Patent Application Titled “Using Images And Voice Recordings To Facilitate Underwriting Life Insurance” Published Online (USPTO 20230360143): State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company

2023 NOV 29 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- According to news reporting originating from Washington, D.C., by NewsRx journalists, a patent application by the inventors Bernico, Michael L. (Bloomington, IL, US); Myers, Jeffrey S. (Normal, IL, US), filed on July 21, 2023, was made available online on November 9, 2023.

The assignee for this patent application is State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (Bloomington, Illinois, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “The nature of the underwriting process for life insurance includes a number of factors which limit the ability to sell policies online. For example, some providers may require collecting samples of bodily fluids to assess an applicant’s health status. Furthermore, even providers who do not require such samples are at risk of receiving fraudulent answers to personal and/or health-related questions, such as the applicant falsely claiming to be a non-smoker. Prior attempts to solve these problems include not selling high-benefit policies online, proxying the desired medical information with advanced statistical techniques using data from other sources, and pricing potential fraud into future policies.

“Also, machine vision techniques have been employed to extract health-related information from images of people. For example, one machine vision platform is able to diagnose certain medical conditions based upon analyses of images from diagnostic imaging tools, such as an X-ray, a CT scan, and/or an MRI scan. The computer’s diagnoses may even be able to identify certain conditions at earlier stages than doctors could identify them in some situations.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent application, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent application: “Embodiments of the present technology relate to systems and methods for analyzing still and/or moving (i.e., video) images and/or voice recordings of applicants as part of an underwriting process to determine appropriate life insurance premiums and/or other terms of coverage.

“In a first aspect, a system for evaluating an insurance applicant as part of an underwriting process to determine one or more appropriate terms of insurance coverage may broadly comprise a communication element and a processing element. The communication element may be configured to receive an image of the insurance applicant. The processing element may be trained to probablistically correlate an aspect of appearance with a personal and/or health-related characteristic by being provided with a database of images of individuals having known personal and/or health-related characteristics. The trained processing element may be configured to analyze the image of the insurance applicant to probablistically determine the personal and/or health-related characteristic for the insurance applicant, and to suggest the appropriate term of insurance coverage based at least in part on the probablistically determined personal and/or health-related characteristic. The system may include more, fewer, or alternative components, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

“In another aspect, a computer-implemented method for evaluating an insurance applicant as part of an underwriting process to determine one or more appropriate terms of insurance coverage may be provided. The method may include training a processing element to probablistically correlate an aspect of appearance with a personal and/or health-related characteristic by providing the processing element with a database of images of individuals having known personal or health-related characteristics. The method may include receiving with a communication element an image of the insurance applicant; analyzing the image of the insurance applicant with the trained processing element to probablistically determine the personal and/or health-related characteristic for the insurance applicant; and/or suggesting with the processing element the one or more appropriate terms of insurance coverage based at least in part on the probablistically determined personal and/or health-related characteristic. The computer-implemented method may include more, fewer, or alternative actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

“In another aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable medium with an executable program stored thereon for evaluating an insurance applicant as part of an underwriting process to determine one or more appropriate terms of insurance coverage may broadly instruct a system (that includes a communication element and a processing element) to perform the following actions. The processing element may be trained to probablistically correlate an aspect of appearance with a personal and/or health-related characteristic by providing the processing element with a database of images of individuals having known personal or health-related characteristics. The communication element may be instructed to receive an image of the insurance applicant. The trained processing element may be instructed to analyze the image of the insurance applicant to probablistically determine the personal and/or health-related characteristic for the insurance applicant, and instructed to suggest the one or more appropriate terms of insurance coverage based at least in part on the probablistically determined personal and/or health-related characteristic. The non-transitory computer-readable medium with an executable program stored thereon may include more, fewer, or alternative instructions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

“Various implementations of any or all of the foregoing aspects may include any one or more of the following additional features. The insurance coverage may be life insurance coverage, and the one or more appropriate terms of insurance coverage may include an insurance premium. The image of the insurance applicant may be a digital, analog, still, or moving (i.e., video) image, and the image may be an otherwise non-diagnostic conventional image, such as a “selfie” taken by the insurance applicant. The processing element may be trained using supervised or unsupervised machine learning, and may employ a neural network, which may be a convolutional neural network or a deep learning neural network. The personal and/or health-related characteristic may be, for example, any one more of age, sex, weight, height, ethnicity, lifespan, cause of death, tobacco use, alcohol use, drug use, diet, and existing medical conditions, and/or risk factors for future medical conditions.

“The communication element may be further configured to receive a voice recording of the insurance applicant. The processing element may be further trained to probablistically correlate an aspect of voice with the personal and/or health-related characteristic by being provided with a database of voice recordings of individuals having the known personal and/or health related characteristics. The processing element may be further configured to analyze the voice recording of the insurance applicant to probablistically determine the personal and/or health-related characteristic for the insurance applicant, and to suggest the appropriate term of insurance coverage based at least in part on the probablistically determined personal and/or health-related characteristic.

“The processing element may be further configured to use the probablistically determined personal and/or health-related characteristic to verify information provided by the insurance applicant. The processing element may be further configured to use the probablistically determined personal and/or health-related characteristic to wholly or at least partially automatically determine the one or more appropriate terms of coverage.

“Advantages of these and other embodiments will become more apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description of the exemplary embodiments which have been shown and described by way of illustration. As will be realized, the present embodiments described herein 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 exemplary 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:

“1-20. (canceled)

“21. A system for evaluating an applicant to determine one or more terms of insurance coverage, comprising: a data receiving circuit configured to receive image data of the applicant; and a processor trained to correlate aspects of appearance with a personal and/or health-related characteristic by being provided with image data of individuals having known personal and/or health-related characteristics; wherein the processor analyzes the image data of the applicant to determine a personal and/or health-related characteristic of the applicant, and to suggest a term of insurance coverage based at least in part upon the determined personal and/or health-related characteristic.

“22. The system as set forth in claim 21, wherein the insurance coverage is health insurance.

“23. The system as set forth in claim 21, wherein the term of insurance coverage includes an insurance premium or discount.

“24. The system as set forth in claim 21, wherein the image data of the applicant includes a digital image.

“25. The system as set forth in claim 21, wherein the image data of the applicant includes a selfie.

“26. The system as set forth in claim 21, wherein the processor employs a convolutional neural network including a plurality of receptive fields which are tiled to overlap.

“27. The system as set forth in claim 21, wherein the processor employs a deep learning neural network.

“28. The system as set forth in claim 21, wherein the image data of the applicant includes a video of the applicant, the processor being configured to determine at least one of a pulse, drug use, or a glucose level of the applicant by analyzing the video.

“29. The system as set forth in claim 21, wherein the personal and/or health-related characteristic is at least one of age, sex, weight, height, ethnicity, lifespan, cause of death, tobacco use, alcohol use, drug use, diet, existing medical conditions, or risk factors for future medical conditions.

“30. The system as set forth in claim 21, wherein the processor is further configured to use the determined personal and/or health-related characteristic to verify information provided by the applicant.

“31. The system as set forth in claim 21, wherein the processor is further configured to use the determined personal and/or health-related characteristic to substantially automatically determine the term of insurance coverage.

“32. A system for evaluating an applicant to determine a life insurance premium, comprising: a data receiving circuit configured to receive otherwise non-diagnostic conventional image data of the applicant; and a processor employing a neural network and trained to correlate one or more aspects of appearance with a personal and/or health-related characteristic by being provided with otherwise non-diagnostic conventional image data of individuals having known personal and/or health-related characteristics; wherein the processor analyzes the otherwise non-diagnostic conventional image data of the applicant to determine a personal and/or health-related characteristic of the applicant, to use the determined personal and/or health-related characteristic to verify information provided by the applicant, and to substantially automatically determine the life insurance premium based at least in part upon the determined personal and/or health-related characteristic.

“33. The system as set forth in claim 32, wherein the otherwise non-diagnostic conventional image data of the applicant includes a digital image.

“34. The system as set forth in claim 32, wherein the otherwise non-diagnostic conventional image data of the applicant includes a selfie.

“35. The system as set forth in claim 32 wherein the neural network is a convolutional neural network including a plurality of receptive fields which are tiled to overlap.

“36. The system as set forth in claim 32, wherein the neural network is a deep learning neural network.

“37. The system as set forth in claim 32 wherein the otherwise non-diagnostic conventional image data of the applicant includes a video of the applicant, the processor being configured to determine at least one of a pulse, drug use, or a glucose level of the applicant by analyzing the video.

“38. The system as set forth in claim 32, wherein the personal and/or health-related characteristic is at least one of age, sex, weight, height, ethnicity, lifespan, cause of death, tobacco use, alcohol use, drug use, diet, existing medical conditions, or risk factors for future medical conditions.

“39. A method for evaluating an applicant to determine one or more terms of insurance coverage, comprising: receiving, by a data receiving circuit, image data of the applicant; training a processor to correlate aspects of appearance with a personal and/or health-related characteristic by providing the processor with image data of individuals having known personal and/or health-related characteristics; analyzing, by the processor, the image data of the applicant to determine a personal and/or health-related characteristic of the applicant; and suggesting, by the processor, a term of insurance coverage based at least in part upon the determined personal and/or health-related characteristic.

“40. The method as set forth in claim 39, wherein the term of insurance coverage includes an insurance premium or discount.”

For more information, see this patent application: Bernico, Michael L.; Myers, Jeffrey S. Using Images And Voice Recordings To Facilitate Underwriting Life Insurance. U.S. Patent Application Number 20230360143, filed July 21, 2023 and posted November 9, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(20230360143)&db=US-PGPUB&type=ids

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