Patent Issued for Insurance system (USPTO 11216782): Randall Innovations Pty Ltd.

2022 JAN 24 (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 inventor Randall, Peter John (Inverell, AU), filed on March 16, 2018, was published online on January 4, 2022.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 11216782, is Randall Innovations Pty Ltd. (Inverell, Australia).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “BACKGROUND ART

“Typically, an insurance claim is initially made by filling out one or more forms, which describe the damage to which the claims relate. The forms may be completed online, or sent in by paper to the insurance company.

“The insurance company then initially reviews the claim, based upon the completed forms, upon which an insurance company is often sent out to assess the claim. The insurance company initially assesses any damage or loss, as well as the validity of the claim in relation thereto, and estimates, among other things, a preliminary cost associated with the damage or loss.

“One or more repair quotes are then generally obtained by engaging one or more tradespeople. For damage to a house, for example, one or more tradespeople typically travel to the house, and estimate the cost of repairs based upon their own on-site assessment and instructions from the insurance company.

“A problem with such insurance claims processing of the prior art is that it is not efficient. Particularly in remote areas, the travel time for insurance companies and tradespeople is very high. Furthermore, if a measurement is missed or a mistake is made, it is very time consuming to correct that mistake, particularly if additional travel is required.

“A further problem with such insurance claims processing is that insurance companies are working in unfamiliar environments, and travelling long distances, which may be hazardous.

“Attempts have been made at reducing the amount of travel and time spent on site when assessing and quoting in relation to insurance. These may rely on the insured assessing the damage, and making measurements for the purposes of generating quotes. However, the insured is generally not trained in insurance assessment, and as such, is often unable to provide reliable assessment data.

“A further problem with self-assessment of damage (i.e. the insured assessing the damage) is that there are often issues communicating the level of damage, as well as other miscommunications. As an illustrative example, instructions may be misinterpreted, resulting in incorrect measurement or analysis being performed.

“Yet a further problem with self-assessment of damage is that it is prone to fraudulent claims. In particular, it is difficult for an insurance company to determine whether a self-assessment of damage is true or not, when the insured is responsible for documentation thereof. This is particularly the case if the insured opts for a payout rather than repair.

“As such, there is clearly a need for an improved insurance system.

“It will be clearly understood that, if a prior art publication is referred to herein, this reference does not constitute an admission that the publication forms part of the common general knowledge in the art in Australia or in any other country.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventor’s summary information for this patent: “The present invention is directed to online insurance methods and systems, which may at least partially overcome at least one of the abovementioned disadvantages or provide the consumer with a useful or commercial choice.

“With the foregoing in view, the present invention in one form, resides broadly in an online insurance system including:

“a customer interface, configured to enable an insurance customer to enter insurance claim details;

“a tradesperson interface, configured to enable a tradesperson to provide cost estimates based at least in part on the insurance claims details; and

“an insurance company interface, configured to enable an insurance company to review the claim provided by the customer; and the cost estimates provided by the tradesperson.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. An online insurance system including: a customer interface, configured to enable an insurance customer to enter insurance claim details; a tradesperson interface, configured to enable a tradesperson to select one or more points on an image, upon which a measurement is determined in relation thereto, and to provide cost estimates based at least in part on the insurance claims details; and an insurance company interface, configured to enable an insurance company to review the claim provided by the customer; and the cost estimates provided by the tradesperson, wherein the insurance system comprises a processor configured to generate and issue an alert to the customer, the alert being generated according to weather events, and wherein at least one of the customer interface, tradesperson interface or insurance company interface includes an online measurement tool including: receiving one or more images relating to an object; receiving at least two location identifiers relating to the object with reference to the images; and analysing the object with reference to the images and the location identifiers to generate a real-world measurement associated with the location identifiers.

“2. An online insurance system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the insurance company interface is further configured to enable the insurance company to select the tradesperson.

“3. An online insurance system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the system is configured to provide access to at least a portion of the insurance company interface prior to the tradesperson being provided with the tradesperson interface.

“4. An online insurance system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the customer interface is configured to allow the insurance customer to gather evidence relating to the claim, in the form of one or more images captured and uploaded into the system.

“5. An online insurance system as claimed in claim 4 wherein the customer interface is configured to automatically obtain global positioning system (GPS) data, and may associate the GPS data with the one or more images.

“6. An online insurance system as claimed in claim 4 wherein the images comprise multiple images of an object from different angles.

“7. An online insurance system as claimed in claim 4 wherein a measurement of one or more objects is performed by creating a three-dimensional model based on the images, and by determining the measurement with reference to the three-dimensional model.

“8. An online insurance system as claimed in claim 4 wherein the system is configured to identify specific objects in the images.

“9. An online insurance system as claimed in claim 4 wherein the system is configured to guide the customer through a predefined capture process to capture images.

“10. An online insurance system as claimed in claim 9 wherein the system warns the customer when motion deviates from the pattern.

“11. An online insurance system as claimed in claim 1 including: receiving, on a data interface, insurance claim details from an insurance customer; enabling an insurance company to remotely review the claim provided by the customer; receiving, on a data interface, cost estimates from a tradesperson according to the received insurance claim details; and enabling the insurance company to review the cost estimates provided by the tradesperson.

“12. An online insurance system as claimed in claim 11 including automatically allocating an insurance claim, associated with the received insurance claim details, to the insurance company.

“13. An online insurance system as claimed in claim 11 including allocating the insurance claim to the tradesperson.

“14. An online insurance system as claimed in claim 1 including receiving a reference measurement with reference to the images, and developing the real world measurement with reference to the reference measurement.

“15. An online insurance system as claimed in claim 1 including developing a three-dimensional model of the object, and developing the real world measurement with reference to the reference measurement.

“16. An online insurance system as claimed in claim 1 wherein: the images are linkable via at least one common point in at least two images such as to allow the system to be able to relate the relative positions and aspects of the various images to each other in a mathematical basis; and/or, at least one feature of interest appears in a minimum of two images; and/or, a measurement reference appears in at least two images.

“17. An online insurance system as claimed in claim 1 wherein a new view is created from at least one image that represents what would be seen from a best position and orientation for relative measurement.

“18. An online insurance system as claimed in claim 17 wherein the best position is preferably located at a position at the normal to the plane that the object(s) to be measured occur in.

“19. An online insurance system as claimed in claim 17 wherein: the new view has an image size such as to fit at the highest pixel density possible, an area or object of interest; and/or, the new view is calculated from two or more pathways such that errors can be tuned out by similarity scoring between results; and/or, the new view representations are further processed to again reduce the errors originally introduced by low quality/size of the at least one image.”

For more information, see this patent: Randall, Peter John. Insurance system. U.S. Patent Number 11216782, filed March 16, 2018, and published online on January 4, 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=11216782.PN.&OS=PN/11216782RS=PN/11216782

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