Patent Issued for Optimized inventory analysis for insurance purposes (USPTO 11798088): Allstate Insurance Company

2023 NOV 10 (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 Brandmaier, Jennifer A. (Chicago, IL, US), Gillespie, James (Belfast, GB), Hughes, Stephen (Belfast, GB), Koza, Daniel (Hinsdale, IL, US), Loo, William (Arlington Heights, IL, US), filed on January 18, 2019, was published online on October 24, 2023.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 11798088, is Allstate Insurance Company (Northbrook, Illinois, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Conventional software applications for generating an inventory of items associated with property such as a home, office, business, etc. are little more than non-intelligent databases for storing each item input by a user. In addition, conventional inventory applications are stand-alone systems that are not configured to interact with external systems to better leverage the information included in the inventory.

“Therefore, there is a need for optimized systems and methods for generating an inventory and leveraging the information included within the inventory.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The following presents a simplified summary of the present disclosure in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the disclosure. This summary is not an extensive overview of the disclosure. It is not intended to identify key or critical elements of the disclosure or to delineate the scope of the disclosure. The following summary merely presents some concepts of the disclosure in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description provided below.

“Aspects of the disclosure involve optimized systems and methods for generating, maintaining, and using documentation of an inventory of items associated with an entity such as a home, office, vehicle, and other types of property.

“In another aspect of the disclosure, an optimized inventory analysis server may interface with external systems and may generate an inventory configured for various purposes, including insurance analysis. In particular, the optimized inventory analysis server may identify users associated with an entity such as an insurance company and may generate a profile associated with the users. In addition, the optimized inventory analysis server may store information related to ownership of various inventory items. Using the inventory information associated with each user profile, the optimized inventory analysis server may also recommend items that each user may want to own or may already own but has forgotten to add to the inventory. In another aspect, the optimized inventory analysis server may determine a depreciated price for items within an inventory.

“In another aspect, an optimized inventory analysis server may calculate loss associated with an insurance claim by interfacing with a database storing items within an inventory. The server may also allow users to provide more information to recalculate the loss and generate a finalized settlement.

“In another aspect, an optimized inventory analysis server may manage the storage of information related to what a user owns, insurance coverage for items owned by the user, and the value of items owned and insured by the user. Based on an analysis of this information, the optimized inventory analysis server may determine if each item owned/stored is insured at all (e.g., via an item-by-item insurance policy) and/or adequately insured. In another aspect, the optimized inventory analysis server may determine if there are any additional and/or alternative insurance products from which users may benefit.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable program instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processor of an inventory analysis server, cause the processor to: receive, via a network connection and from at least one user device associated with a user account, an image of a room of a building; analyze, by executing image processing, the image to determine a set of items in the room, the set of items comprising a first item, wherein the image processing comprises at least one image processing technique selected from the group consisting of blur filters, grey-scaling, optical recognition, edge detection, and comparison to similar items stored in a first database of the inventory analysis, and combinations thereof; determine, based on the executed image processing, metadata associated with the first item; store, in a first database of the inventory analysis server and in association with an inventory that indicates a plurality of items associated with the building: data indicating the determined set of items, data indicating in which room of the building the set of items are located, metadata associated with the set of items, and a user profile associated with the set of items; transmit, a first request for purchase price data of the first item and purchase date data of the first item; receive first information indicating a date the first item was purchased; determine that the purchase price data of the first item is not available; automatically determine, in response to the determination that the purchase price data of the first item is not available, a second item based at least on a portion of the first information; retrieve, via a network and from at least one second database that is external to the inventory analysis server, a current price of the second item; calculate a first depreciated value of the first item based on the current price of the second item and the first information; store, in the first database and in association with the first item of the inventory, the calculated first depreciated value of the first item; based on the user profile, classify the user into at least one demographic; determine a third item owned by a majority of users associated with the at least one demographic; determine that the third item is not stored in the first database; and transmit, to the at least one user device, an incentive to purchase the third item; and complete the following, for each item of the set of items in the inventory separately from one another: determine an appropriate insurance coverage level for an item; analyze a current insurance coverage level of the item; determine that the item is not adequately insured by determining that the current insurance coverage level is less than the appropriate insurance coverage level; and transmit, to the user, a recommendation that the current insurance coverage level of the item be increased.

“2. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable program instructions further cause the processor to: receive depreciation information regarding prior damage of the first item, wherein the prior damage comprises damage that occurred prior to the first item being added to the inventory, and calculate the first depreciated value of the first item further based on the depreciation information.

“3. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the first request for the purchase price data of the first item and the purchase date data of the first item is transmitted to the at least one user device.

“4. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the first request for the purchase price data of the first item and the purchase date data of the first item is transmitted to one or more databases remote from the inventory analysis server and associated with one or more entities that sell the first item, and wherein the one or more databases are different from the at least one user device.

“5. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable program instructions further cause the processor to: receive, via the network connection and from the at least one user device, text data regarding a third item to be added to the inventory; transmit a second request, to the at least one user device, and in response to receiving the text data, for purchase price data of the third item and a date the third item was purchased; receive, from the at least one user device, second information indicating the purchase price data of the third item and the purchase date data of the third item; in response to receiving the second information indicating the purchase price data of the third item and the purchase date data of the third item, calculate a second depreciated value of the third item based on the purchase price data of the third item and the purchase date data of the third item; and store, in the first database and in association with the third item, the calculated second depreciated value of the third item.

“6. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 5, wherein the computer-executable program instructions further cause the processor to: receive, via the network connection and from the at least one user device, an email or a short message system (SMS) text message; and extract the text data from the email or the SMS text message.

“7. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable program instructions further cause the processor to: receive, from a remote computer of a business, information that a fourth item was purchased from the business by a user associated with the building; and store, in the first database, identification data to associate the fourth item with the inventory, the identification data identifying the fourth item.

“8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable program instructions further cause the processor to: receive an audio file regarding a fourth item to be added to the inventory stored in the first database; analyze, using a speech processing technique, the audio file to generate information regarding the fourth item; and store the information regarding the fourth item in the first database in association with the inventory.

“9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the portion of the first information for the first item comprises a model number of the first item, wherein calculating the first depreciated value of the first item based on the current price of the second item comprises adjusting the current price of the second item based on a difference between the second item and the first item and calculating the first depreciated value of the first item based on the adjusted current price of the second item.

“10. A system, comprising: at least one user device, comprising at least one first processor executing a home inventory application and first memory, configured to transmit an image of a room of a building; and an inventory analysis server, wherein the inventory analysis server comprises second memory and a second processor and is configured to: receive, via a network connection and from the at least one user device, the image of the room of the building; analyze, by executing image processing, the image to determine a set of items in the room, the set of items comprising a first item, wherein the image processing comprises at least one image processing technique selected from the group consisting of blur filters, grey-scaling, optical recognition, edge detection, and comparison to similar items stored in a first database of the inventory analysis, and combinations thereof; determine, based on the executed image processing, metadata associated with the first item; store, in a first database of the inventory analysis server and in association with an inventory that indicates a plurality of items associated with the building: data indicating the determined set of items, data indicating in which room of the building the set of items are located, metadata associated with the set of items, and a user profile associated with the set of items; transmit, a first request for purchase price data of the first item and purchase date data of the first item; receive first information indicating a date the first item was purchased; determine that the purchase price data of the first item is not available; automatically determine, in response to the determination that the purchase price data of the first item is not available, a second item based at least on a portion of the first information; retrieve, via a network and from at least one second database that is external to the inventory analysis server, a current price of the second item; calculate a first depreciated value of the first item based on the current price of the second item and the first information; store, in the first database and in association with the first item of the inventory, the calculated first depreciated value of the first item; based on the user profile, predict at least one demographic of the user; determine a third item owned by a majority of users associated with the at least one demographic; determine that the third item is not stored in the first database; and recommend, to the user, that the third item be added to the first database; and completing the following, for each item of the set of items in the inventory separately from one another: determine an appropriate insurance coverage level for an item; analyze a current insurance coverage level of the item; determine that the item is not adequately insured by determining that the current insurance coverage level is less than the appropriate insurance coverage level; and recommend, to the user, that the current insurance coverage level of the item be increased.”

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

For more information, see this patent: Brandmaier, Jennifer A. Optimized inventory analysis for insurance purposes. U.S. Patent Number 11798088, filed January 18, 2019, and published online on October 24, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11798088)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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