Patent Issued for Determining status of building modifications using informatics sensor data (USPTO 11847666): United Services Automobile Association

2024 JAN 08 (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 11847666, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

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

This patent was filed on August 22, 2022 and was published online on December 19, 2023.

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:

“1. A system, comprising: a plurality of sensor devices each configured to capture a different attribute of a property, each sensor device having a respective transmitter with an associated Internet Protocol (IP) address coupled to a network for transmitting a corresponding attribute: a data storage component coupled to each of the plurality of sensors devices via the respective transmitter for each of the plurality of sensor devices, wherein the data storage component is configured to aggregate captured data regarding each respective different attribute of the property received from the plurality of sensor devices; and a computer server coupled to a communication device via the network, and programmed to: receive modification specification data indicative of modifications to be made to the property; receive, from the data storage component, first sensor data captured by a water sensor of the plurality of sensor devices, wherein the water sensor is configured to measure water flow rate, water pressure, or both within water supply lines, wherein the first sensor data is indicative of a first water flow rate, a first water pressure, or both in a water supply line of a water system of the property at a first time; receive, from the data storage component, second sensor data captured by the water sensor, wherein the second sensor data is indicative of a second water flow rate, second water pressure, or both in the water supply line of the property at a second time; perform a determination as to whether modifications were made to the property, and when the modifications were made, whether the modifications were made in accordance with the modification specification data; in response to determining that the modifications were made, perform an affected systems analysis on the water system of the property by: comparing the first water flow rate, the first water pressure, or both to the second water flow rate, the second water pressure, or both to determine a change in water flow rate, water pressure, or both from the first time to the second time; and determining whether the change is indicative of risk to the water system by identifying whether a water pressure is in compliance with a supported water pressure of an identified appliance of the property; and transmit an electronic notification to a computing device associated with the property indicating, whether the modifications were made to the property in accordance with the modification specification data, based on the determination of whether the change satisfies the modification specification data; and when the change is indicative of risk to the water system, that the risk to the water system exists.

“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, wherein the network comprises a wireless network, and the data storage component is wirelessly coupled to the each of the plurality of sensor devices.

“4. The system of claim 3, wherein the plurality of sensor devices comprises a plurality of probes disposed at various location of the property.

“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 communication component coupled to the data storage component configured to encrypt and transmit the captured data via the network.

“8. The system of claim 1, wherein the identified appliance of the property comprises a dishwasher.

“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, from a data storage component, first sensor data captured by a water sensor of a plurality of sensor devices, wherein the water sensor is configured to measure water flow rate, water pressure, or both within water supply lines, wherein the first sensor data is indicative of a first water flow rate, first water pressure, or both in a water supply line of a water system of the property at a first time, wherein each sensor device of the plurality of sensor devices is configured to capture a different attribute of the property, wherein each sensor device comprises a transmitter with an associated Internet Protocol (IP) address coupled to a network for transmitting a corresponding attribute, wherein the data storage component is coupled to each of the plurality of sensors devices via the respective transmitter for each of the plurality of sensor devices, wherein the data storage component is configured to aggregate captured data regarding each respective different attribute of the property received from the plurality of sensor devices; receive, from the data storage component, second sensor data captured by the water sensor, wherein the second sensor data is indicative of a second water flow rate, second water pressure, or both in the water supply line of the property at a second time; perform a determination as to whether modifications were made to the property, and when the modifications were made, whether the modifications were made in accordance with the modification specification data in response to determining that the modifications were made, perform an affected systems analysis on the water system of the property by: comparing the first water flow rate, the first water pressure, or both to the second water flow rate, the second water pressure, or both to determine a change in water flow rate, water pressures or both from the first time to the second time; and determining whether the change is indicative of risk to the water system by identifying whether a water pressure is in compliance with a supported water pressure of an identified appliance of the property; and transmit an electronic notification to a computing device associated with the property indicating: whether the modifications were made to the property in accordance with the modification specification data, based on the determination of whether the change satisfies the modification specification data; and when the change is indicative of risk to the water system, that the risk to the water system exists.

“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, wherein the network comprises a wireless network.

“12. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the plurality of sensor devices comprises a plurality of probes disposed at various location of the property.

“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: receive third sensor data captured by another sensor regarding one or more attributes of the property, wherein the third sensor data is indicative of one or more first attributes associated with the modification specification data of the property; receive fourth sensor data regarding the one or more attributes of the property, wherein the fourth sensor data is indicative of the one or more first attributes associated with the modification specification data of the property; and perform the determination as to whether modifications were made to the property based on comparing the third sensor data and the fourth sensor data to identify the modifications, and, when the modifications were made, whether the modifications were made in accordance with the modification specification data based on comparing the identified modifications and the modification specification data.

“15. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the modifications comprise installation of the identified appliance of the property.”

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

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Allen, Michael J. Determining status of building modifications using informatics sensor data. U.S. Patent Number 11847666, filed August 22, 2022, and published online on December 19, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11847666)&db=USPAT&type=ids

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)