Patent Issued for System And Method For Real-Time Accident Documentation And Claim Submission (USPTO 10,387,960)

2019 AUG 30 (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 Tofte, Nathan Lee (Downs, IL); Gish, Kristina Renee (Bloomington, IL); Chizmar, Jennifer (Bloomington, IL), filed on May 24, 2012, was published online on September 2, 2019.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 10,387,960, is State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company.

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Insurance claim processing can include redundancy and delay while various parties (policyholder, insurer, repair facility, etc.) collect claim information. When the policyholder submits their claim, inevitably additional information is required by the insurance provider to process the claim and the policyholder must typically wait on approval from either, or both, of the insurer or the repair facility before the claim can be processed and the damage repaired. For example, while the vast majority of automobile accident claims involve only minor damage, physical inspection(s) and the presence of an insurer agent (e.g., claim estimator) are generally required to assess the damage in detail.

“Typical claim processing requires the policyholder initiate the insurance claim and make an initial trip to a repair facility for a preliminary damage assessment. Additional trip(s) to the repair facility will likely be required to complete vehicle repairs. Often, the policyholder must wait for their claim to be processed while a claim estimator inspects the damage to the vehicle and approves the repair.

“One conventional approach to expediting insurance claim submission is to provide a policyholder access to initiate/submit their insurance claim via telephone. While telephone submission does not require the policyholder physically submit their claim, the policyholder is still required to submit information and/or coordinate information exchange with the insurer and the repair facility. Often, similar information is submitted in alternate forms to satisfy insurer requirements. Because the policyholder is required to be on the telephone with the insurer to document the claim, the policyholder has reduced flexibility with respect to the type and order of providing the claim information. Likewise, telephone submission does not resolve the delay problems associated with the repair facility assessment and claim estimator inspection.

“Some insurers provide for online/electronic initiation and submission of insurance claims. Online claim submission does not resolve the burden on the policyholder of having to submit redundant information or coordinating information exchange between the insurer and the repair facility. Also, with online claim submissions there is an increase likelihood of fraudulent claims. Because there is often some delay between the claim event (e.g., car accident) and the time the policyholder files the claim, the insurer is unable to confirm that damage to the policyholder’s property is a result of the accident, as claimed, or whether the damage occurred later and is unrelated to the accident. Similarly, online claim submissions do not resolve the delay associated with the repair facility assessment and claim estimator inspection.

“Conventional methods for processing an insurance claim are not efficient, convenient, and effective in collecting all information necessary to accurately and quickly processing an insurance claim. Therefore, a need in the art exists for systems and methods that overcome one or more of the above-described limitations.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The present invention is directed to a method for processing an insurance claim. An aspect of the present invention provides a computer-implemented method for processing an insurance claim by initiating the insurance claim; receiving user data associated with the insurance claim, the user data including an image; generating a model of a scene associated with the insurance claim using the user data, the scene including a model of an object; analyzing the user data to identify a damaged portion of the object; analyzing the damaged portion to determine a claim element; and analyzing at least one of the user data, the model of the scene, and the claim element to determine whether the insurance claim satisfies a processing criteria.

“Another aspect of the present invention provides a computer program product for processing an insurance claim. The computer program product may comprise a computer-readable storage device having computer-readable program instructions stored therein. The computer-readable program instructions may include instructions for processing an insurance claim by initiating an insurance claim application; receiving user data (including an image) associated with the insurance claim; generating a model of a scene of the insurance claim using the user data, the scene including a model of the user’s vehicle; analyzing the user data to indicate a portion of the model corresponding to damage on the user’s vehicle; analyzing the portion of the model to determine a claim element; analyzing at least one of the user data, the model, and the claim element to determine whether the insurance claim application satisfies a processing criteria.

“Another aspect of the present invention provides a mobile computing device. The mobile computing device can include a processor, a computer-readable media, a memory storage device, and an insurance claim processing application. The insurance claim processing application can be stored on the memory storage device for execution via the computer-readable media. The insurance claim processing application can be configured to: receive user data associated with an insurance claim, the user data including an image of an object; transmit the user data to a remote server; receive a model of a scene of the insurance claim from the remote server, the scene including a model of the object; display the model; receive a user input indicating a portion of the model corresponding to a damaged portion of the object; provide an indication corresponding to the damaged portion of the object; receive additional user data associated with the damaged portion of the object; and transmit the indication and the additional user data to the remote server.

“Another aspect of the present invention provides an insurance claim processing server. The insurance claim processing server can include a processor, a computer-readable media, a memory storage device for storing and providing access to data that is related to an insurance claim, and an insurance claim processing application. The insurance claim processing application can be stored on the memory storage device for execution by the computer-readable media. The insurance claim processing application can be configured to: initiate the insurance claim; receive user data associated with the insurance claim, the user data including an image of an object; analyze the user data to generate a model of a scene associated with the insurance claim, the scene including a model of an object; analyze the model of the scene to identify a damaged portion of the object; transmit the model of the scene to a user device; analyze the damaged portion to determine a claim element; analyze at least one of the user data, the model of the scene, and the claim element to determine whether the insurance claim satisfies a processing criteria; and process the insurance claim when the processing criteria is satisfied.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“What is claimed is:

“1. A method for processing a claim for an insured loss across an electronic communications network between a user handheld mobile device and an insurer server, the method comprising: (a) automatically initiating a claim for an insured loss at the insurer server, in response to receiving electronic user data associated with the claim over the electronic communications network from an insurance processing application executed by a processor of the user handheld mobile device, (i) wherein the user handheld mobile device comprises a camera and the insurance processing application when executed by the processor of the user handheld mobile device captures a photo image of an insured object and a photo image of a scene of physical surroundings via the camera and transmits the photo images to the insurer server, (ii) wherein the electronic user data comprises the photo image of an insured object, (iii) wherein the electronic user data comprises the photo image of a scene of the physical surroundings where the insured loss occurred; (b) automatically providing the electronic user data to a computer processor of the insurer server; © automatically generating, by the computer processor, an electronic model of the scene of physical surroundings where the insured loss occurred based at least in part on the electronic user data; (d) automatically generating, by the computer processor, an electronic model of the insured object associated with the claim based at least in part on the electronic user data, wherein automatically generating an electronic model of the insured object comprises generating dimensions of the electronic model of the insured object; (e) automatically combining, by the computer processor, the electronic model of the scene and the electronic model of the insured object into a combined electronic model; (f) automatically identifying, by the computer processor, a damaged portion of the insured object in the combined electronic model, comprising: (i) extracting a first set of one or more features from the combined electronic model, wherein the first set of one or more features is selected from color, texture, brightness, contrast, edge detection, corner detection, text, object component coordinates, depth/surface mapping, (ii) analyzing the first set of one or more features and identifying portions of the combined electronic model where the first set of one or more features are irregular or not in alignment with reference object data; (g) automatically determining, by the computer processor, a force of impact on the insured object, comprising: (i) extracting a second set of one or more features from the combined electronic model, wherein the second set of one or more features is selected from contrast, edge detection, corner detection, object component coordinates, and depth/surface mapping, (ii) comparing one or more of the features of the second set from the combined electronic model with corresponding feature information included in the reference object data, and (iii) determining magnitude and direction of force applied to the insured object based on the compared one or more features; and (h) automatically analyzing, by the computer processor, the automatically identified damaged portion and the automatically determined force of impact and determining whether the claim for the insured loss satisfies a processing criteria, and (i) when it is determined that the claim does not satisfy the processing criteria: automatically sending, by the computer processor and over the electronic communications network to the user handheld mobile device, the combined electronic model and the identified damaged portion, and sending an electronic request for additional electronic user data over the electronic communications network to the user handheld mobile device, and (ii) when it is determined that the claim satisfies the processing criteria: processing, by the computer processor, the claim for the insured loss and submitting, by the computer processor, the processed claim to an insurance service provider.

“2. The method for processing a claim for an insured loss of claim 1, wherein the electronic user data further includes at least one of text data, voice data, and video image data.

“3. The method for processing a claim for an insured loss of claim 1, wherein said automatically generating, by the computer processor, an electronic model of the scene of physical surroundings where the insured loss occurred comprises automatically generating a model in three dimensions.

“4. The method for processing a claim for an insured loss of claim 1, wherein said automatically generating, by the computer processor, an electronic model of the insured object comprises automatically generating a model in three dimensions.

“5. The method for processing a claim for an insured loss of claim 1, wherein said automatically generating, by the computer processor, an electronic model of the insured object comprises automatically generating a model of a user vehicle.

“6. The method for processing a claim for an insured loss of claim 1, further comprising: automatically retrieving, by the computer processor, vehicle information associated with the insured object from a database; and automatically retrieving, by the computer processor, scene information from the database, the scene information including a location of the insurance claim; wherein generating the electronic model of the insured object further includes analyzing the vehicle information; and wherein generating the electronic model of the scene further includes analyzing the scene information.

“7. The method for processing a claim for an insured loss of claim 1, wherein the electronic user data further comprises ancillary data to the claim for the insured loss, the ancillary data including at least one of location information where the insured loss occurred, time information when the insured loss occurred, weather information when the insured loss occurred, and emergency services information.

“8. The method for processing a claim for an insured loss of claim 1, wherein the electronic user data further comprises data associated with a second object comprising a vehicle, and said method further comprises: automatically generating, by the computer processor, an electronic model of the second object based at least in part on the electronic user data associated with the second object; automatically combining, by the computer processor, the electronic model of the scene, the electronic model of the insured object, and the electronic model of the second object into a combined electronic model; and automatically identifying, by the computer processor, a damaged portion of the second object in the combined electronic model.

“9. The method for processing a claim for an insured loss of claim 1, wherein the electronic user data further comprises a user indication of a damaged portion of the insured object.

“10. The method for processing a claim for an insured loss of claim 1, further comprises automatically identifying, by the computer processor, at least one of: a force of impact on an occupant of the insured object, an identity of a damaged component of the insured object, and an identity of a candidate damaged component of the insured object.

“11. The method for processing a claim for an insured loss of claim 10, further comprising: automatically determining, by the computer processor, a cost of repair based on at least one of the identity of the damaged component and the identity of the candidate damaged component; and automatically sending, by the insurer server, an initial claim assessment over the electronic communications network to the user handheld mobile device when a cost of repair in the initial claim assessment is less than a threshold repair cost.

“12. The method for processing a claim for an insured loss of claim 10, further comprising: automatically analyzing, by the computer processor, a force of impact on an occupant of the insured object to identify a potential injury to the occupant; and automatically analyzing, by the computer processor, the force of impact on the occupant to validate a medical claim of the occupant.

“13. The method for processing a claim for an insured loss of claim 1, further comprising, when it is determined that the claim does not satisfy the processing criteria, receiving a user input indicating a portion of the insured object in the combined electronic model corresponding to a damaged portion of the insured object, and including a received indication corresponding to the damaged portion of the insured object into the electronic user data.

“14. A method for processing a claim for an insured loss across an electronic communications network between a user handheld mobile device and an insurer server, the method comprising: (a) automatically initiating a claim for an insured loss at the insurer server, in response to receiving electronic user data associated with the claim over the electronic communications network from an insurance processing application executed by a processor of the user handheld mobile device, (i) wherein the user handheld mobile device comprises a camera and a memory storage device and the insurance processing application when executed by the processor of the user handheld mobile device captures a photo image of a user’s insured vehicle via the camera and transmits the photo image to the insurer server, (ii) wherein the electronic user data comprises a photo image of the user’s insured vehicle and at least one of text data, voice data, and video image data, (iii) wherein the electronic user data comprises a photo image of a scene of physical surroundings where the insured loss occurred (iv) wherein the electronic user data comprise a user indication of a damaged portion of the user’s insured vehicle; (b) automatically providing the electronic user data to a computer processor of the insurer server; © automatically retrieving, by the computer processor, scene information from the database, the scene information including a location of the insurance claim; (d) automatically generating, by the computer processor, an electronic model in three dimensions of the scene of physical surroundings where the insured loss occurred based at least in part on the electronic user data and the scene information from the database; (e) automatically retrieving, by the computer processor, vehicle information associated with the user’s insured vehicle from a database; (f) automatically generating, by the computer processor, an electronic model of the user’s insured vehicle associated with the claim based at least in part on the electronic user data and vehicle information from the database, wherein vehicle comprises generating dimensions of the of the electronic model of the user’s insured vehicle; (g) automatically combining, by the computer processor, the electronic model of the scene and the electronic model of the user’s insured vehicle into a combined electronic model; (h) automatically identifying, by the computer processor, a damaged portion of the user’s insured vehicle in the combined electronic model, comprising: (i) extracting a first set of one or more features from the combined electronic model, wherein the first set of one or more features is selected from color, texture, brightness, contrast, edge detection, corner detection, text, coordinates relative to coordinate system of the model, coordinates relative to a coordinate other than that of the model, depth/surface mapping, (ii) analyzing the first set of one or more extracted features and identifying portions of the electronic model of the user’s insured vehicle where the first set of one or more features are irregular or not in alignment with reference vehicle data; (i) automatically determining in the combined electronic model, by the computer processor, a force of impact on the user’s insured vehicle, comprising: (i) extracting a second set of one or more features from the combined electronic model, wherein the second set of one or more features is selected from contrast, edge detection, corner detection, the user’s insured vehicle component coordinates, and depth/surface mapping; (ii) comparing one or more features of the second set from the combined electronic model with corresponding feature information included in the reference vehicle data, and (iii) determining magnitude and direction of force applied to the user’s insured vehicle based on the compared one or more features; and (j) automatically analyzing, by the computer processor, the combined electronic model and determining whether the claim satisfies a processing criteria, and (i) when it is determined that the claim does not satisfy the processing criteria: automatically sending, by the computer processor and over the electronic communications network to the user handheld mobile device, the combined electronic model and the identified damaged portion, and sending an electronic request for additional electronic user data over the electronic communications network to the user handheld mobile device, and (ii) when it is determined that the claim satisfies the processing criteria: submitting, by the computer processor, the processed claim to an insurance service provider.

“15. The method for processing a claim for an insured loss of claim 14, further comprising: automatically determining, by the computer processor, a cost of repair based on at least one of the identity of the damaged component and the identity of the candidate damaged component; and automatically sending, by the computer processor, an initial claim assessment over the electronic communications network to the user handheld mobile device when a cost of repair in the initial claim assessment is less than a threshold repair cost.

“16. The method for processing a claim for an insured loss of claim 14, further comprising, when it is determined that the claim does not satisfy the processing criteria, receiving a user input indicating a portion of the user’s insured vehicle in the combined electronic model corresponding to a damaged portion of the user’s insured vehicle, and including a received indication corresponding to the damaged portion of the user’s insured vehicle into the electronic user data.”

For more information, see this patent: Tofte, Nathan Lee; Gish, Kristina Renee; Chizmar, Jennifer. System And Method For Real-Time Accident Documentation And Claim Submission. U.S. Patent Number 10,387,960, filed May 24, 2012, 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=10,387,960.PN.&OS=PN/10,387,960RS=PN/10,387,960

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