Patent Issued for Method For Using Electronic Metadata To Verify Insurance Claims (USPTO 10,650,464)

2020 MAY 22 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent by the inventors McCall, Thomas A. (Frisco, TX); Bryant, William D. (Mount Pleasant, SC); Riney, John W. S. (Landon, SC); Gay, Christopher E. (Dallas, TX), filed on November 13, 2017, was published online on May 25, 2020, according to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx correspondents.

Patent number 10,650,464 is assigned to State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (Bloomington, Illinois, United States).

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Insurance products, particularly automotive insurance, have become tailored to providing coverage more fitting to modern living habits. However, available technology has not always kept pace. More and more commerce is being done over the Internet, and even using mobile devices. Camera phones, smart phones, cell phones with texting and multimedia messaging ability, lightweight laptops, and so-called ‘nettop’ devices allow for a reduced need to actually be present in order to communicate. Documents, photos, and other communications can be submitted from virtually anywhere. Many digital cameras also provide enhanced data with digital photos, such as global positioning system (GPS) coordinates.

“Specific to the field of insurance is the need to accurately and efficiently verify facts related to claims and coverage. Economies of scale and improved efficiencies could be obtained from not actually having to physically inspect damaged property (e.g., automobiles or homes) when a claim arises. In the context of automobile insurance, simply avoiding physically sending a claims agent or adjuster to do a simple odometer reading or verify that the claim is legitimate could be a worthwhile goal--particularly as energy prices continue to increase. What is needed is a system and method for addressing the above and related issues.”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The present invention disclosed and claimed herein, in one embodiment thereof, comprises a method for processing a digital media file. The method includes receiving a digital file from a customer, extracting metadata from the file, and verifying the metadata prior to accepting the digital file.

“The method may also include verifying the representation of a physical token in the digital file. The physical token may be a barcode, a license plate, an identification card, or a state issued driver’s license.

“The invention of the present disclosure, in another embodiment, comprises a method of validating an insurance claim. The method includes receiving a request to make a claim from a customer, receiving a digital file, such a digital photograph, from the customer in association with the claim, and verifying that a representation of a required physical token appears in the digital file.

“The physical token may be a barcode, a license plate, or a driver’s license. The physical token may be provided to a customer following a request to make the insurance claim. It could be provided via the internet, or mobile phone network. The method may also include examining metadata of the digital file to determine if the digital file was created following provision of the physical token to the customer.

“The invention of the present disclosure, in embodiment, comprises a computer readable media having computer readable instructions thereon. The instructions comprise instructions for receiving a digital file, extracting metadata from the file, determining the date of creation of the digital file from the metadata, comparing the date of creation of the digital file to a predetermined date range associated with an insurance policy, and accepting the file if the date of creation is within the predetermined range. A computer user may be informed of the rejection of the file if the date of creation is not within the predetermined range.

“The computer user may be an insurance customer, or insurance agent. The computer readable media may also comprise instructions for providing a physical token to a user. The physical token may be a barcode.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“What is claimed:

“1. A computer implemented method for processing a digital media file, the method comprising: specifying, by a server, a physical token associated with a customer upon receiving a request via network communications with a computing device, the request being associated with a purchase or cancellation of an insurance policy; receiving, at the server, (i) a digital photograph file from the computing device that is representative of an image of an insurance-related subject, and (ii) an image of the physical token; electronically extracting, by the server, metadata embedded in the digital photograph file to provide extracted metadata; analyzing, by the server, the extracted metadata to determine that the digital photograph file has an image resolution exceeding a minimum resolution; determining, by the server, a date that the digital photograph file was captured based upon the extracted metadata; determining, by the server, whether the date when the digital photograph file was captured is within a predetermined date range; performing, by the server, an automated image recognition process to determine whether the physical token is contained within the image of the insurance-related subject, wherein the automated image recognition process includes using optical character recognition (OCR) to detect a presence of the physical token in the image of the insurance-related subject; verifying, by the server, the digital photograph file when it is determined that (i) the digital photograph file was captured within the predetermined date range, and (ii) the physical token is contained within the image of the insurance-related subject; and in response to the verification of the digital photograph file and the analysis of the extracted metadata, accepting, by the server, the digital photograph file.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein the physical token is a barcode.

“3. The method of claim 1, wherein the physical token is a license plate.

“4. The method of claim 1, wherein the physical token is an identification card.

“5. The method of claim 1, wherein the physical token is a state issued driver’s license.

“6. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the digital photograph is associated with an insurance claim for the insurance policy covering the insurance-related subject.

“7. A computer implemented method of validating a digital photograph, the method comprising: specifying, by a server, a physical token that is required to appear in a digital photograph of an insurance-related subject in response to a request to purchase or cancel an insurance policy; receiving, by the server, the digital photograph of the insurance-related subject from a computing device; analyzing, by the server, embedded metadata of the digital photograph to determine that the digital photograph has an image resolution exceeding a minimum resolution; and performing, by the server, an automated image recognition process on the digital photograph to verify that the physical token appears in the digital photograph of the insurance-related subject, wherein the automated image recognition process includes using optical character recognition (OCR) to detect a presence of the physical token in the digital photograph of the insurance-related subject, and wherein the verification of the digital photograph and the analysis of the embedded metadata are conditions that are satisfied prior to accepting the digital photograph.

“8. The method of claim 7, wherein the physical token is a barcode.

“9. The method of claim 7, wherein the physical token is a license plate.

“10. The method of claim 7, wherein the physical token is a driver’s license.

“11. The method of claim 7, further comprising examining the embedded metadata of the digital photograph to determine if the digital photograph was created following the provision of the specified physical token to the customer.

“12. The method of claim 7, wherein the physical token is provided to the customer via the internet.

“13. The method of claim 7, wherein the physical token is provided to the customer via mobile phone network.

“14. A computer system comprising: one or more computer processors for executing computer instructions, and a non-transitory tangible computer-readable medium storing the computer instructions thereon, which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: receive a request via communications with a computing device, the request being associated with a purchase or cancellation of an insurance policy; receive a digital photograph file from the computing device including a date specified in metadata embedded in the digital photograph file; extract the embedded metadata from the digital photograph file to provide extracted metadata; analyze the extracted metadata of the digital photograph file to determine that the digital photograph file has an image resolution exceeding a minimum resolution; determine the date when the digital photograph file was captured based upon the embedded metadata; compare the date that the digital photograph file was captured to a predetermined date range; perform an automated image recognition process that includes using optical character recognition (OCR) to detect a presence of the physical token in an image included in the digital photograph file; and accept the digital photograph file if (i) the date that the digital photograph file was captured is within the predetermined range (ii) the image resolution exceeds the minimum resolution, and (iii) the presence of the physical token is detected in the image.

“15. The computer system of claim 14, wherein the computer is associated with an insurance customer.

“16. The computer system of claim 14, wherein the computer is associated with an insurance agent.”

URL and more information on this patent, see: McCall, Thomas A.; Bryant, William D.; Riney, John W. S.; Gay, Christopher E. Method For Using Electronic Metadata To Verify Insurance Claims. U.S. Patent Number 10,650,464, filed November 13, 2017, and published online on May 25, 2020. 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=10,650,464.PN.&OS=PN/10,650,464RS=PN/10,650,464

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