Patent Issued for System and method for using object recognition to facilitate the collection of insurance information (USPTO 11587183): State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company

2023 MAR 09 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (Bloomington, Illinois, United States) has been issued patent number 11587183, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are Engelhorn, Amy (Normal, IL, US), Knarr, Kathryn E. (Bloomington, IL, US).

This patent was filed on October 9, 2020 and was published online on February 21, 2023.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “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.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters 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) 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; (2) receiving an image of the object that the user submitted via the user-interactive control and the Internet link; (3) processing, by one or more processors, the image of the object according to an object recognition technique to identify physical features of the object; (4) 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; (5) providing to the user a request for confirmation of the determined type of the object; and/or (6) in response to receiving confirmation of the determined type of the object from the user, causing the client device to automatically populate the first field of the electronic form within the web browser in accordance with the determined type.

“In another aspect, a tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium stores instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, may cause the one or more processors to: (1) provide a user, 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; (2) receive an image of the object that the user submitted via the user-interactive control and the Internet link; (3) process the image of the object according to an object recognition technique to identify physical features of the object; (4) 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; (5) provide to the user a request for confirmation of the determined type of the object; and/or (6) in response to receiving confirmation of the determined type of the object from the user, cause the client device to automatically populate the first field of the electronic form within the web browser in accordance with the determined type.

“In another aspect, a system includes one or more processors and memory. The memory stores instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, may cause the system to: (1) provide a user, 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; (2) receive an image of the object that the user submitted via the user-interactive control and the Internet link; (3) process the image of the object according to an object recognition technique to identify physical features of the object; (4) 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; (5) provide to the user a request for confirmation of the determined type of the object; and/or (6) in response to receiving confirmation of the determined type of the object from the user, cause the client device to automatically populate the first field of the electronic form within the web browser in accordance with the determined type.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“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 two or more possible types of the object, at least by comparing the physical features to physical features known to correspond to the two or more possible types of the object; determining, by one or more processors, confidence levels associated with the two or more possible types of the object; providing to the user indications of the two or more possible types of the object, and a request for confirmation of a determined type of the object; and in response to receiving confirmation of the determined type of the object from the user, causing the client device to automatically populate the first field of the electronic form within the web browser in accordance with the determined type.

“2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein causing the client device to automatically populate the first field includes causing the client device to automatically populate the first field with a text indication of the determined type.

“3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein using the identified physical features to determine the two or more possible types 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.

“4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein providing the client device software instructions includes providing the client device scripting language instructions to be interpreted by the web browser application executing on the client device.

“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: provide a user, 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; receive an image of the object that the user submitted via the user-interactive control and the Internet link; process the image of the object according to an object recognition technique to identify physical features of the object; use the identified physical features to determine two or more possible types of the object, at least by comparing the physical features to physical features known to correspond to the two or more possible types of the object; determine confidence levels associated with the two or more possible types of the object; provide to the user indications of the two or more possible types of the object, and a request for confirmation of a determined type of the object; and in response to receiving confirmation of the determined type of the object from the user, cause the client device to automatically populate the first field of the electronic form within the web browser in accordance with the determined type.

“6. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 5, wherein causing the client device to automatically populate the first field includes causing the client device to automatically populate the first field with a text indication of the determined type.

“7. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 5, wherein using the identified physical features to determine the two or more possible types 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.

“8. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 5, wherein providing the client device software instructions includes providing the client device scripting language instructions to be interpreted by the web browser application executing on the client device.

“9. A system comprising: one or more processors; and memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to: provide a user, 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, receive an image of the object that the user submitted via the user-interactive control and the Internet link, process the image of the object according to an object recognition technique to identify physical features of the object, use the identified physical features to determine two or more possible types of the object, at least by comparing the physical features to physical features known to correspond to the two or more possible types of the object, determine confidence levels associated with the two or more possible types of the object; provide to the user indications of the two or more possible types of the object, and a request for confirmation of a determined type of the object, and in response to receiving confirmation of the determined type of the object from the user, cause the client device to automatically populate the first field of the electronic form within the web browser in accordance with the determined type.

“10. The system of claim 9, wherein causing the client device to automatically populate the first field includes causing the client device to automatically populate the first field with a text indication of the determined type.

“11. The system of claim 9, wherein using the identified physical features to determine the two or more possible types 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.

“12. The system of claim 9, wherein providing the client device software instructions includes providing the client device scripting language instructions to be interpreted by the web browser application executing on the client device.”

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Engelhorn, Amy. System and method for using object recognition to facilitate the collection of insurance information. U.S. Patent Number 11587183, filed October 9, 2020, and published online on February 21, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11587183)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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