Patent Issued for Determining Status Of Building Modifications Using Informatics Sensor Data (USPTO 10,510,119)

2019 DEC 30 (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 10,510,119, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are Allen, Michael J. (San Antonio, TX); Devereaux, Ramsey (San Antonio, TX); Read, Spencer (Helotes, TX); Franck, David S. (San Antonio, TX); Voutour, Teddy J. (Helotes, TX); Limas, Shanna (San Antonio, TX); Chandler, William (San Antonio, TX); Burns, Michael P. (San Antonio, TX); Wheeler, Daniela (Boerne, TX); Swain, Kathleen L. (Peoria, AZ); Burgess, Cleburne R. (Fair Oaks Ranch, TX).

This patent was filed on May 9, 2014 and was published online on December 30, 2019.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “Smart home functionality is a maturing space, but the opportunity for insurance companies remains largely untapped. Currently, there are few useful early warning and loss mitigation systems that actually save costs and time for both the property owner and insurance company alike. For instance, currently, homeowners insurance claim events are detected by the homeowner, who then contacts their insurance company to inform them that there has been a loss. However, the loss could be mitigated with automated warning and detection systems that interface with the insurance company systems. For example, homeowners may not become aware of various issues/damage resulting from home repairs/remodeling until such time as those issues lead to further damage. If they could be made aware of such loss events earlier and then take corrective actions, then the increased damage or loss could have been mitigated or avoided.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The purpose and advantages of the below described illustrated embodiments will be set forth in and apparent from the description that follows. Additional advantages of the illustrated embodiments will be realized and attained by the devices, systems and methods particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof, as well as from the appended drawings.

“To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the illustrated embodiments, in one aspect, provided is a computer device and method for processing data to detect modifications to a building or other structure preferably associated with an insurance claim. Received is specification data regarding modifications to be made to a building or other structure in connection with an insurance claim. Also received is data from one or more sensor devices associated with the insured property indicative of a status of modifications made to the property. Analysis is performed on the received specification and data to determine whether one or more predefined conditions for the insurance claim is satisfied regarding the modifications to be made to the insured property.

“In another aspect, a determination is performed regarding whether recoverable depreciation relating to an insurance claim can be provided to an insured based upon the performed analysis. In yet another aspect, data is received from the one or more sensor devices identifying one or more conditions on the insured property not associated with the modifications to be made to the property in connection with the insurance claim so as to determine one or more of: an underwriting decision, pricing decision; a renewal or cancellation decision, an insurance application decision, coverage amount, deductible, or other terms or conditions of an insurance policy or other product.

“This summary section is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described subsequently in the detailed description section. This summary section is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“What is claimed is:

“1. A sensor system for capturing data, the system comprising: a plurality of sensor devices each configured to capture a different attribute of a property, each sensor device having a transmitter with an associated IP address coupled to a wireless network for transmitting the captured data, the plurality of sensor devices comprising at least a camera; a data storage component wirelessly coupled to each of the plurality of sensors devices via the IP address of the transmitter for each of the sensor devices wherein the data storage component is configured to aggregate captured data regarding different attributes of the property received from each of the sensor devices; a communication component coupled to the data storage component configured to encrypt and transmit the captured data via a network; a computer server coupled to the communication device via a network, and programmed to: receive captured encrypted data regarding one or more attributes of the property from the communication device, wherein the captured encrypted data is associated with structural modification data and includes a first image of a portion of the property to which modifications are made; receive modification specification data; store the received encrypted data regarding various attributes of the property with the modification specification data in a database; retrieve the stored data from the database, the stored data retrieved from the database identifying the structural modifications made to the property; generate a command signal to capture and transmit a second image of the portion of the property to which modifications are made, whereby the command signal activates the camera by commanding the camera to capture an immediate reading, the command signal further altering a data reading frequency of the camera; upon transmitting the command signal to the camera, receiving the second image; identify structural modifications made to the property, based upon the received captured encrypted data regarding the one or more attributes of the property and by comparing the second image with the first image; compare the identified structural modifications to the modification specification data; and transmit an electronic notification to a computing device associated with the property when determining that proper structural modifications were made to the property.

“2. The sensor system as recited in claim 1, further comprising determining if recoverable depreciation regarding an insurance claim can be provided based upon the performed analysis.

“3. The sensor system as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more sensor devices comprises one or more of the following detection sensor devices: electrical; structural; and camera.

“4. The sensor system as recited in claim 1, wherein the received modification specification data relates to the property repairs associated with damage to the property.

“5. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the computer server is further programmed to determine a material used in connection with modifications made to the property.”

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Allen, Michael J.; Devereaux, Ramsey; Read, Spencer; Franck, David S.; Voutour, Teddy J.; Limas, Shanna; Chandler, William; Burns, Michael P.; Wheeler, Daniela; Swain, Kathleen L.; Burgess, Cleburne R. Determining Status Of Building Modifications Using Informatics Sensor Data. U.S. Patent Number 10,510,119, filed May 9, 2014, and published online on December 30, 2019. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=10,510,119.PN.&OS=PN/10,510,119RS=PN/10,510,119

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