Patent Issued for Augmented reality method for repairing damage or replacing physical objects (USPTO 11709253): United Services Automobile Association

2023 AUG 14 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States) has been issued patent number 11709253, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are Maestas, Jerry John (San Antonio, TX, US).

This patent was filed on March 31, 2021 and was published online on July 25, 2023.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “Home owners often obtain insurance to offset losses (or damages) of a home and/or valuables. Insurance companies may require customers to fill out complicated inventory forms listing valuables in the home, including a physical description and monetary value for each item to be insured. Because these forms may be tedious to fill out, customers may be disinclined to fill them out accurately and/or at all.

“After an incident (such as a storm, theft, etc.) a customer may file a claim with the insurance company, at which time an adjuster comes to assess any potential damage and/or loss. This may be a time-consuming process as a customer waits for an appointment with the adjuster to learn the estimated cost for repairing and/or replacing items. Moreover, individual adjusters may use different methods for assessing the value of damaged or lost items as well as estimated costs for repair and/or replacement, leading to less predictability in claim payments by an insurer.

“There is a need in the art for a system and method that addresses the shortcomings discussed above.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “In one aspect, a method for determining damage to a group of physical objects includes steps of: capturing a first image, the first image including the group of physical objects, where the first image is taken prior to a loss causing incident, where the group of physical objects are captured in their initial state; capturing a second image, the second image including the group of physical objects, where the second image is taken after the first image and also after the loss causing incident, and where the group of physical objects are captured in their modified state; and detecting differences between the group of physical objects in their initial state and the group of physical objects in their modified state.

“In another aspect, a method for automatically replacing a physical object after a loss causing incident includes steps of: capturing a first image, the first image including the physical object, where the first image is taken prior to a loss causing incident, where the physical object is captured in its initial state; capturing a second image, the second image including the physical object, where the second image is taken after the first image and also after the loss causing incident, where the physical object is captured in its modified state; detecting differences between the physical object in its initial state and the physical object in its modified state; determining that the physical object needs to be replaced; determining a replacement cost for the physical object; and replacing the physical object.

“In another aspect, a method of visualizing damage to a physical structure includes steps of capturing a first image, the first image including the physical object, where the first image is taken prior to a loss causing incident, where the physical object is captured in its initial state; capturing a second image, the second image including the physical object, where the second image is taken after the first image and also after the loss causing incident, where the physical object is captured in its modified state; detecting differences between the physical object in its initial state and the physical object in its modified state; displaying the physical object in its modified state; and providing a transformation tool, where the transformation tool can be used to transform the displayed physical object from its modified state to its initial state.

“Other systems, methods, features, and advantages of the disclosure will be, or will become, apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following figures and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional systems, methods, features, and advantages be included within this description and this summary, be within the scope of the disclosure, and be protected by the following claims.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A damage management system for determining damage to a physical structure, the system comprising: a centralized manager including one or more servers and at least one database in communication with the one or more servers; a remote device including a camera, the remote device in communication with the centralized manager through a network, wherein the remote device is located on site at a location of the physical structure; wherein a processor of at least one of the one or more servers is configured to: receive a first image including the physical structure, wherein the first image is captured prior to a loss causing incident involving the physical structure, wherein the physical structure is captured in its initial state in the first image; wherein the physical structure includes a surface material covering a portion of an exterior of the physical structure; wherein the processor of the at least one of the one or more servers is configured to use the first image of the physical structure in its initial state prior to the loss causing incident to: (1) identify a type of surface material covering the portion of the exterior of the physical structure, and (2) identify a first percentage of the exterior of the physical structure that is covered by the surface material; receive, from the remote device, a second image including the physical structure, wherein the second image is captured by the remote device after the first image and also after the loss causing incident involving the physical structure, wherein the physical structure is captured in its modified state in the second image; detect differences between the physical structure in its initial state and the physical structure in its modified state using machine vision algorithms that compare the first image of the physical structure in its initial state to the second image of the physical structure in its modified state; based on the detected differences, automatically detect at least one damaged region of the physical structure; wherein the processor of the at least one of the one or more servers is further configured to use the second image of the physical structure in its modified state after the loss causing incident to determine a second percentage associated with the first percentage of the exterior of the physical structure that is covered by the surface material that is damaged or in need of repair or replacement; wherein the remote device includes an application that analyzes wireless networking technology signal strength through walls of the physical structure; and wherein the processor of at least one of the one or more servers is configured to use the wireless networking technology signal strength from the remote device to determine damage to the walls of the physical structure.

“2. The damage management system according to claim 1, wherein the physical structure is a residential or commercial building.

“3. The damage management system according to claim 2, wherein the residential or commercial building includes a roof; and wherein the processor of at least one of the one or more servers is configured to automatically detect a damaged region of the roof based on the differences between the first image of the physical structure in its initial state and the second image of the physical structure in its modified state.

“4. The damage management system according to claim 1, wherein the processor of the at least one of the one or more servers is further configured to automatically detect distances in the second image of the physical structure in its modified state after the loss causing incident using a SLAM algorithm to determine an absolute size of the at least one damaged region of the physical structure.

“5. The damage management system according to claim 4, wherein the processor of the at least one of the one or more servers is further configured to use the SLAM algorithm on the second image of the physical structure in its modified state after the loss causing incident to determine an absolute area of the second percentage of the exterior of the physical structure that is covered by the surface material that is damaged or in need of repair or replacement.

“6. The damage management system according to claim 1, wherein the remote device includes an infrared sensor for detecting heat signatures; and wherein the processor of at least one of the one or more servers is configured to use the heat signatures to determine locations of damage to the physical structure after a fire.

“7. The damage management system according to claim 1, wherein automatically detecting at least one damaged region of the physical structure includes using a model to differentiate between damage and normal wear and tear to the physical structure.

“8. The damage management system according to claim 1, further comprising a visualization tool that displays the at least one damaged region of the physical structure on a display.

“9. The damage management system according to claim 8, wherein the visualization tool displays a first damaged region using a first display pattern; and wherein the visualization displays a second damaged region using a second display pattern that is different from the first display pattern.

“10. A method of visualizing damage to a physical structure comprising the steps of: capturing a first image, the first image including the physical structure, wherein the first image is taken prior to a loss causing incident, wherein the physical structure is captured in its initial state; capturing a second image, the second image including the physical structure, wherein the second image is taken after the first image and also after the loss causing incident, wherein the physical structure is captured in its modified state; detecting differences between the physical structure in its initial state and the physical structure in its modified state using machine vision algorithms that compare the first image of the physical structure in its initial state to the second image of the physical structure in its modified state; analyzing wireless networking technology signal strength through walls of the physical structure using an application on a remote device and determining damage to the walls of the physical structure in its modified state using the wireless networking technology signal strength from the remote device; displaying the physical structure in its modified state; providing a transformation tool, wherein the transformation tool is configured to transform the displayed physical structure between its modified state and its initial state; wherein the transformation tool displays: a first damaged region on the physical structure using a first display pattern; a second damaged region on the physical structure using a second display pattern that is different from the first display pattern; and a remaining portion of the displayed physical structure using a third display pattern that is different from the first display pattern and the second display pattern; wherein the first display pattern indicates damage in need of urgent repair or replacement, the second display pattern indicates damage that may not need immediate replacement, and the third display pattern indicates regions of the physical structure with no damage.

“11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the transformation tool is a sliding window that divides a display space for displaying the physical structure into a first display portion and a second display portion, the first display portion being configured to display a portion of the physical structure in its initial state and the second display portion being configured to display a portion of the physical structure in its modified state.

“12. The method according to claim 11, wherein as a boundary of the sliding window is moved the first display portion and the second display portion change sizes.

“13. The method according to claim 10, wherein capturing the second image includes capturing a live video feed of the physical structure; and wherein the method further includes superimposing repairs onto one or more regions of the physical structure where damage has been detected.

“14. The method according to claim 10, wherein each of the first display pattern, the second display pattern, and the third display pattern are associated with different colors.

“15. The method according to claim 10, wherein the physical structure is a residential or commercial building; and wherein the first damaged region is associated with a roof of the residential or commercial building.

“16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the second damaged region is associated with a surface material covering a portion of an exterior of the physical structure.”

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

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Maestas, Jerry John. Augmented reality method for repairing damage or replacing physical objects. U.S. Patent Number 11709253, filed March 31, 2021, and published online on July 25, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11709253)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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