Patent Issued for Systems and methods for utilizing electricity monitoring devices to mitigate or prevent structural damage (USPTO 11451043): State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company

2022 OCT 10 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- According to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx journalists, a patent by the inventors Kawakita, Christopher N. (Bloomington, IL, US), Olander, Erin Ann (Bloomington, IL, US), Riblet, Jeff (Normal, IL, US), filed on June 16, 2017, was published online on September 20, 2022.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 11451043, is State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (Bloomington, Illinois, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Conventional homes are subject to electrical fires or other electrical issues that lead to damage to the home, as well as to personal property. Also, with the proliferation of the “internet of things,” more household devices are gaining communication and network connectivity capabilities. Still, conventional homes may remain subject to insurance-related events, such as those caused by electrical issues.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The present embodiments may, inter alia, facilitate communications with connected devices and items, and/or facilitate insurance-related processing associated with the connected devices and items, among other functionalities. For instance, the present embodiments may dynamically monitor electricity flow to various electronic devices associated with a property (e.g., smart or conventional home) that may be populated with a plurality of devices. An Electricity Monitoring (EM) device may be within the home or proximal to the home, such as in the vicinity of the home’s main electrical distribution board (or “breaker box”). The EM device may wirelessly sense, detect, monitor, and/or generate Electricity Flow (EF) data indicative of the electricity flowing to each and every electric or electronic device within a home (such as every device connected to the home’s electrical system and drawing power therefrom). The wireless EM device may wirelessly identify the electricity flow to and from each electric or electronic device based upon each device’s unique electronic signature (or “fingerprint”). The EF data may be monitored for trends, and/or abnormal or unexpected conditions, and based upon the trends and/or abnormal electricity flow one or more corrective actions may be taken. The corrective actions may mitigate or prevent insurance-related events, such as electrical fires or suddenly failed equipment at the most inconvenient time.

“The electricity usage or flow data for individual electric or electronic devices that are located within, or powered by, a home generated by the EM device may be used for various purposes, such as (1) device and appliance fault, irregularity, and/or degradation detection; (2) preventative maintenance programs or logs; (3) control and optimization of energy usage within a home; (4) safe and/or low energy usage compliance programs; (5) risk evaluation and underwriting; (6) insurance claim verification; (7) insurance fraud or “buildup” detection (e.g., theft or arson); (8) insurance-related event or disaster reconstruction and analysis (e.g., cause of a fire); (9) analysis of quality and stability of energy/electricity received from an energy provider; (10) home occupancy detection, monitoring, and verification, and subsequently risk profile adjustment for insureds and/or the home; (11) home, auto, life, health, and personal articles insurance discount or rewards programs; (12) quote generation for home, auto, and/or personal articles insurance; (13) updating risk profiles associated with (i) homes, (ii) personal articles and/or electric devices within or about a home, and/or (iii) vehicles that routinely connect and exchange electrical power with the home’s electrical system; (14) determining electric arc sparking; (15) identifying home wiring degradation or issues; and/or other purposes, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

“The EF data or other data generated by the EM device may be combined with other sources of data, such as home telematics data, vehicle telematics data, data gathered from consumer wearable devices and/or mobile devices, and/or data gather by other electronic devices. The combined data may be used for various purposes, including the purposes discussed directly above and elsewhere herein.

“In one aspect, a computer-implemented method of taking corrective action based upon abnormal electricity usage within a home may be provided. The method may include (1) building, via one or more processors, a historic or an expected electricity usage, flow, and/or consumption profile for a home and electric devices therein, the expected electricity usage, flow, and/or consumption profile including day-of-week and time-of-day information, and may be based upon electricity detected by a wireless Electricity Monitoring (EM) device (which may include one or more processors, sensors, and/or transceivers) over a period of time; (2) monitoring, via the wireless EM device, current home and individual electric device/appliance electricity usage, flow, and/or consumption via the EM device, the EM device being an electric or electronic component that wirelessly detects unique electric or electronic signatures of each electric or electronic device being powered by the home’s electricity or electrical system; (3) comparing, via the one or more processors, the current electricity usage, flow, and/or consumption with the expected electricity usage, flow, and/or consumption to detect an abnormal electricity usage or abnormal trend; and/or (4) when the abnormal electricity usage or trend is detected, via the one or more processors, take a corrective action to mitigate or prevent potential damage to the home or the electric devices being monitored. The method may include additional, less, or alternate actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

“In another aspect, a computer-implemented method of determining home occupancy may be provided. The method may include (1) monitoring, via a wireless Electricity Monitoring (EM) device (which may include one or more processors, sensors, and/or transceivers), (i) current home electricity usage, flow, and/or consumption, and/or (ii) current individual electric device/appliance electricity usage, flow, and/or consumption, the EM device configured to wirelessly detect unique electric signatures of each electric device being powered via the home’s electrical system; (2) receiving, via one or more processors and/or transceivers, data indicative of (i) current home electricity usage, flow, and/or consumption, and/or (ii) current individual electric device/appliance electricity usage, flow, and/or consumption from the EM device via wireless communication or data transmission over one or more radio links or communication channels; (3) determining, via one or more processors, an average amount of home occupancy (such as for a period of time) based upon the (i) current home electricity usage, flow, and/or consumption, and/or (ii) current individual electric device/appliance electricity usage, flow, and/or consumption (such as comparing actual home or appliance electricity usage, flow, and/or consumption with historic or expected electricity usage, flow, and/or consumption for a home presently occupied by one or more persons); (4) updating, via the one or more processors, (i) an home occupancy profile, or (ii) a risk profile for the home (or for the home owner, or a vehicle associated with the home) based upon the average amount of home occupancy; and/or (5) updating, via the one or more processors, an insurance discount for the home or insured home owner based upon the home occupancy profile and/or risk profile to facilitate providing insurance discounts to risk averse home owners or households. The method may include additional, less, or alternate actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A computer-implemented method of identify and correcting abnormal electrical activity about a structure, the method comprising: monitoring, by an electricity monitoring device positioned in vicinity of an electrical distribution board of the structure, during a first period of time, electrical activity about the structure by wirelessly detecting electrical activity at the distribution board representing transmission of electricity via the distribution board to one or more electric devices that are coupled to the electrical distribution board; correlating, by one or more processors, the electrical activity with respective electric devices of the one or more electric devices receiving the transmitted electricity; based upon an electrical signature unique to each respective electric device; building, by the one or more processors, based at least upon the correlated electrical activity, a structure electrical profile including, for each respective electric device, data indicative of operation of the respective electric device during at least the first period of time; identifying, by the one or more processors, the abnormal electrical activity about, the structure, wherein the abnormal electrical activity is identified by comparing the structure electrical profile with electrical activity monitored via the electricity monitoring device; initiating, by the one or more processors, one or more corrective actions for mitigating or preventing damage about the structure as a result of the abnormal electrical activity; and generating, by the one or more processors, an insurance discount for a party associated with the structure when the one or more corrective actions are performed to mitigate or prevent damage about the structure.

“2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors include one or more processors of the electricity monitoring device.

“3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising determining, via the one or more processors, a cause of the abnormal electrical activity.

“4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the abnormal electrical activity is identified at a second period of electrical activity monitoring subsequent to the first period of time.

“5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein initiating the one or more corrective actions includes: generating, via the one or more processors, an electronic or virtual message indicating the abnormal electrical activity, and transmitting, via the one or more processors, the electronic or virtual message to a computing device of a party associated with the structure.

“6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein identifying the abnormal electrical activity includes identifying a failing or faulty electric device of the one or more electric devices.

“7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein initiating the one or more corrective actions includes identifying, via the one or more processors, a replacement part to replace one or more devices of the one or more electric devices.

“8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising determining, via the one or more processors, a location of a mobile device of a party associated with the structure, wherein the one or more initiated corrective actions are selected based at least upon the location of the mobile device.

“9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein wirelessly monitoring electrical activity comprises wirelessly monitoring at least one of (i) a time at which the electricity was transmitted to the respective electric devices, (ii) a duration for which the electricity was transmitted to the respective electric devices, and (iii) a magnitude of the electric current in the transmission of electricity to the respective electric devices.

“10. A system configured to identify and correct abnormal electrical activity about a structure, the system comprising: one or more processors; and one or more computer memories storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed via the one or more processors, cause the system to: monitor, by an electricity monitoring device positioned in vicinity of an electrical distribution board of the structure, during a first period of time, electrical activity about the structure by wirelessly detecting electrical activity at the distribution board representing transmission of electricity via the distribution board to one or more electric devices that are coupled to the electrical distribution board; correlate, by the one or more processors, the electrical activity with respective electric devices of the one or more electric devices receiving the transmitted electricity, based upon an electrical signature unique to each respective electric device; build, by the one or more processors, based at least upon the correlated electrical activity, a structure electrical profile including, for each respective electric device, data indicative of operation of the respective electric device during at least the first period of time; identify, by the one or more processors, the abnormal electrical activity about the structure, wherein the abnormal electrical activity is identified by comparing the structure electrical profile with electrical activity monitored via the electricity monitoring device; initiate, by the one or more processors, one or more corrective actions for mitigating or preventing damage about the structure as a result of the abnormal electrical activity; and generate, by the one or more processors, an insurance discount for a party associated with the structure when the one or more corrective actions are performed to mitigate or prevent damage about the structure.

“11. The system of claim 10, wherein the one or more processors include one or more processors of the electricity monitoring device.

“12. The system of claim 10, wherein, the computer-executable instructions, when executed via the one or more processors, further cause the system to determine, via the one or more processors, a cause of the abnormal electrical activity.

“13. The system of claim 10, wherein the abnormal electrical activity is detected at a second period of electrical activity monitoring subsequent to the first period of time.

“14. The system of claim 10, wherein to initiate the one or more corrective actions includes to: generate, via the one or more processors, an electronic or virtual message indicating the abnormal electrical activity, and transmit, via the one or more processors, the electronic or virtual message to a computing device of a party associated with the structure.

“15. The system of claim 10, wherein to identify the abnormal electrical activity includes to identify a failing or faulty electric device of the one or more electric devices.

“16. The system of claim 10, wherein to initiate the one or more corrective actions includes to automatically de-energize one or more electric devices of the one or more electric devices.

“17. The system of claim 10, wherein to initiate the one or more corrective actions include to notify, via the one or more processors, an emergency response entity in response to the abnormal electrical activity.

“18. The system of claim 10, wherein to initiate the one or more corrective actions include to open, via the one or more processors, one or more circuit breakers of the structure.

“19. The system of claim 10, wherein to wirelessly monitor the electrical activity comprises to wirelessly monitor at least one of (i) a time at which the electricity was transmitted to the respective electric devices, (ii) a duration for which the electricity was transmitted to the respective electric devices, and (iii) a magnitude of the electric current in the transmission of electricity to the respective electric devices.”

For more information, see this patent: Kawakita, Christopher N. Systems and methods for utilizing electricity monitoring devices to mitigate or prevent structural damage. U.S. Patent Number 11451043, filed June 16, 2017, and published online on September 20, 2022. 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=11451043.PN.&OS=PN/11451043RS=PN/11451043

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