Patent Issued for Methods Of Reconstructing An Accident Scene Using Telematics Data (USPTO 10,387,962)

2019 AUG 30 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent by the inventors Potter, Thomas Michael (Normal, IL); Clauss, Mark E. (Bloomington, IL); Carter, Dustin Ryan (Normal, IL); Graff, Douglas Albert (Mountain View, MO); Baumann, Megan Michal (Bloomington, IL); Bonnom, Atlanta (Bloomington, IL); Cope, Craig (Bloomington, IL); Lawyer, Jennifer Luella (Bloomington, IL); Simpson, Curtis (Bloomington, IL); Baumann, Nathan W. (Bloomington, IL), filed on July 14, 2015, was published online on September 2, 2019, according to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx correspondents.

Patent number 10,387,962 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: “Typically, during the claims process, insurance providers rely heavily on eyewitness accounts to determine the sequence of events leading to an accident and, based upon that sequence of events, to determine the cause(s) and/or the individual(s) at fault. For example, an employee of the insurance provider may learn about the sequence of events leading to an accident by talking to the insured and/or other participants in the accident. As another example, the insurance provider employee may review a police report that typically reflects information recorded by a police officer observing the accident scene (well after the accident occurred), and/or reflects secondhand information from participants in the accident and/or other eyewitnesses. As a result, the insurance provider may obtain inaccurate information, which may in turn cause the insurance provider to incorrectly determine cause/fault, and/or fail to appropriately reflect that cause/fault in future actions (e.g., when setting premium levels for an insured involved in the accident, etc.).

“The present embodiments may overcome these and/or other deficiencies.”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The present embodiments disclose systems and methods that may relate to the intersection of telematics and insurance. In some embodiments, for example, telematics and/or other data may be collected and used to generate a virtual reconstruction of a vehicle accident. The data may be gathered from one or more sources, such as mobile devices (e.g., smart phones, smart glasses, smart watches, smart wearable devices, smart contact lenses, and/or other devices capable of wireless communication); smart vehicles; smart vehicle or smart home mounted sensors; third party sensors or sources of data (e.g., other vehicles, public transportation systems, government entities, and/or the Internet); and/or other sources of information. The virtual reconstruction may be used to determine cause and/or fault of the accident, for example. The fault may be used to handle an insurance claim, for example. More generally, insurance claims, policies, premiums, rates, discounts, rewards, programs, and/or other insurance-related items may be adjusted, generated, and/or updated based upon the fault as determined from the telematics and/or other collected data.

“In one aspect, a computer-implemented method of accident scene reconstruction may comprise (1) collecting, by one or more remote servers associated with an insurance provider, accident data associated with a vehicle accident involving a driver. The accident data may include vehicle telematics data, and/or the driver may be associated with an insurance policy issued by the insurance provider. The method may also include (2) analyzing, by the one or more remote servers, the accident data; (3) determining, by the one or more remote servers and based upon the analysis of the accident data, a sequence of events occurring one or more of before, during, or after the vehicle accident; (4) generating, by the one or more remote servers and based upon the determined sequence of events, a virtual reconstruction of one or both of (i) the vehicle accident and (ii) a scene of the vehicle accident; (5) determining, by the one or more remote servers and based upon the virtual reconstruction, fault of the driver for the vehicle accident; and/or (6) using the determined fault of the driver to handle, at the one or more remote servers, an insurance claim associated with the vehicle accident. The method may include additional, less, or alternate actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

“In another aspect, a system for accident scene reconstruction may comprise one or more processors and one or more memories. The one or more memories may store instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to (1) collect accident data associated with a vehicle accident involving a driver. The accident data may include vehicle telematics data, and/or the driver may be associated with an insurance policy issued by an insurance provider. The instructions may also cause the one or more processors to (2) analyze the accident data; (3) determine, based upon the analysis of the accident data, a sequence of events occurring one or more of before, during, or after the vehicle accident; (4) generate, based upon the determined sequence of events, a virtual reconstruction of one or both of (i) the vehicle accident and (ii) a scene of the vehicle accident; (5) determine, based upon the virtual reconstruction, fault of the driver for the vehicle accident; and/or (6) use the determined fault of the driver to handle an insurance claim associated with the vehicle accident. The system may include additional, less, or alternate functionality, including that discussed elsewhere herein.

“Advantages will become more apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description of the preferred embodiments which have been shown and described by way of illustration. As will be realized, the present embodiments may be capable of other and different embodiments, and their details are capable of modification in various respects. Accordingly, the drawings and description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature and not as restrictive.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“What is claimed is:

“1. A computer-implemented method of accident scene reconstruction, the method comprising: generating, by one or more sensors of a mobile computing device associated with a driver, accident data associated with a vehicle during a time period including a vehicle accident, the accident data including vehicle telematics data from the one or more sensors indicating acceleration or velocity of the vehicle, and the accident data including audio or video data associated with the interior of the vehicle from the one or more sensors; collecting, by one or more remote servers associated with an insurance provider from an application of the mobile computing device, the accident data, wherein the accident data is associated with the driver, and the driver being associated with an insurance policy issued by the insurance provider; analyzing, by the one or more remote servers, the accident data to determine (i) vehicle movement at a plurality of times associated with the vehicle accident based upon the vehicle telematics data and (ii) mobile phone usage by the driver during the vehicle accident based upon the audio or video data; determining, by the one or more remote servers and based upon the analysis of the accident data, a sequence of events occurring one or more of before, during, or after the vehicle accident; generating, by the one or more remote servers and based upon the determined sequence of events, a virtual reconstruction of one or both of (i) the vehicle accident and (ii) a scene of the vehicle accident; determining, by the one or more remote servers and based upon the virtual reconstruction and the mobile phone usage by the driver, fault of the driver for the vehicle accident; and using the determined fault of the driver to handle, at the one or more remote servers, an insurance claim associated with the vehicle accident.

“2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, the method further comprising using the determined fault of the driver to adjust, generate, or update, at the one or more remote servers, one or more insurance-related items, the one or more insurance-related items including one or more of (i) parameters of the insurance policy; (ii) a premium; (iii) a rate; (iv) a discount; or (v) a reward.

“3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, the method further comprising transmitting information indicative of the adjusted, generated, or updated insurance-related items from the one or more remote servers to a mobile device associated with either the driver or another individual associated with the insurance policy, to be displayed on the mobile device for review, modification, or approval by the driver or other individual.

“4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the accident data further includes using the accident data to analyze driver behavior of the driver at least one of before, during or after the vehicle accident.

“5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the accident data further includes using the accident data to analyze driver acuity of the driver at least one of before, during or after the vehicle accident.

“6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising analyzing, by the one or more remote servers, additional data associated with the vehicle accident to determine conditions that were associated with a location of the vehicle accident at least one of before, during or after the vehicle accident, the conditions including one or more of (i) road conditions; (ii) weather conditions; (iii) traffic conditions; or (iv) construction conditions.

“7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising analyzing, by the one or more remote servers, additional data associated with the vehicle accident to determine driver behavior of another driver involved in the vehicle accident at least one of before, during or after the vehicle accident.

“8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein generating a virtual reconstruction includes generating an animated graphical depiction of (i) two or more vehicles involved in the vehicle accident before and during the accident, and (ii) one or more of weather conditions, traffic conditions, or construction conditions, at the time of the accident and at or in the vicinity of the vehicle accident, the virtual reconstruction being superimposed upon a map.

“9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising generating, by an insured vehicle or a computer system of the insured vehicle, additional accident data, wherein the sequence of events is further determined based in part upon the additional accident data.

“10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the additional accident data is associated with, or generated by, one or more of (i) a vehicle other than the insured vehicle; (ii) vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication; or (iii) roadside equipment or infrastructure located near a location of the vehicle accident.

“11. A system for accident scene reconstruction, the system comprising: one or more processors; and one or more memories storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: generate accident data associated with a vehicle during a time period including a vehicle accident using one or more sensors of a mobile computing device associated with a driver, the accident data including vehicle telematics data from the one or more sensors indicating acceleration or velocity of the vehicle, and the accident data including audio or video data associated with the interior of the vehicle from the one or more sensors, collect the accident data from an application of the mobile computing device, wherein the accident data is associated with the driver, and the driver being associated with an insurance policy issued by an insurance provider, analyze the accident data to determine (i) vehicle movement at a plurality of times associated with the vehicle accident based upon the vehicle telematics data and (ii) mobile phone usage by the driver during the vehicle accident based upon the audio or video data, determine, based upon the analysis of the accident data, a sequence of events occurring one or more of before, during, or after the vehicle accident, generate, based upon the determined sequence of events, a virtual reconstruction of one or both of (i) the vehicle accident and (ii) a scene of the vehicle accident, determine, based upon the virtual reconstruction and the mobile phone usage by the driver, fault of the driver for the vehicle accident, and use the determined fault of the driver to handle an insurance claim associated with the vehicle accident.

“12. The system of claim 11, further comprising a communication interface, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to transmit, via the communication interface, information indicative of the adjusted, generated, or updated insurance-related items to a mobile device associated with either the driver or another individual associated with the insurance policy, to be displayed on the mobile device for review, modification, or approval by the driver or other individual.

“13. The system of claim 11, wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to analyze the accident data at least by using the accident data to analyze driver behavior of the driver.

“14. The system of claim 11, wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to analyze the accident data at least by using the accident data to analyze driver acuity of the driver.

“15. The system of claim 11, wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to analyze additional data to determine one or more of road conditions, weather conditions, traffic conditions, or construction conditions associated with a location of the vehicle accident.

“16. The system of claim 11, wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to analyze additional data to determine driving behavior of another driver involved in the vehicle accident.

“17. The system of claim 11, wherein the virtual reconstruction: includes an animated graphical depiction of (i) two or more vehicles involved in the vehicle accident before and during the accident, and (ii) one or more of weather conditions, traffic conditions, or construction conditions, at the time of the accident and at or in the vicinity of the vehicle accident; and is superimposed upon a map.

“18. The system of claim 11, wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to collect additional data associated with, or generated by, one or more of (i) vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication; or (iii) roadside equipment or infrastructure located near a location of the vehicle accident, and wherein the sequence of events is further determined based in part upon the additional accident data.”

URL and more information on this patent, see: Potter, Thomas Michael; Clauss, Mark E.; Carter, Dustin Ryan; Graff, Douglas Albert; Baumann, Megan Michal; Bonnom, Atlanta; Cope, Craig; Lawyer, Jennifer Luella; Simpson, Curtis; Baumann, Nathan W. Methods Of Reconstructing An Accident Scene Using Telematics Data. U.S. Patent Number 10,387,962, filed July 14, 2015, and published online on September 2, 2019. 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=10,387,962.PN.&OS=PN/10,387,962RS=PN/10,387,962

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