“Methods And Systems For Submitting And/Or Processing Insurance Claims For Damaged Motor Vehicle Glass” in Patent Application Approval Process (USPTO 20210073916)

2021 MAR 25 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent application by the inventors Larson, Jim (Chandler, AZ); Zabasajja, Edward (Chandler, AZ); Mullen, Craig (Phoenix, AZ); Nelson, Douglas J. (Chandler, AZ), filed on September 9, 2020, was made available online on March 11, 2021, according to news reporting originating from Washington, D.C., by NewsRx correspondents.

This patent application is assigned to Neural Claim System Inc. (Chandler, Arizona, United States).

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: “When motor vehicle glass such as windshields are damaged, they are typically covered by insurance, and because they are covered by insurance, this necessitates the submission of a claim for insurance coverage. Currently, this can be done by having an insurance adjuster come out and look at your motor vehicle, or taking your motor vehicle in to an adjuster. This can require considerable time and effort, and slow the process of eventually getting your glass fixed through repair or replacement. The present disclosure provides automated methods and systems for submitting and/or processing an insurance claim for damaged motor vehicle glass. The methods can provide for greater efficiency and processing.”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent application, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent application: “Methods for submitting and/or processing insurance claims for damaged motor vehicle glass are provided that can include: receiving a plurality of images associated with motor vehicle glass at processing circuitry; performing image processing operations on each of the plurality of images to determine one or more of glass damage, glass type, and/or claim fraud; and submitting an insurance claim for glass repair or replacement based on the glass type or damage, or flagging the claim as fraud.

“The present disclosure also provides a non-transitory computer readable storing instruction that when executed by a processor, causes a computer system to perform the following method. The method can include: prompting a user for initial claim submission information; prompting the user for a plurality of images of portions of motor vehicle glass; performing image processing operations on each of the plurality of images to train the computer system, determine one or more of glass damage, glass type, and/or claim fraud; and one of submit or reject an insurance claim for motor vehicle glass repair or replacement.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method for submitting an insurance claim for damaged motor vehicle glass, the method comprising: receiving a plurality of images associated with the motor vehicle glass at processing circuitry; performing image processing operations on each of the plurality of images to determine one or more of glass damage, glass type, and/or claim fraud; and submitting an insurance claim for motor vehicle glass repair or replacement based on the glass type or damage, or flagging the claim as fraud.

“2. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing a prompt to a user to record the plurality of images.

“3. The method of claim 2 wherein the prompt designates predefined portions of the motor vehicle glass to be captured.

“4. The method of claim 3 wherein the prompt designates the order of capture of the predefined images and assigns an identifier to each image that is associated with the predefined portion.

“5. The method of claim 1 wherein the performing image processing determines glass type, and the performing comprises obtaining one or more of the VIN# or Windshield Tag from one or more of the plurality of images and receiving information from a third-party database regarding the motor vehicle glass related to that VIN# or Windshield Tag.

“6. The method of claim 1 wherein the performing image processing determines glass damage, and the performing comprises identifying the number of instances of damage per image.

“7. The method of claim 6 further comprising determining the type of damage for each instance.

“8. The method of claim 7 wherein the types of damage can be one or more of a crack, a batwing chip, a bullseye chip, a halfmoon chip, a star chip, and/or a combo chip.

“9. The method of claim 1 wherein the performing image processing performs fraud analysis, and the performing comprises compiling individual inconsistencies in the claim submission, assigning a weight to each inconsistency, compiling the weighted inconsistencies and determining fraud based on the weighted inconsistencies.

“10. The method of claim 1 wherein the performing image processing further comprises performing machine learning and/or training using the plurality of images.

“11. The method of claim 10 wherein the machine learning comprises preparing additional images from the provided images.

“12. The method of claim 11 wherein the additional images can include one or more of flipped images, rotated images, color jittered images, and/or brightness or contrast changed images.

“13. The method of claim 10 further comprising performing image processing using trained processing circuitry.

“14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instruction that, when executed by a processor, causes a computer system to perform the following method: prompt a user for initial claim submission information; prompt a user for a plurality of images of portions of motor vehicle glass; perform image processing operations on each of the plurality of images to train the computer system, determine one or more of glass damage, glass type, and/or claim fraud; and one of submit or reject an insurance claim for motor vehicle glass repair.

“15. The computer readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the method further comprises comparing information from the plurality of images to initial claim submission information.

“16. The computer readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the method further comprises comparing information from the plurality of images to third party information.

“17. The computer readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the method further comprises comparing information from the plurality of images to trained system information.

“18. The computer readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the machine learning and/or training comprises augmenting the images received.”

URL and more information on this patent application, see: Larson, Jim; Zabasajja, Edward; Mullen, Craig; Nelson, Douglas J. Methods And Systems For Submitting And/Or Processing Insurance Claims For Damaged Motor Vehicle Glass. Filed September 9, 2020 and posted March 11, 2021. Patent URL: http://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=%2220210073916%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20210073916&RS=DN/20210073916

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