Patent Issued for Electronic device data capture for property insurance quotes (USPTO 11715162): State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company

2023 AUG 23 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- According to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx journalists, a patent by the inventors Davis, Timothy Joel (Warrenville, IL, US), Engelhorn, Amy (Normal, IL, US), Kornelis, Colby S. (Downs, IL, US), filed on May 2, 2022, was published online on August 1, 2023.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 11715162, is State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (Bloomington, Illinois, United States).

Reporters 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.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors 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 present in the portion of the property; determining that additional digital image data does not need to be captured for any additional portions 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, 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 a remote server via a communication module, the remote server configured to identify the set of components that are associated with the property; and receiving, from the remote server via the communication module, an indication of the set of components.

“6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: identifying a location of the electronic device; and associating the location of the electronic device with the portion 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: examining the set of walk-through instructions to identify the portion of the property; and displaying, via the user interface, an indication of the portion 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; receiving, 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 an 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: 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 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 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 present in the portion of the property, determine that additional digital image data does not need to be captured for any additional portions 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 12, 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, further comprising: a communication module; and wherein to analyze the digital image data, the processor is configured to: transmit the digital image data to a remote server via the communication module, the remote server configured to identify the set of components that are associated with the property, and receive, from the remote server 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, and associate the location of the electronic device with the portion 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: examine the set of walk-through instructions to identify the portion of the property, and cause the user interface to display an indication of the portion of the property.

“19. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to: cause the user interface to display an indication of an unrecognized component that is not recognized using the object detection technique, receive, via the user interface, an identification of the unrecognized component, and further populate the inventory list with the identification of the unrecognized component.

“20. The electronic device of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to: determine that at least one of the set of components is not recognized, and update an application for the property insurance policy to indicate that a manual inspection for the property is needed.”

For more information, see this patent: Davis, Timothy Joel. Electronic device data capture for property insurance quotes. U.S. Patent Number 11715162, filed May 2, 2022, and published online on August 1, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11715162)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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