Patent Issued for Systems and methods for using unmanned aerial vehicles (USPTO 11715160): United Services Automobile Association

2023 AUG 22 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent by the inventors Billman, Bradly Jay (San Antonio, TX, US), Bueche’, Jr., Michael Patrick (San Antonio, TX, US), Buentello, Andre Rene (San Antonio, TX, US), Hillman, James Philip (San Antonio, TX, US), Hopkins, III, John Chandler (San Antonio, TX, US), filed on September 8, 2020, was published online on August 1, 2023, according to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx correspondents.

Patent number 11715160 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: “Customers demand more of the products and services they use than ever before. They insist that the companies they deal with on a regular basis provide them greater and greater levels of accuracy and more tailored service offerings. Companies configure and operate ever increasing numbers of computer systems to achieve this.

“Using sources of information that have traditionally been unavailable when service these customers is now expected. For instance, telemetry data from vehicles operated by a customer could be used to derive a risk that the customer presents in their auto insurance policy. In this manner, the policy could be tailored to an individual and not generalized over a grouping of customers.”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “In an embodiment, a method of processing overhead imagery includes receiving one or more overhead images from at least one image source, detecting one or more features on a property, deriving business information using the one or more features and providing the business information. In a further embodiment, the business information may be used for either determining premiums for an insurance policy on the property, or for adjusting an insurance claim to compensate for damage experienced on the property.

“In another embodiment, a method of processing overhead imagery includes receiving one or more overhead images which contain a number of properties, correlating the one or more images with one or more land maps, parsing the properties into collections of individual properties, determining values for each of the properties and aggregating the values. In a further embodiment, a weather event footprint may be forecast and investment decisions made using the aggregated values.

“In another embodiment, an apparatus to process overhead imagery includes an overhead image module to receive and positionally correlate overhead images, and an image analyzer to determine one or more features on a property. In further embodiments, the one or more features may include risks to a structure on the property, or structural damage to a structure on the property.

“In another embodiment, a method includes accessing an aerial image including a property, determining an owner of the property, determining whether the owner of the property is eligible to be a member of a financial institution, determining whether the owner of the property has property insurance with the financial institution for the property type of the property in the aerial image, and presenting to the owner, an offer for property insurance to insure the property in the aerial image when the owner is determined to be eligible for the financial institution and when the owner does not have property insurance with the financial institution.

“In another embodiment, a method includes obtaining an aerial image of a plurality of properties, determining a plurality of damage estimates for the plurality of properties, and reserving resources to repair the plurality of properties based on the plurality of damage estimates.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method comprising: receiving a notification of an event that poses a risk to a property; deploying, based on the notification, a vehicle to the property; generating, by penetrating radar of the vehicle, data associated with the property; and determining, based on the generated data and data from an aerial vehicle, an amount of damage to the property.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein the damage to the property is caused by weather.

“3. The method of claim 1, wherein deploying the vehicle to the property is based on determining a hazard or obstruction to a human at the property.

“4. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining repairs to perform to the property.

“5. The method of claim 4, further comprising determining a physical material to perform the repairs to the property.

“6. The method of claim 1, wherein the aerial vehicle comprises at least one of a satellite, an aircraft, a blimp, a balloon, a rocket, a kite, or a pole-mounted camera.

“7. The method of claim 1, wherein the aerial vehicle comprises an unmanned vehicle.”

URL and more information on this patent, see: Billman, Bradly Jay. Systems and methods for using unmanned aerial vehicles. U.S. Patent Number 11715160, filed September 8, 2020, and published online on August 1, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11715160)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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