Patent Issued for System And Method For Virtual Inspection Of A Structure (USPTO 10,796,374)

2020 OCT 16 (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 10,796,374, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are Cuttell, Matthew (Bloomington, IL); Kiper, Timothy (Normal, IL).

This patent was filed on May 10, 2018 and was published online on October 19, 2020.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.

“Traditionally, in order for insurance underwriters to properly make decisions concerning insurance products, a physical inspection of a structure or property is often necessary. For example, the underwriter may need to know the condition of a structure, information about the property surrounding (such as liability concerns, fire hydrants, etc.), assess damage to the structure, or determine whether the proper structure is on the property Traditionally, this inspection process required a company employee to physically travel to the location in question and physically inspect the property. Physical inspections are labor intensive, time-consuming, expensive and usually focus on the exterior physical characteristics of a home as well as liability exposures.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.

“In one embodiment, a computer implemented method for linking an underwriting action to a customer account includes receiving, via a computer network, an inspection model, wherein the inspection model corresponds to a geographic location associated with a structure and determining, at one or more processors, that a virtual inspection is recommended based on the inspection model. The method may also include retrieving, via the computer network, a first aerial image, wherein the first aerial image corresponds to the geographic location and a second aerial image, wherein the second aerial image corresponds to the geographic location and a time threshold. The method further includes receiving a comparison data value corresponding to the first and second aerial image, determining, at the one or more processors, an underwriting action based on the comparison data and linking, at the one or more processors, the underwriting action to a customer account.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“The invention claimed is:

“1. A computer-implemented method, comprising: retrieving, via a computer network, an aerial image, the aerial image corresponding to a geographic location associated with a structure; analyzing, at the one or more processors, the aerial image to (i) identify a first object and a second object within the aerial image, and (ii) determine a distance between the first object and the second object, wherein identifying the first object includes (i) identifying a first object data category corresponding to the first object, and (ii) determining an objective or subjective data value descriptive of the first object and corresponding to the first object data category, and identifying the second object includes (i) identifying a second object data category corresponding to the second object and different than the first object data category, and (ii) determining an objective or subjective data value descriptive of the second object and corresponding to the second object data category; determining, at the one or more processors, that the distance between the first object and the second object is within a threshold distance; and based upon the determining that the distance between the first object and the second object is within the threshold distance, flagging, at the one or more processors, a customer account that is associated with the geographic location.

“2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises: receiving, via the computer network, an inspection model that corresponds to the geographic location associated with the structure.

“3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the method further comprises: determining, at one or more processors, that a virtual inspection is necessary based upon the inspection model.

“4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein retrieving the aerial image comprises: accessing, via the computer network, one or more aerial image databases; and determining, at the one or more processors, that at least one of the one or more aerial image databases contains an aerial image corresponding to the geographic location.

“5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein retrieving the aerial image comprises: accessing, via the computer network, one or more aerial image databases; and determining, at the one or more processors, that at least one of the one or more aerial image databases contains an aerial image corresponding to the geographic location.

“6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first object data category is a house, and the second object data category is a pool.

“7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first object data category is a house, and the second object data category is a garage.

“8. A computer device, comprising; one or more processors; and one or more memories coupled to the one or more processors; wherein the one or more memories include computer executable instructions stored therein that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: retrieve, via a computer network, an aerial image that corresponds to a geographic location associated with a structure; analyze the aerial image to (i) identify a first object and a second object within the aerial image, and (ii) determine a distance between the first object and the second object, wherein identifying the first object includes (i) identifying a first object data category corresponding to the first object, and (ii) determining an objective or subjective data value descriptive of the first object and corresponding to the first object data category, and identifying the second object includes (i) identifying a second object data category corresponding to the second object and different than the first object data category, and (ii) determining an objective or subjective data value descriptive of the second object and corresponding to the second object data category; determine that the distance between the first object and the second object is within a threshold distance; and based upon the determining that the distance between the first object and the second object is within the threshold distance, flag a customer account that is associated with the geographic location.

“9. The computer device of claim 8, wherein the one or more memories include computer executable instructions stored therein that, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to: receive, via the computer network, an inspection model, wherein the inspection model corresponds to the geographic location associated with the structure.

“10. The computer device of claim 9, wherein the one or more memories include computer executable instructions stored therein that, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to: determine that a virtual inspection is necessary based upon the inspection model.

“11. The computer device of claim 10, wherein to retrieve the aerial image, the computer executable instructions further cause the one or more processors to: access, via the computer network, one or more aerial image databases; and determine that at least one of the one or more aerial image databases contains an aerial image corresponding to the geographic location.

“12. The computer device of claim 8, wherein to retrieve the aerial image, the computer executable instructions further cause the one or more processors to: access, via the computer network, one or more aerial image databases; and determine that at least one of the one or more aerial image databases contains an aerial image corresponding to the geographic location.

“13. The computer device of claim 8, wherein the first object data category is a house, and the second object data category is a pool.

“14. The computer device of claim 8, wherein the first object data category is a house, and the second object data category is a garage.

“15. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising non-transitory computer readable instructions stored thereon, the instructions when executed on one or more processors cause the one or more processors to: retrieve, via a computer network, a first aerial image, wherein the first aerial image corresponds to a geographic location associated with a structure; analyze the aerial image to (i) identify a first object and a second object within the aerial image, and (ii) determine a distance between the first object and the second object, wherein identifying the first object includes (i) identifying a first object data category corresponding to the first object, and (ii) determining an objective or subjective data value descriptive of the first object and corresponding to the first object data category, and identifying the second object includes (i) identifying a second object data category corresponding to the second object and different than the first object data category, and (ii) determining an objective or subjective data value descriptive of the second object and corresponding to the second object data category; determine that the distance between the first object and the second object is within a threshold distance; and based upon the determining that the distance between the first object and the second object is within the threshold distance, flag a customer account that is associated with the geographic location.

“16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, the instructions when executed on one or more processors further cause the one or more processors to: receive, via the computer network, an inspection model, wherein the inspection model corresponds to the geographic location associated with the structure.

“17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 16, the instructions when executed on one or more processors further cause the one or more processors to: determine that a virtual inspection is necessary based upon the inspection model.

“18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein to retrieve the aerial image, the instructions when executed on the one or more processors further cause the one or more processors to: access, via the computer network, one or more aerial image databases; and determine that at least one of the one or more aerial image databases contains an aerial image corresponding to the geographic location.

“19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein to retrieve the aerial image, the instructions when executed on the one or more processors further cause the one or more processors to: access, via the computer network, one or more aerial image databases; and determine that at least one of the one or more aerial image databases contains an aerial image corresponding to the geographic location.”

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Cuttell, Matthew; Kiper, Timothy. System And Method For Virtual Inspection Of A Structure. U.S. Patent Number 10,796,374, filed May 10, 2018, and published online on October 19, 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=10,796,374.PN.&OS=PN/10,796,374RS=PN/10,796,374

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