Patent Issued for Determining Status Of Building Modifications Using Informatics Sensor Data (USPTO 10,872,348)

2020 DEC 31 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent by the inventors 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), filed on December 16, 2019, was published online on January 4, 2021, according to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx correspondents.

Patent number 10,872,348 is assigned to United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States).

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: “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.”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent, NewsRx journalists 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 system, comprising: a computer server coupled to a communication device via a network, and programmed to: receive modification specification data indicative of modifications to be made to a property; receive first sensor data captured in a first data capture regarding one or more attributes of a property, wherein the first sensor data indicates one or more first attributes associated with the modification specification data of the property; generate a command signal to capture and transmit second sensor data of a second data capture of a portion of the property to which modifications are made, whereby the command signal activates a sensor by commanding the sensor to capture a reading, the command signal further altering a data reading frequency of the sensor; in response to transmitting the command signal to the sensor, receive the second sensor data; identify modifications made to the property, based upon comparing the first sensor data and the second sensor data; perform a determination as to whether proper modifications were made to the property by comparing the identified modifications to the modification specification data, wherein the identified modifications comprise one or more slope differences of a floor, wall, ceiling, or any combination thereof; and transmit an electronic notification to a computing device associated with the property indicating whether the proper modifications were made to the property, based on the determination.

“2. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer server is programmed to: determine if recoverable depreciation regarding an insurance claim can be provided based upon the determination.

“3. The system of claim 1, comprising: a plurality of sensor devices each configured to capture a different attribute of the property, each sensor device having a transmitter with an associated Internet Protocol (IP) address coupled to a wireless network for transmitting a corresponding attribute.

“4. The system of claim 3, wherein the plurality of sensor devices comprise one or more of the following detection sensor devices: electrical; structural; and camera.

“5. The system of claim 1, wherein the received modification specification data relates to property repairs associated with damage to the property.

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

“7. The system of claim 1, comprising: a data storage component wirelessly coupled to each of a plurality of sensors devices via a 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 for provision to the computer server.

“8. The system of claim 7, comprising a communication component coupled to the data storage component configured to encrypt and transmit the captured data via a network.

“9. A tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable medium, comprising computer-readable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computer, cause the computer to: receive modification specification data indicative of modifications to be made to a property; receive first sensor data captured in a first data capture regarding one or more attributes of a property, wherein the first sensor data indicates one or more first attributes associated with the modification specification data of the property; generate a command signal to capture and transmit second sensor data of a second data capture of a portion of the property to which modifications are made, whereby the command signal activates a sensor by commanding the sensor to capture a reading, the command signal further altering a data reading frequency of the sensor; in response to transmitting the command signal to the sensor, receive the second sensor data; identify modifications made to the property, based upon comparing the first sensor data and the second sensor data; perform a determination as to whether proper modifications were made to the property by comparing the identified modifications to the modification specification data, wherein the identified modifications comprise one or more slope differences of a floor, wall, ceiling, or any combination thereof; and transmit an electronic notification to a computing device associated with the property indicating whether the proper modifications were made to the property, based on the determination.

“10. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, comprising computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computer to: determine if recoverable depreciation regarding an insurance claim can be provided based upon the determination.

“11. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, comprising computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computer to: receive the first sensor data, the second sensor data or both, sourced from a plurality of sensor devices each configured to capture a different attribute of the property, each sensor device having a transmitter with an associated Internet Protocol (IP) address coupled to a wireless network for transmitting a corresponding attribute data.

“12. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the plurality of sensor devices comprise one or more of the following detection sensor devices: electrical; structural; and camera.

“13. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the received modification specification data relates to property repairs associated with damage to the property.

“14. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, comprising computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computer to: determine a material used in connection with the modifications made to the property.

“15. A computer-implemented method, comprising: receiving modification specification data indicative of modifications to be made to a property; receiving first sensor data captured in a first data capture regarding one or more attributes of a property, wherein the first sensor data indicates one or more first attributes associated with the modification specification data of the property; generating a command signal to capture and transmit second sensor data of a second data capture of a portion of the property to which modifications are made, whereby the command signal activates a sensor by commanding the sensor to capture a reading, the command signal further altering a data reading frequency of the sensor; in response to transmitting the command signal to the sensor, receiving the second sensor data; identifying modifications made to the property, based upon comparing the first sensor data and the second sensor data; performing a determination as to whether proper modifications were made to the property by comparing the identified modifications to the modification specification data, wherein the identified modifications comprise one or more slope differences of a floor, wall, ceiling, or any combination thereof; and transmitting an electronic notification to a computing device associated with the property indicating whether the proper modifications were made to the property, based on the determination.

“16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, comprising: determining if recoverable depreciation regarding an insurance claim can be provided based upon the determination.

“17. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, comprising: determine a material used in connection with the modifications made to the property.”

URL and more 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 10,872,348, filed December 16, 2019, and published online on January 4, 2021. 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=10,872,348.PN.&OS=PN/10,872,348RS=PN/10,872,348

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