a purchase receipt for the personal article, whether the digital image data is detected to be a prior submission of a same photo of the personal article, whether multiple documents match the personal article, or whether multiple images of the personal article match; and a personal articles insurance data generation module stored on a memory that, when executed by a processor of a computing device, causes the processor to generate personal articles insurance policy quotes, personal articles insurance pricing, personal articles insurance discounts, personal articles insurance policies, any sub-combination thereof, or any combination thereof, based upon the personal articles information data to facilitate providing personal articles insurance policy quotes, personal articles insurance pricing, personal articles insurance discounts, personal articles insurance policies, any sub-combination thereof, or any combination thereof, to insurance customers.

“8. The system of claim 7, wherein the digital image data is further representative of at least one of: an appraisal of the at least one personal article, a purchase receipt for the at least one personal article, a certification associated with the at least one personal article, or a written description of the at least one personal article.

“9. (canceled)

“10. The system of claim 7, further comprising: an insurance customer answer data receiving module stored on a memory that, when executed by a processor of a computing device, causes the processor to receive insurance customer answer data, wherein the insurance customer answer data is representative of answers, provided by an insurance customer, wherein the answers are representative of at least one of: whether the personal article is kept in a safe, whether the personal article is kept in a vault, how long the personal article is kept in a safe, how long the personal article is kept in a vault, whether the personal article is gem-printed, whether the personal article is GEMOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF AMERICA (GIA) certified, whether the personal article is EUROPEAN GEMOLOGICAL LABORATORY (EGL) certified, whether insurance coverage for the personal article is desired when the personal article is unattended, whether the insurance customer has an alarm certificate, whether the personal article is for professional use, whether the personal article is for non-professional use; whether the personal articles insurance data is further based upon the insurance customer answer data, or any combination thereof.

“11. (canceled)”

There are additional claims. Please visit full patent to read further.

URL and more information on this patent application, see: Engelhorn, Amy; Knarr, Kathryn E.; Taylor, Dwayne. Automatically Generating Personal Articles Insurance Data Based Upon Digital Images. Filed January 15, 2016 and posted October 7, 2021. Patent URL: https://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220210312557%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20210312557&RS=DN/20210312557

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)