Patent Issued for Electronic device data capture for property insurance quotes (USPTO 11348180): State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company

2022 JUN 22 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors Davis, Timothy Joel (Warrenville, IL, US), Engelhorn, Amy (Normal, IL, US), Kornelis, Colby S (Downs, IL, US), filed on December 6, 2018, was published online on May 31, 2022.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 11348180 is State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (Bloomington, Illinois, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Preparing insurance quotes for property insurance coverage may typically require an insurance agent or other insurance provider representative to visit the property in person. The agent may have to evaluate exterior factors, such as roof style, building construction (e.g., frame, brick, siding), and outbuildings. The agent may also need to evaluate and catalog interior components, such as appliances, furniture, and other personal possessions of the property owner. The availability of agents may significantly affect the timeliness of the insurance quote.

“In other situations, the property owner may never complete an inventory of personal items for insurance coverage, which may result in uncompensated losses in the event of a loss event. Accordingly, there is an opportunity to expedite property insurance quoting and to expand the capacity of the agent in order to gain more new customers and to serve them in a more timely and efficient manner.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The present embodiments may relate to, inter alia, obtaining structure data, personal property data, and/or replacement cost information through a mobile phone-based video application that uses object recognition, location awareness (i.e., “location services”), measurement functionality and augmented reality interaction/feedback (e.g., computer-generated, interactive visual elements on the screen of a mobile device, overlaying the live video image being captured). Continuous video (or a continuous video stream) may capture and translate images into data points to identify, measure, qualify, count structural elements, household fixtures and/or personal property (see exemplary mobile application mock-ups for video capture depicted in FIG. 5).

“Location awareness from the mobile device may be used as a substitute for the entry of a Risk Location Address, and thus, as the basis for a determination of location eligibility. An awareness of the exact location may also be used as an input to determining the progress of the overall process (i.e., estimate of number of remaining rooms in which to capture video, as a function of an estimate of square footage/number of stories from exterior video). Location awareness from the mobile device may also be used for location verification.

“The mobile device may also be used for progress feedback to the user (i.e. “You are 75% complete with your video walk-through. We suggest capturing your second floor rooms next”). The progress feedback may be audible, haptic, and/or visual. This progress feedback may be supplemented by indicating which objects the application had completely assessed/identified, versus those that are still ambiguous, such as by using an augmented reality overlay of computer generated icons (such as check mark icons) on top of the video feed that appears on the screen of the mobile device. This type of feedback could indicate to users the need to move closer to an object and/or part of the room, increase lighting, linger for a longer time on a given room, steady their shot, etc.

“The data and images captured may be used for several purposes, such as establishing the basis for an “Estimated Replacement Cost Value” (for the primary structure, any detached structures, and personal property); filling a virtual form (such as insurance application, a webpage, or other virtual form) in order to generate an insurance quote; and/or for cataloguing a customer’s possessions in order to make claim adjustment and replacement simpler for both the customer and the insurance company. Capture of exterior video on a property may also allow for the identification and evaluation of detached structures, as well as potential underwriting and safety concerns. These underwriting and safety concerns could be communicated to whichever party is interested (e.g., to be used in eligibility determinations, or signally to customers as issue to remediate). Videos that return ambiguous concerns could be sent to sales associates and/or underwriters for closer investigation.

“This process may be used as a substitute for an inspection/underwriting survey process. The “virtual inspection” video captured by the user may even be more thorough (and subject to further auditing) than an inspection report from a 3^rd party vendor, sales associate, or aerial imagery service.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A computer-implemented method in an electronic device of identifying components within a property for obtaining a quote for a property insurance policy for an individual, the method comprising: capturing digital image data by an image sensor of the electronic device, the digital image data depicting a portion of the property; displaying, as a live preview feature via a user interface of the electronic device, the digital image data captured by the image sensor; analyzing, by a processor using an object detection technique, the digital image data to automatically identify a set of components that are associated with the property; determining that the set of components at least meets a minimum set of expected components for the portion of the property; displaying, in the user interface and using an augmented reality overlay on a live video image according to the digital image data captured by the image sensor, a set of indications respectively associated with the set of components, wherein the augmented reality overlay of the set of indications is generated using sensor data from at least one additional sensor of the electronic device; and populating an inventory list with the set of components identified from the digital image data.

“2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, the method further comprising preparing, by the processor, an application for the property insurance policy, the application indicating the inventory list.

“3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 wherein preparing the application for the property insurance policy comprises: calculating an estimated replacement cost value (ERCV) for each of the set of components included on the inventory list.

“4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the digital image data comprises: analyzing the digital image data to automatically identify at least one of: a set of personal property articles, a set of structural elements of the property, and a set of fixtures of the property.

“5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the digital image data comprises: transmitting the digital image data to the insurance provider via the communication module, the insurance provider configured to identify the set of components that are associated with the property; and receiving, from the insurance provider, an indication of the set of components.

“6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: identifying a location of the electronic device; associating the location of the electronic device with a currently-accessed area of the property; determining, based upon the currently-accessed area of the property, a suggested subsequent area of the property for which the individual to navigate; and displaying, via the user interface, an indication of the suggested subsequent area of the property.

“7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: identifying a set of parameters associated with the property; and determining, based upon the set of parameters, a set of walk-through instructions associated with capturing the digital image data.

“8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, further comprising, in response to analyzing the digital image data: examining the set of walk-through instructions to identify a subsequent area of the property for which the individual to navigate; and displaying, via the user interface, an indication of the subsequent area of the property.

“9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: displaying, via the user interface, an indication of an unrecognized component that is not recognized using the object detection technique; enabling the individual to input, via the user interface, an identification of the unrecognized component; and further populating the inventory list with the identification of the unrecognized component.

“10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: determining that at least one of the set of components is not recognized; and updating the application for the property insurance policy to indicate that a manual inspection for the property is needed.

“11. An electronic device for identifying components within a property for obtaining a quote for a property insurance policy, comprising: a communication module configured to communicate data; an image sensor; at least one additional sensor; a memory storing a set of computer-executable instructions; a user interface configured to display content and receive user selections; and a processor interfacing with the communication module, the image sensor, the at least one additional sensor, the memory, and the user interface, and configured to execute the set of computer-executable instructions to cause the processor to: cause the image sensor to capture digital image data, the digital image data depicting a portion of the property, cause the user interface to display, as a live preview feature, the digital image data captured by the image sensor, analyze, using an object detection technique, the digital image data to automatically identify a set of components that are associated with the property, determine that the set of components at least meets a minimum set of expected components for the portion of the property, cause the user interface to display, using an augmented reality overlay on a live video image according to the digital image data captured by the image sensor, a set of indications respectively associated with the set of components, wherein the augmented reality overlay of the set of indications is generated using sensor data from the at least one additional sensor, and populate an inventory list with the set of components identified from the digital image data.

“12. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to: prepare an application for the property insurance policy, the application indicating the inventory list.

“13. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein to prepare the application for the property insurance policy, the processor is configured to: calculate an estimated replacement cost value (ERCV) for each of the set of components included on the inventory list.

“14. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein to analyze the digital image data, the processor is configured to: analyze the digital image data to automatically identify at least one of: a set of personal property articles, a set of structural elements of the property, and a set of fixtures of the property.

“15. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein to analyze the digital image data, the processor is configured to: transmit the digital image data to the insurance provider via the communication module, the insurance provider configured to identify the set of components that are associated with the property, and receive, from the insurance provider via the communication module, an indication of the set of components.

“16. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to: identify a location of the electronic device, associate the location of the electronic device with a currently-accessed area of the property, determine, based upon the currently-accessed area of the property, a suggested subsequent area of the property for which the individual to navigate, and cause the user interface to display an indication of the suggested subsequent area of the property.

“17. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to: identify a set of parameters associated with the property, and determine, based upon the set of parameters, a set of walk-through instructions associated with capturing the digital image data.

“18. The electronic device of claim 17, wherein the processor is further configured to, in response to analyzing the digital image data: examine the set of walk-through instructions to identify a subsequent area of the property for which the individual to navigate, and cause the user interface to display an indication of the subsequent area of the property.

“19. A computer-implemented method of providing an insurance quote, the method comprising: providing, via one or more processors within a mobile device, a continuous video stream on a mobile device display, the continuous video stream captured by an image sensor of the mobile device; identifying, via the one or more processors, one or more household features or characteristics being captured by the continuous video stream; displaying, in the mobile device display using an augmented reality overlay on a live video image according to the continuous video stream captured by the image sensor, a check icon on each household feature or characteristic that is positively categorized as having a replacement cost; displaying, in the mobile device display using the augmented reality overlay on the live video image according to the continuous video stream captured by the image sensor, a second icon on each household feature or characteristic that is not positively categorized and that needs additional video of to be positively categorized or recognized; transmitting, via the or more processors, data regarding the positive categorization or identification of the one or more household features to a remote server associated with an insurance provider; receiving, via the one or more processors, a quote for an insurance product based upon the positive categorization or identification of the one or more household features from the remote server; and displaying, via the one or more processors, the insurance quote on the mobile device display for the insured’s review, modification, or approval such that matching of insurance risk to insurance cost is facilitated.”

For additional information on this patent, see: Davis, Timothy Joel. Electronic device data capture for property insurance quotes. U.S. Patent Number 11348180, filed December 6, 2018, and published online on May 31, 2022. 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=11348180.PN.&OS=PN/11348180RS=PN/11348180

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