Patent Issued for Media triggered device control (USPTO 11283872): United Services Automobile Association

2022 APR 13 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent by the inventors Jayapalan, Vijay (San Antonio, TX, US), filed on March 12, 2018, was published online on March 22, 2022, according to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx correspondents.

Patent number 11283872 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 contracts can be used to execute or monitor performance of parties in reference to internet centric operations. Smart contracts may also be referred to as digital contracts, self-executing contracts, or blockchain contracts. For example, smart contracts can define rules and penalties based on internet0centric agreements between two parties in a way similar to traditional paper contracts. For example, smart contracts can be used to monitor transfer and use of cryptocurrency. Improvements to smart contracts that permit verification of physical actions are desirable.”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “Implementations of the present disclosure are generally directed to systems and methods for verifying the execution of electronic contract provisions using remote electronic devices or causing the execution of electronic contract provisions using remote electronic devices. More specifically, implementations obtain information from an electronic contract indicating that the execution of one or more provisions of the contract can be verified by data obtained from a remote electronic device. Implementations can determine the data required to verify execution of the provision(s). In some examples, a server system can control the remote electronic device to obtain the appropriate data for verifying execution of the provision(s) of the electronic contract. A term of the contract can be automatically executed in response to the verification data from the remote electronic device.

“In general, innovative aspects of the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods that include the actions of accessing an electronic contract that includes a provision that is verifiable through control of a remote device. Sending instructions to the remote device that cause the remote device to obtain data representative of whether the provision in the electronic contract has been performed. Determining based on the data, that at least a portion of the provision has been performed. In response to determining that at least a portion of the provision has been performed, causing a term of the electronic contract to be at least partially executed. Other implementations of this aspect include corresponding systems, apparatus, and computer programs, configured to perform the actions of the methods, encoded on computer storage devices. These and other implementations can each optionally include one or more of the following features.

“In some implementations, the remote device is an IoT device.

“In some implementations, the instructions provide commands to remotely operate the remote device during a timeframe in which the provision is expected to be executed.

“In some implementations, n the instructions cause the remote device to capture video or images during a timeframe in which the provision is expected to be executed.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A system, comprising: a server system; and computer memory communicatively coupled to the server system having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the server system, causes the server system to perform operations comprising: determining whether at least one individual is within a viewing range of at least one of one or more remote devices during an expected period of time, the one or more remote devices configured to monitor one or more properties of an area; identifying an electronic contract in response to determining that the at least one individual is within the viewing range of the at least one of the one or more remote devices during the expected period of time; accessing the electronic contract comprising one or more provisions for fulfilling the electronic contract and one or more terms for executing one or more payments, wherein the one or more provisions are indicative of: the one or more remote devices for verifying that the one or more provisions are fulfilled; reference image data previously acquired by the one or more remote devices; and one or more control operations of the one or more remote devices for adjusting one or more first positions of the one or more remote devices to obtain image data representative of whether the one or more provisions are fulfilled during a scheduled timeframe, wherein the one or more remote devices are adjusted by moving from the one or more first positions to one or more second positions that enable the one or more remote devices to obtain the image data corresponding to the reference data; sending instructions to the one or more remote devices in response to determining that the at least one individual is within the viewing range of the at least one of the one or more remote devices during the expected period of time, the instructions configured to cause the one or more remote devices to: move to the one or more second positions that enable the one or more remote devices to obtain the image data that corresponds to the reference image data in accordance with the one or more control operations; and acquire the image data during the scheduled timeframe; receiving the image data from the one or more remote devices; modifying the electronic contract to include the image data; determining, based on a comparison between the image data and the reference image data previously acquired by the one or more remote devices, that the one or more provisions have been fulfilled; and in response to determining that the one or more provisions have been fulfilled, causing the one or more terms to be executed, wherein the one or more terms are executed by sending one or more commands to one or more payment systems to issue the one or more payments to an account associated with a fulfiller of the one or more provisions.

“2. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more remote devices comprise one or more IoT devices.

“3. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions cause the server system to perform operations comprising providing one or more additional commands to remotely operate the one or more remote devices during the scheduled timeframe in which the one or more provisions are expected to be fulfilled.

“4. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions cause the server system to perform the operations comprising sending one or more additional commands to the one or more remote devices to capture video or images during the scheduled timeframe in which the one or more provisions are expected to be fulfilled.

“5. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise storing the image data from the one or more remote devices that verify fulfilling of the one or more provisions in association with the electronic contract.

“6. The system of claim 5, wherein the electronic contract comprises a blockchain, and wherein storing the image data from the one or more remote devices comprises adding the image data as a block to the blockchain.

“7. The system of claim 1, wherein the server system is configured to determine that the one or more provisions have been fulfilled by performing image analysis on the image data received from the one or more remote devices to verify fulfillment of the one or more provisions in the electronic contract.

“8. The system of claim 1, wherein the server system is configured to determine that the one or more provisions have been fulfilled by performing image analysis on the image data received from the one or more remote devices to verify one or more partial fulfillings of the one or more provisions in the electronic contract.

“9. The system of claim 8, wherein causing the one or more terms of the electronic contract to be executed comprises, in response to verifying the one or more partial fulfillings of the one or more provisions, causing one or more partial payments to be executed.

“10. The system of claim 1, wherein causing the one or more terms of the electronic contract to be executed comprises sending, to a computing device associated with a party responsible for fulfillment of the one or more provisions, a request to reschedule fulfillment of the one or more provisions in response to determining, based on the image data received from the one or more remote devices, that the one or more provisions are only partially fulfilled.

“11. The system of claim 1, wherein execution of the one or more terms of the electronic contract comprises triggering a provision of a second electronic contract.

“12. The system of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise executing the provision of the second electronic contract by sending instructions to a second remote device to perform an operation.

“13. A computer implemented method executed by at least one processor, the method comprising: determining whether at least one individual is within a viewing range of at least one of one or more remote devices during an expected period of time, the one or more remote devices configured to monitor one or more properties of an area; identifying an electronic contract in response to determining that the at least one individual is within the viewing range of the at least one of the one or more remote devices during the expected period of time; accessing, by the at least one processor, the electronic contract comprising one or more provisions for fulfilling the electronic contract and one or more terms for executing one or more payments, wherein the one or more provisions are indicative of: the one or more remote devices for verifying that the one or more provisions are fulfilled; reference image data previously acquired by the one or more remote devices; and one or more control operations of the one or more remote devices for adjusting one or more first positions of the one or more remote devices to obtain image data representative of whether the one or more provisions are fulfilled during a scheduled timeframe; sending instructions to the one or more remote devices in response to determining that the at least one individual is within the viewing range of the at least one of the one or more remote devices during the expected period of time, the instructions configured to cause the one or more remote devices to: move from the one or more first positions to one or more second positions that enable the one or more remote devices to obtain the image data that corresponds to the reference image data in accordance with the one or more control operations; and acquire the image data during the scheduled timeframe; receiving the image data from the one or more remote devices; modifying the electronic contract to include the image data, wherein the electronic contract comprises a blockchain, and wherein including the image data comprises adding the image data as a block to the blockchain; determining, by the at least one processor and based on a comparison between the image data and the reference image data previously acquired by the one or more remote devices, that the one or more provisions have been fulfilled; and in response to determining that the one or more provisions have been fulfilled, causing, by the at least one processor, the one or more terms to be executed, wherein the one or more terms are executed by sending one or more commands to one or more payment systems to issue the one or more payments to an account associated with a fulfiller of the one or more provisions.

“14. The method of claim 13, wherein the one or more remote devices comprise IoT devices.

“15. The method of claim 13, wherein the instructions provide commands to remotely operate the one or more remote devices during the scheduled timeframe in which the one or more provisions is expected to be fulfilled.

“16. The method of claim 13, wherein the instructions cause the one or more remote devices device to capture video or images during the scheduled timeframe in which the one or more provisions provision are expected to be fulfilled executed.”

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

URL and more information on this patent, see: Jayapalan, Vijay. Media triggered device control. U.S. Patent Number 11283872, filed March 12, 2018, and published online on March 22, 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=11283872.PN.&OS=PN/11283872RS=PN/11283872

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