Patent Issued for Systems and methods for detecting items at a property (USPTO 11928741): United Services Automobile Association

2024 MAR 29 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent by the inventors Amann, Manfred (San Antonio, TX, US), Beveridge, Meredith (San Antonio, TX, US), Bitsis, Jr., Daniel Christopher (San Antonio, TX, US), Brown, Donnette Moncrief (San Antonio, TX, US), Gray, Emily Margaret (San Antonio, TX, US), Haslam, Justin Dax (San Antonio, TX, US), Kou, Qunying (San Antonio, TX, US), Maciolek, Michael J. (Boerne, TX, US), Mohs, Bobby Lawrence (San Antonio, TX, US), Philbrick, Ashley Raine (San Antonio, TX, US), Schroeder, Eric David (San Antonio, TX, US), Shipley, Brian F. (Plano, TX, US), Simpson, Robert Wiseman (Fair Oaks Ranch, TX, US), filed on December 29, 2021, was published online on March 12, 2024, according to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx correspondents.

Patent number 11928741 is assigned to United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States).

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: “The present disclosure relates generally to detecting various items that may be stored inside or outside a property. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to using a variety of sensors to determine types of items that may be stored at a property.

“Collecting information regarding items that are present at a property may be cumbersome. That is, identifying the various different items that may be stored or present at a property may prove to be a time-intensive undertaking. In addition, identifying each item at a property may be difficult, as certain items may be positioned in a manner that may not be clearly visible to someone. As such, improved systems and methods for detecting items at a property are desired.

“This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present techniques, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “One or more specific embodiments will be described below. In an effort to provide a concise description of these embodiments, not all features of an actual implementation are described in the specification. It should be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation, as in any engineering or design project, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developers’ specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which may vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it should be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of design, fabrication, and manufacture for those of ordinary skill having the benefit of this disclosure.

“When introducing elements of various embodiments of the present disclosure, the articles “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to mean that there are one or more of the elements. The terms “comprising,” “including,” and “having” are intended to be inclusive and mean that there may be additional elements other than the listed elements. Additionally, it should be understood that references to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” of the present disclosure are not intended to be interpreted as excluding the existence of additional embodiments that also incorporate the recited features.

“When insuring items stored at a property (e.g., business, home), individuals may walk through the respective property and tabulate a list of items that they intend to include on an insurance policy or for their own inventory of items stored at the property. This process may be time consuming and inefficient. That is, individuals may miss items that may be obscured from view due to the positions of other items. In addition, when the individual identifying the items is not familiar with the property, the individual may often miss or disregard certain items that may be of value. Even if the list is generated by the property owner, the insurance policies created for these items may not be updated to include additional items that have been acquired by the property owner. As such, the presently disclosed techniques enable individuals to detect the presence of various objects stored at the property at various times to ensure that a corresponding insurance policy is updated to include each of the items stored at the property. Additional details with regard to automatically detecting items stored at a property will be discussed below with reference to FIGS. 1-5.

“By way of introduction, FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an inventory detection network 10 that includes an inventory detection system 12, one or more databases 14, a network 16, a mobile computing device 18, a computing device 20, various electronic devices stored inside or outside a property 22, a smart speaker 24, a vehicle 26, and the like. Although the inventory detection system 12 is illustrated as being coupled to the various components depicted in FIG. 1 via the network 16, it should be noted that the inventory detection system 12 may be communicatively coupled to a variety of data sources in a variety of manners (e.g., directly) to perform the embodiments described herein. The inventory detection system 12 may include any suitable computer device, such as a general-purpose personal computer, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a mobile computer, a smart phone device, a server, a cloud-computing system, and the like that is configured in accordance with present embodiments. Additional details with regard to example components that may be part of the inventory detection system 12 is described below with reference to FIG. 2.

“In certain embodiments, the inventory detection system 12 may receive data from various data sources that may to assist the inventory detection system 12 in identifying various items or objects owned by an individual or entity (e.g., organization, business) associated with the property 22. In some embodiments, the data received by inventory detection system 12 may include data (e.g., image data, browser data) from the mobile computing device 18, financial transaction data (e.g., purchases) from the computing device 20, sensor data (e.g., image sensor, thermal sensor, electrical monitor sensor) from the various devices disposed inside and outside the property 22, audio data acquired by the smart speakers 24, navigation data from the vehicle 26, and the like. The data acquired by these various sources may be used by the inventory detection system 12 to identify items that may be stored at the property 22. The identified items may then be populated in an inventory list that may be used to secure an insurance policy that covers those items. In addition, as new items are detected in accordance to the embodiments described herein, the inventory detection system 12 may automatically modify the insurance policy to include the additional items. As such, the inventory detection system 12 may automatically modify a premium cost for the insurance policy as new items are detected and as other items are determined to be no longer stored at the property 22 or owned by the individual. In some embodiments, the inventory detection system 12 may send a notification to the mobile device 18 or other suitable computing device associated with the owner of the insurance policy to inform the owner of the modification. The notification, in some embodiments, may cause the mobile device 18 or other suitable computing device to automatically execute an application or program that updates or generates a visual notification, an audio notification, a haptic notification (e.g., vibration), or other suitable notification to enable the owner to learn about the modification in real time or near real time.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A system, comprising: at least one processor configured to perform operations comprising: receiving one or more data packets from a device; identifying an identity of the device based on the one or more data packets; determining whether the identity of the device corresponds to an inventory list; receiving audio data associated with an operation of device; confirming the identity of the device based on querying a database comprising a plurality of sound profiles associated with a plurality of devices based on the audio data, wherein the identity of the device is confirmed by identifying a sound profile in the plurality of sound profiles that corresponds to the audio data; generating an insurance policy that includes the device in response to determining the identity of the device is absent from the inventory list and confirming the identity of the device; and sending a notification indicative of the insurance policy to a computing device in response to generating the insurance policy.

“2. The system of claim 1, comprising an image sensor configured to receive image data representative of the device, wherein the at least one processor is configured to perform the operations comprising verifying a presence of the device based on the image data.

“3. The system of claim 2, wherein the image sensor is disposed in a vehicle.

“4. The system of claim 1, comprising one or more smart speakers configured to receive the audio data and send the audio data to the at least one processor.

“5. The system of claim 1, comprising a router configured to receive the one or more data packets from the device.

“6. The system of claim 5, wherein identifying the identity of the device comprises: retrieving a media access control (MAC) address from the data packet received; determining a manufacturer associated with the device based on the MAC address; querying an additional database using the manufacturer, wherein the additional database comprises a plurality of device types, and wherein the plurality of device types is associated with one or more data packet properties; and identifying the device from the plurality of device types based on the one or more data packets and the one or more data packet properties.

“7. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to perform the operations comprising: receiving financial transaction data indicative of a purchase of the device; and verifying that the device is present based on the financial transaction data.

“8. A method, comprising: receiving, via a processor, one or more data packets from a device; identifying, via the processor, an identity of the device based on the one or more data packets; determining, via the processor, whether the identity of the device corresponds to an inventory list receiving, via the processor, audio data produced during an operation of the device; receiving, via the processor, image data via one or more sensors; confirming, via the processor, an identity of the device based on the audio data and the image data, wherein confirming the device comprises: querying a database using the audio data, wherein the database comprises a plurality of sound profiles, wherein the plurality of sound profiles is associated with one or more device types, and wherein the identity of the device is confirmed by identifying a sound profile in the plurality of sound profiles that corresponds to the audio data; and querying the database using the image data, wherein the database comprises a plurality of images, and wherein the plurality of images is associated with the one or more device types; and confirming the identity of the device based on the plurality of sound profiles, the plurality of images, and the one or more device types; generating, via the processor, an insurance policy that includes the device in response to determining that the identity of the device is absent from the inventory list and confirming the identity of the device; and sending, via the processor, a notification indicative of the insurance policy to a computing device in response to generating the insurance policy.

“9. The method of claim 8, wherein the device is identified based on one or more properties of the one or more data packets, wherein the one or more properties comprise a size, a header, an encryption method, or any combination thereof.

“10. The method of claim 8, comprising receiving financial information associated with a purchase of the device and identifying the device based on the financial information, the audio data, and the image data.

“11. The method of claim 8, wherein the audio data comprises an amplitude above a threshold.

“12. The method of claim 8, wherein the one or more sensors are disposed in a vehicle.

“13. The method of claim 8, wherein the audio data is representative of the operation of the device.

“14. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause a processor to perform operations comprising: receiving one or more data packets from a device; identifying an identity of the device based on the one or more data packets; determining whether the identity of the device corresponds to an inventory list; receiving audio data produced during an operation of a device; receiving image data via one or more sensors disposed at a plurality of locations in a structure; confirming an identity of the device based on the audio data and the image data, wherein identifying the device comprises: querying a database using the audio data, wherein the database comprises a plurality of sound profiles, wherein the plurality of sound profiles is associated with one or more device types, and wherein the identity of the device is confirmed by identifying a sound profile in the plurality of sound profiles that corresponds to the audio data; and querying the database using the image data, wherein the database comprises a plurality of images, and wherein the plurality of images is associated with the one or more device types; and confirming the identity of the device based on the plurality of sound profiles, the plurality of images, and the one or more device types; generating an insurance policy that includes the device in response to determining that the identity of the device is absent from the inventory list and confirming the identity of the device; and sending a notification indicative of the insurance policy to a computing device in response to generating the insurance policy.

“15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the image data comprises thermal image data, infrared image data, or both.

“16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the computer-executable instructions that cause the processor to perform the operations comprises comprising verifying a presence of the device detected by the audio data using the image data.

“17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the computer-executable instructions that cause the processor to perform the operations comprises verifying a presence of the device detected by the image data using the audio data.

“18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the computer-executable instructions that cause the processor to perform the operations comprises verifying a presence of the device using financial data acquired from a database associated with an organization that sells the device.

“19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the computer-executable instructions that cause the processor to perform the operations comprises verifying a presence of the device using router data acquired from a router communicatively coupled to the device.”

URL and more information on this patent, see: Amann, Manfred. Systems and methods for detecting items at a property. U.S. Patent Number 11928741, filed December 29, 2021, and published online on March 12, 2024. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11928741)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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