Patent Issued for System And Method For Using Object Recognition To Facilitate The Collection Of Insurance Information (USPTO 10,832,339)

2020 NOV 23 (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 Engelhorn, Amy (Normal, IL); Knarr, Kathryn E. (Bloomington, IL), filed on August 25, 2017, was published online on November 23, 2020.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 10,832,339, is State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (Bloomington, Illinois, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Individuals seeking a quote for an insurance policy premium, applying for coverage under a new insurance policy, or modifying an existing insurance policy generally must submit information that the insurance provider will then use to determine the appropriate premium amount. Increasingly, such information may be submitted using an electronic, on-line form. Typically, an individual enters personal information such as his or her name, birth date and address, as well as other information pertaining to the individual’s house, condominium, vehicle, or other property that is (or would be) covered under the insurance policy. In some situations, however, the individual may experience difficulty in providing information that is requested by the insurance company. For example, an insurance application may ask a customer to indicate whether a fireplace in his or her home is a ‘free-standing fireplace,’ ‘traditional fireplace,’ or ‘insert fireplace,’ and the customer may be uncertain as to how to properly categorize the fireplace. As another example, a request for an insurance premium quote may ask a customer to indicate which of multiple types of construction were used for the exterior of the customer’s home, and the customer may be unable to distinguish between ‘brick’ and ‘brick veneer’ options.

“Today, a person faced with such uncertainty may have one or more options for assistance. For example, a current or potential customer may access on-line help that provides a detailed explanation of the various options, or may call, email or initiate an on-line chat with an insurance agent or help desk employee for assistance. Each of these solutions, however, has drawbacks that may lead to a sub-optimal customer experience. For example, detailed descriptions contained in on-line help may take a significant amount of time to read and understand, and in any case may be insufficient to answer the customer’s question. Moreover, the customer may be reluctant or unable to contact an agent or other customer service representative for various reasons. For example, the customer may be very self-sufficient, without a phone or at a location with poor cellular service, and/or unwilling to take the time to initiate contact with an employee and wait for an answer. If the conventional techniques of providing assistance are unsuccessful for these and/or other reasons, the frustrated customer may either take a guess (and risk providing inaccurate information), or fail to provide the requested information entirely.

“Similar drawbacks may present themselves in other scenarios that do not necessarily involve the use of on-line forms. If an insurance provider reviews its records and determines that additional information is needed from a particular customer regarding one or more objects (e.g., a fireplace, exterior wall, garage, roof, etc.), for example, any ensuing attempts to collect that information may consume resources of the insurance provider (e.g., agent time) and be bothersome for the customer. For example, the agent may need to call the customer and ask for the missing information and, if the customer cannot immediately supply the missing information, the customer may need to go to the location of the object(s) while receiving telephone guidance from the agent as to how the object(s) should be classified.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The present embodiments may, inter alia, provide an improved customer experience by reducing the amount of time and/or effort that existing and/or potential customers must spend providing information for insurance purposes, and/or may allow the insurance provider to more efficiently gather information needed to determine insurance ratings and/or pricing.

“In one aspect, a computer-implemented method may include (1) receiving an image of an object from a user via a client device of the user and an Internet link; (2) processing, by one or more processors, the image of the object according to an object recognition technique to identify physical features of the object, wherein the physical features include a ratio between different dimensions of an element of the object, and further include one or both of (i) a spacing between elements of the object, and (ii) a pattern created by elements of the object; (3) using, by one or more processors, the identified physical features to determine the type of the object, at least by comparing the physical features to physical features known to correspond to the type of the object; and/or (4) providing to the user, by one or more processors and via the Internet link, an indication of the determined type of the object to facilitate entry of accurate information in a field of an electronic form displayed to the user on the client device, wherein providing the indication of the determined type of the object includes at least one of (i) automatically populating the field of the electronic form in accordance with the determined type, or (ii) causing a message indicating the determined type to appear to the user on the electronic form or in a pop-up window.

“In another aspect, a tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium stores instructions that may, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to (1) receive an image of an object from a user via a client device of the user and an Internet link; (2) process, according to an object recognition technique, the image of the object to identify physical features of the image of the object, wherein the physical features include a ratio between different dimensions of an element of the object, and further include one or both of (i) a spacing between elements of the object, and (ii) a pattern created by elements of the object; (3) use the identified physical features to determine the type of the object, at least by comparing the physical features to physical features known to correspond to the type of the object; and/or (4) provide to the user, via the Internet link, an indication of the determined type of the object to facilitate entry of accurate information in a field of an electronic form displayed to the user on the client device, at least by one or both of (i) automatically populating the field of the electronic form in accordance with the determined type, and (ii) causing a message indicating the determined type to appear to the user on the electronic form or in a pop-up window.

“In yet another aspect, a computer system comprises one or more processors and one or more memories. The one or more memories store instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, may cause the computer system to: (1) receive an image of an object from a user via a client device of the user and an Internet link; (2) process, according to an object recognition technique, the image of the object to identify physical features of the image of the object, wherein the physical features include a ratio between different dimensions of an element of the object, and further include one or both of (i) a spacing between elements of the object, and (ii) a pattern created by elements of the object; (3) use the identified physical features to determine the type of the object, at least by comparing the physical features to physical features known to correspond to the type of the object; and/or (4) provide to the user, via the Internet link, an indication of the determined type of the object to facilitate entry of accurate information in a field of an electronic form displayed to the user on the client device, at least by one or both of (i) automatically populating the field of the electronic form in accordance with the determined type, and (ii) causing a message indicating the determined type to appear to the user on the electronic form or in a pop-up window.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“What is claimed:

“1. A computer-implemented method comprising: providing a user, by one or more processors and via an Internet link, an electronic form including at least a first field, the first field being associated with a query for which an accurate response depends upon a type of an object, wherein providing the user the electronic form includes providing, to a client device of the user, software instructions that, when interpreted by a web browser application executing on the client device, cause the client device to (i) render the form within a web browser of the client device for display to the individual and (ii) display, within the web browser, a user-interactive control that is associated with the first field; receiving an image of the object that the user submitted via the user-interactive control and the Internet link; processing, by one or more processors, the image of the object according to an object recognition technique to identify physical features of the object; using, by one or more processors, the identified physical features to determine the type of the object, at least by comparing the physical features to physical features known to correspond to the type of the object; determining, by one or more processors, a confidence level associated with the determination of the type of the object; determining, by one or more processors, that the confidence level is above a threshold; and providing to the user, by one or more processors and via the Internet link, a text indication of the determined type of the object to facilitate entry of accurate information in the first field of the electronic form, wherein providing the text indication of the determined type of the object includes automatically populating the first field of the electronic form within the web browser in accordance with the determined type in response to determining that the confidence level is above the threshold.

“2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein using the identified physical features to determine the type of the object includes either (i) determining that the object is a particular type of object, or (ii) determining that the object is not the particular type of object.

“3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: prior to receiving the image of the object, providing the client device software instructions that cause the client device to render the electronic form for display to the user.

“4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein: providing the text indication of the determined type of the object includes providing to the user a request for confirmation of the determined type of the object; and automatically populating the field is in response to both (i) receiving confirmation of the determined type of the object from the user, and (ii) determining that the confidence level is above the threshold.

“5. A tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: receive an image of an object from a user via a user-interactive control of an electronic form rendered within a web browser of a client device of the user and via an Internet link; process, according to an object recognition technique, the image of the object to identify physical features of the image of the object; use the identified physical features to determine a type of the object, at least by comparing the physical features to physical features known to correspond to the type of the object; determine a confidence level associated with the determination of the type of the object; determine that the confidence level is above a threshold; and provide to the user, via the Internet link, a text indication of the determined type of the object to facilitate entry of accurate information in a field of the electronic form, at least by automatically populating the field of the electronic form within the web browser in accordance with the determined type in response to determining that the confidence level is above the threshold.

“6. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 5, wherein the instructions cause the one or more processors to use the identified physical features to determine the type of the object at least by either: determining that the object is a particular type of object; or determining that the object is not the particular type of object.

“7. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 5, wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to: prior to receiving the image of the object, provide the client device software instructions that cause the client device to render the electronic form for display to the user.

“8. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 5, wherein: the instructions cause the one or more processors to provide to the user the text indication of the determined type of the object at least by providing to the user a request for confirmation of the determined type of the object; and automatically populating the field is in response to both (i) receiving confirmation of the determined type of the object from the user, and (ii) determining that the confidence level is above the threshold.

“9. A computer system comprising: one or more processors; and one or more memories storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computer system to receive an image of an object from a user via a user-interactive control of an electronic form rendered within a web browser of a client device of the user and via an Internet link, process, according to an object recognition technique, the image of the object to identify physical features of the image of the object, wherein the physical features include a ratio between different dimensions of an element of the object, use the identified physical features to determine the type of the object, at least by comparing the physical features to physical features known to correspond to the type of the object, determine a confidence level associated with the determination of the type of the object, determine that the confidence level is above a threshold, and provide to the user, via the Internet link, a text indication of the determined type of the object to facilitate entry of accurate information in a field of the electronic form, at least by automatically populating the field of the electronic form within the web browser in accordance with the determined type in response to determining that the confidence level is above the threshold.

“10. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the instructions cause the computer system to use the identified physical features to determine the type of the object at least by either: determining that the object is a particular type of object; or determining that the object is not the particular type of object.

“11. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the instructions further cause the computer system to: prior to receiving the image of the object, provide the client device software instructions that cause the client device to render the electronic form for display to the user.”

For more information, see this patent: Engelhorn, Amy; Knarr, Kathryn E. System And Method For Using Object Recognition To Facilitate The Collection Of Insurance Information. U.S. Patent Number 10,832,339, filed August 25, 2017, and published online on November 23, 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=10,832,339.PN.&OS=PN/10,832,339RS=PN/10,832,339

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