Patent Issued for Personal information assistant computing system (USPTO 11721340): Allstate Insurance Company

2023 AUG 25 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent by the inventors Chen, Tao (Northbrook, IL, US), Ramirez, Philip Peter (Arlington Heights, IL, US), Rao, Manjunath (Wheeling, IL, US), filed on October 20, 2020, was published online on August 8, 2023, according to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx correspondents.

Patent number 11721340 is assigned to Allstate Insurance Company (Northbrook, Illinois, United States).

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Before the proliferation of computers and computerized devices, an individual would likely directly interact with businesses to exchange goods and/or services for money through various interfaces requiring some sort of physical interaction, such as face-to-face conversation, a phone conversation, communications sent via mail, and/or the like. While individuals and/or businesses may individually own computers to facilitate their individual activities, these computers or computer systems would likely not interact. In the current digital era, consumers and business organizations may interact using various computing devices (e.g., personal computers, business computing systems, smart phones, tablet computers, laptop computers, and the like) via one or more networks (e.g., the Internet, a telecommunications network, a cable network, a local area network, a wide area network, a proprietary business network, etc.).

“During these digital interactions, business organization may monitor and/or collect information corresponding to the consumer and/or the consumer interactions. The business organizations may create products and/or services based on the collected information. However, the consumer has limited options for securing and/or organizing their own information and controlling how this information can be shared with the business organizations. As such, a need has been recognized for systems and/or methods that allow a user to organize, secure, and/or control sharing of their information during digital interactions with business organizations and/or automated consumer systems.”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The following presents a simplified summary in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the disclosure. The summary is not an extensive overview of the disclosure. It is neither intended to identify key or critical elements of the disclosure nor 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 description below.

“Aspects of the disclosure relate to a personal information assistant computing system may include a user computing device having a processor and a non-transitory memory device storing instructions. The personal information assistant may receive a user accessible input as a natural language communication from the user, which may be analyzed by a personal information assistant to determine a task to be performed by the virtual information assistant. The personal information assistant may be personalized to the user using encrypted user information. The personal information assistant communicates with a remote computing system in performance of a computer-assisted task, wherein the first personal information assistant interacts as a proxy for the user in response to at least one response received from the remote computing system. The personal information assistant may communicate the results of the task to the user via a user information screen and/or an audio device.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A personal information assistant computing system comprising: a computing device comprising: a processor; and a non-transitory memory device storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the computing device to: configure a personal information assistant computing platform at least partially executing on the computing device based on user-specific information; receive, by the personal information assistant computing platform, an action request and one or more parameters associated with the action request from a user; analyze, by the personal information assistant computing platform, the action request and the one or more parameters associated with the action request to determine a task to be performed in response to the action request; based on determining the task to be performed, generate, by an adaptive learning engine of the personal information assistant computing platform, a first personal information assistant from a plurality of personal information assistant templates corresponding to different types of functionalities and different user-specific information, wherein the first personal information assistant is generated based on the user-specific information and the action request; and transmit, by the first personal information assistant, at least one message to a remote computing system in performance of the task, wherein the first personal information assistant functions as a proxy for the user in response to at least one response received from the remote computing system.

“2. The personal information assistant computing system of claim 1, wherein configuring the personal information assistant computing platform includes receiving one or more user interaction using a natural language interface.

“3. The personal information assistant computing system of claim 1, wherein receiving the one or more parameters associated with the action request includes receiving one or more action parameter thresholds associated with execution or completion of the action request.

“4. The personal information assistant computing system of claim 1, wherein the non-transitory memory device stores the plurality of personal information assistant templates.

“5. The personal information assistant computing system of claim 1, wherein the first personal information assistant comprises an application running at least partially on a user computing device associated with the user.

“6. The personal information assistant computing system of claim 1, comprising: the remote computing system, wherein the remote computing system comprises a second personal information assistant operating at least partially on the remote computing system, wherein the second personal information assistant is configured to perform the task determined by the personal information assistant computing platform.

“7. The personal information assistant computing system of claim 6, wherein the remote computing system is configured to facilitate providing a product or service to the user.

“8. The personal information assistant computing system of claim 6, wherein the remote computing system is configured to determine whether an end condition associated with the task has been met, and transmit an indication of completion of the task to the first personal information assistant.

“9. A computing device comprising: a processor; and a non-transitory memory device storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause to computing device to: configure a personal information assistant computing platform at least partially executing on the computing device based on user-specific information; receive, by the personal information assistant computing platform, an action request and one or more parameters associated with the action request in a natural language communication from a user; analyze, by the personal information assistant computing platform, the action request and the one or more parameters associated with the action request to determine a task to be performed in response to the action request; based on determining the task to be performed, generate, by an adaptive learning engine of the personal information assistant computing platform, a first personal information assistant from a plurality of personal information assistant templates corresponding to different types of functionalities and different user-specific information, wherein the first personal information assistant is generated based on the user-specific information and the action request; and transmit, by the first personal information assistant, at least one message to a remote computing system in performance of the task, wherein the first personal information assistant functions as a proxy for the user.

“10. The computing device of claim 9, further comprising a microphone configured to capture the natural language communication, the natural language communication comprising at least one word spoken by the user.

“11. The computing device of claim 9, further comprising a text entry device configured to capture the natural language communication, the natural language communication comprising at least one word entered by the user via the text entry device.

“12. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the computing device receives a message from a remote computing device, the message comprising encrypted user information to be authenticated by the user, wherein the remote computing device is configured to provide a product or service to the user.

“13. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the memory device stores instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the computing device to: receive, from at least a portion of the personal information assistant computing platform, a message comprising private user information to be verified by the user, wherein the message is sent in response to a request for information to be sent to a remote computing device; generate, for display, a user interface screen comprising a plurality of fields, each corresponding to a data element of the private user information; receive input confirming validity of the private user information; and transmit a message to the at least a portion of the personal information assistant computing platform validating the information and causing the at least a portion of the personal information assistant computing platform to communicate the information to the remote computing device in response to the input confirming the validity of the private user information.

“14. The computing device of claim 13, wherein the memory device stores instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the computing device to: receive a modification of a data element stored in at least one of the plurality of fields shown on the user interface screen; communicate, via a network, a message to the at least a portion of the personal information assistant computing platform that includes the modification of the data element in response to receiving the modification; and store, in a data store associated with the user, the modification of the data element.

“15. The computing device of claim 13, wherein the memory device stores instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the computing device to: receive a request in a natural language communication from the user for the data element that was modified by the user; and generate, for display, a user interface screen showing the data element as modified, wherein a data element modification is immediately available to the user upon storage in a data store.

“16. A method comprising: configuring a personal information assistant computing platform at least partially executing on a computing device based on user-specific information; receiving, by the personal information assistant computing platform, an action request and one or more parameters associated with the action request from a user; analyzing, by the personal information assistant computing platform, the action request and the one or more parameters associated with the action request to determine a computer-assisted task to be performed in response to the action request; based on determining the computer-assisted task to be performed, generating, by an adaptive learning engine of the personal information assistant computing platform, a first personal information assistant from a plurality of personal information assistant templates corresponding to different types of functionalities and different user-specific information, wherein the first personal information assistant is generated based on the user-specific information and the action request; and transmitting, via a network interface, a personal information assistant message to a remote computing system, wherein the personal information assistant message is automatically generated by the personal information assistant in performance of the computer-assisted task.

“17. The method of claim 16, comprising: receiving, via a natural language interface, a request from the user to display selected user information; requesting, via a secure network connection, the selected user information from an encrypted data store, wherein the encrypted data store is at a different geographic location from the user; and displaying, on a user interface screen, the selected user information when received from the data store, wherein the information is decrypted before display.

“18. The method of claim 16, wherein the computer-assisted task comprises an electronic request for insurance coverage.

“19. The method of claim 18, wherein the remote computing system comprises a virtual task agent configured to perform as a proxy of a customer service representative in performance of the computer-assisted task.

“20. The method of claim 16, wherein receiving the one or more parameters associated with the action request includes receiving one or more action parameter thresholds associated with execution or completion of the action request.”

URL and more information on this patent, see: Chen, Tao. Personal information assistant computing system. U.S. Patent Number 11721340, filed October 20, 2020, and published online on August 8, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11721340)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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