Patent Issued for Systems and methods for delivering vehicle-specific educational content for a critical event (USPTO 11195425): Allstate Insurance Company

2021 DEC 23 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent by the inventors Barth, Kim Alan (Northbrook, IL, US), Stroh, Robert (Woodstock, IL, US), filed on August 15, 2019, was published online on December 7, 2021, according to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx correspondents.

Patent number 11195425 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: “Vehicle users may often face vehicle breakdowns, vehicle maintenance issues, and other critical events that may need a vehicle repair or roadside assistance. Often, vehicle users are uninformed about vehicle repair, or inexperienced to perform self-diagnosis or treatment of a vehicle during a critical event. Furthermore, roadside assistance may be costly and inefficient, or unavailable in certain locations and times. When there is roadside assistance, a vehicle mechanic or repair personnel may not necessarily understand how to diagnose or repair a specific type of vehicle, and may need vehicle-specific information to assist in the vehicle’s recovery.

“There is thus a desire for a system, method, and computer readable medium for delivering educational content that is specific to a vehicle during critical events. Furthermore, there is a need for a system to more precisely match relevant educational content based on input delivered manually or automatically from vehicle 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 methods, computer-readable media, and apparatuses for delivering vehicle-specific educational content for a critical event.

“One method may comprise: receiving, by a first computing device having at least one processor and from a user device of a vehicle user via a wireless data connection, a notification of a critical event for a vehicle of the vehicle user and a vehicle identification of the vehicle; receiving, by the first computing device and from the user device via the first wireless data connection, user input soliciting educational content to remedy the critical event; determining, by the first computing device and based on the received user input, a first set of search parameters, wherein a search parameter alters the selection of educational content by the first computing device; for each of the search parameters in the first set of search parameters, altering a selection of educational content into a first list of educational content from a second list of educational content; and displaying, on the user device by the first computing device, the first list of educational content based on the first set of search parameters.

“The method may further comprise: receiving, by the computing device, vehicle-specific information based on the vehicle identification; determining, by the computing device and based on the received vehicle-specific information, an additional set of search parameters; for each of the search parameters in the first set of search parameters, further altering the selection of educational content into the first list of educational content from the second list of educational content; and displaying, on the user device by the first computing device, the first list of educational content based on the first set and the additional set of search parameters.

“In accordance with other embodiments of the present disclosure, a system comprises: one or more processors; and memory storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to: receive, from a user device of a vehicle user via a wireless data connection, a notification of a critical event for a vehicle of the vehicle user and a vehicle identification of the vehicle; receive, from the user device via the first wireless data connection, user input soliciting educational content associated with the critical event; determine, based on the received user input, a first set of search parameters; for each of the search parameters in the first set of search parameters, select educational content for a first list of educational content from a second list of educational content, wherein the first list of educational content is a subset of the second list of educational content; and display, on the user device, the first list of educational content based on the first set of search parameters.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method comprising: receiving, by a first computing device having at least one processor and from a user device of a vehicle user via a wireless data connection, a notification of a critical event for a vehicle of the vehicle user and a vehicle identification of the vehicle; receiving, by the first computing device and from the user device via the wireless data connection, user input soliciting educational content to remedy the critical event; determining, by the first computing device and based on the received user input, a first set of search parameters; for each of the search parameters in the first set of search parameters, selecting educational content for a first list of educational content from a second list of educational content, wherein the first list of educational content is a subset of the second list of educational content; determining, by the first computing device, whether the first list of educational content meets a content threshold, upon determining that the first list of educational content does not meet the content threshold, transmitting a prompt to the user device relating to a modification to one or more components of the first set of search parameters; upon receiving, by the first computing device and from the user device, an interaction with the prompt, modifying the first list of educational content in accordance with the interaction; and upon determining that the modified first list of educational content meets the content threshold displaying, on the user device by the first computing device, the modified first list of educational content.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein the user input is a natural language input entered by the vehicle user on a user interface of the user device.

“3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: enabling the vehicle user to select from the displayed modified first list of educational content and view one or more educational content from the modified first list of educational content.

“4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, by the first computing device, vehicle-specific information based on the vehicle identification; determining, by the first computing device and based on the received vehicle-specific information, an additional set of search parameters; for each of the search parameters in the first set of search parameters, further selecting educational content for the first list of educational content from the second list of educational content; and displaying, on the user device by the first computing device, the first list of educational content based on the first set and the additional set of search parameters.

“5. The method of claim 4, further comprising: establishing a connection with a telematics system of the vehicle; and wherein the vehicle-specific information is received from vehicle sensors in the vehicle via the telematics system of the vehicle.

“6. The method of claim 4, wherein the vehicle-specific information comprises data measuring a condition of an aspect of the vehicle.

“7. The method of claim 4, wherein the vehicle-specific information comprises geographical and temporal information associated with the critical event.

“8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining, by the first computing device, that the first set of search parameters does not meet a threshold quantity.

“9. The method of claim 8, further comprising: prompting the vehicle user to send additional user input soliciting the educational content to remedy the critical event; and wherein the received user input includes the additional user input.

“10. The method of claim 4, wherein the vehicle-specific information is received from sensors in the user device.

“11. A system comprising: one or more processors; and memory storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to: receive, from a user device of a vehicle user via a wireless data connection, a notification of a critical event for a vehicle of the vehicle user and a vehicle identification of the vehicle; receive, from the user device via the wireless data connection, user input soliciting educational content to remedy the critical event; determine, based on the received user input, a first set of search parameters; for each of the search parameters in the first set of search parameters, select educational content for a first list of educational content from a second list of educational content, wherein the first list of educational content is a subset of the second list of educational content; p1 determine that the first list of educational content does not meet a content threshold; transmitting a prompt to the user device relating to a modification to one or more components of the first set of search parameters; upon receiving, from the user device, an interaction with the prompt, modifying the first list of educational content in accordance with the interaction; and upon determining that the modified first list of educational content meets the content threshold, display, on the user device, the modified first list of educational content.

“12. The system of claim 11, wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the system to: receive vehicle-specific information based on the vehicle identification; determine based on the received vehicle-specific information, an additional set of search parameters; for each of the search parameters in the first set of search parameters, further select educational content for the first list of educational content from the second list of educational content; and display, on the user device the first list of educational content based on the first set and the additional set of search parameters.

“13. The system of claim 11, wherein the user input is a natural language input entered by the vehicle user on a user interface of the user device.

“14. The system of claim 12, wherein computer-executable the instructions further cause the system to: establish a connection with a telematics system of the vehicle; and wherein the vehicle-specific information is received from vehicle sensors in the vehicle via the telematics system of the vehicle.

“15. The system of claim 12, wherein the vehicle-specific information comprises data measuring a condition of an aspect of the vehicle.

“16. The system of claim 12, wherein the vehicle-specific information comprises geographical and temporal information associated with the critical event.

“17. The system of claim 11, wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the system to: determine that the first set of search parameters does not meet a threshold quantity of search parameters.

“18. The system of claim 17, wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the system to: prompt the vehicle user to send additional user input soliciting the educational content to remedy the critical event; and wherein the received user input includes the additional user input.

“19. The system of claim 12, wherein the vehicle-specific information is received from sensors in the user device.

“20. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a program causing a computing device having at least one processor to execute a method, the method comprising: receiving, from a user device of a vehicle user via a wireless data connection, a notification of a critical event for a vehicle of the vehicle user and a vehicle identification of the vehicle; receiving, from the user device via the wireless data connection, user input soliciting educational content associated with the critical event; determining, based on the received user input, a first set of search parameters; for each of the search parameters in the first set of search parameters, selecting educational content for a first list of educational content from a second list of educational content, wherein the first list of educational content is a subset of the second list of educational content; p1 determining that the first list of educational content does not meet the content threshold, transmitting a prompt to the user device relating to a modification to one or more components of the first set of search parameters; upon receiving, from the user device, an interaction with the prompt, modifying the first list of educational content in accordance with the interaction; and upon determining that the modified first list of educational content meets the content threshold, displaying, on the user device, the first list of educational content.”

URL and more information on this patent, see: Barth, Kim Alan. Systems and methods for delivering vehicle-specific educational content for a critical event. U.S. Patent Number 11195425, filed August 15, 2019, and published online on December 7, 2021. 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=11195425.PN.&OS=PN/11195425RS=PN/11195425

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