Patent Issued for Systems and methods for utilizing electricity monitoring devices to mitigate or prevent structural damage (USPTO 11769996): State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company

2023 OCT 18 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent by the inventors Kawakita, Christopher N. (Bloomington, IL, US), Olander, Erin Ann (Bloomington, IL, US), Riblet, Jeff (Normal, IL, US), filed on August 15, 2022, was published online on September 26, 2023, according to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx correspondents.

Patent number 11769996 is assigned to State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (Bloomington, Illinois, United States).

The following quote was obtained by the news editors 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 the background information obtained for this patent, NewsRx journalists 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 verifying an electrical event about a structure, the method comprising: wirelessly receiving, by an electricity monitoring device positioned in vicinity of an electrical distribution board of the structure, home telematics data collected from at least one of a smart appliance or a sensor; monitoring, by the electricity monitoring device, electrical activity about the structure by wirelessly detecting an electricity flow 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 based upon an electrical signature unique to each respective electric device; receiving, by the one or more processors, an indication of damage to the structure or to one or more devices of the one or more electric devices and an indication of a cause of the damage; determining whether the indicated damage occurred by analyzing, by the one or more processors, the correlated electrical activity and the home telematics data; and determining, by the one or more processors in response to determining that the indicated damage occurred, whether the indicated cause of the indicated damage is consistent with a cause of the indicated damage as determined via the one or more processors based at least upon the correlated electrical activity and the home telematics data.

“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, wherein the structure is a home.

“4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the indication of damage is an insurance claim, the insurance claim being verified upon determining that the indicated cause of the indicated damage is consistent with the cause of the indicated damage as determined via the one or more processors based at least upon the correlated electrical activity and the home telematics data.

“5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, further comprising processing the insurance claim when the insurance claim is verified, wherein processing the insurance claim includes transmitting a virtual message to a party associated with the structure to initiate a corrective action.

“6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising determining, by the one or more processors, a replacement device to replace at least one of the one or more electric devices; generating, by the one or more processors, a virtual message indicating the replacement device; and transmitting, by the one or more processors, the virtual message to a mobile device of a party associated with the structure.

“7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein wirelessly detecting an electricity flow includes wirelessly monitoring at least one of (i) a time at which the electricity flow was transmitted to the respective electric devices, (ii) a duration for which the electricity flow was transmitted to the respective electric devices, and (iii) a magnitude of an electric current of the electricity flow.

“8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein correlating the electrical activity with the respective electric device comprises: differentiating, by the one or more processors, the electricity flow transmitted to the respective electric devices based upon the electrical signature unique to each respective electric device; and generating, by the one or more processors, data indicative of at least one of a time, a duration, and a magnitude of electricity consumption by the respective electric devices during a period of electrical activity monitoring.

“9. A system configured to verify an electrical event about a structure, the system comprising: one or more processors; and one or more computer memories storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to: wirelessly receive, by an electricity monitoring device positioned in vicinity of an electrical distribution board of the structure, home telematics data collected from at least one of a smart appliance and a sensor; monitor, by the electricity monitoring device, electrical activity about the structure by wirelessly detecting an electricity flow 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, based upon an electrical signature unique to each respective electric device; receive, by the one or more processors, an indication of damage to the structure or to one or more electric devices of the one or more electric devices and an indication of a cause of the damage; determine whether the indicated damage occurred by analyzing, by the one or more processors, the correlated electrical activity and the home telematics data; and determine, by the one or more processors in response to determining that the indicated damage occurred, whether the indicated cause of the indicated damage is consistent with a cause of the indicated damage as determined via the one or more processors based at least upon the correlated electrical activity and the home telematics data.

“10. The system of claim 9, wherein the one or more processors include one or more processors of the electricity monitoring device.

“11. The system of claim 9, wherein the structure is a home.

“12. The system of claim 9, wherein the indication of damage is an insurance claim, the insurance claim being verified upon determining that the indicated cause of the indicated damage is consistent with the cause of the indicated damage as determined via the one or more processors based at least upon the correlated electrical activity and the home telematics data.

“13. The system of claim 12, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the system to process when the insurance claim is verified including transmitting a virtual message to a party associated with the structure to initiate a corrective action.

“14. The system of claim 9, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the system to: determine, by the one or more processors, a replacement device to replace at least one of the one or more electric devices; generate, by the one or more processors, a virtual message indicating the replacement device; and transmit, by the one or more processors, the virtual message to a mobile device of a party associated with the structure.

“15. The system of claim 9, wherein wirelessly detecting the electricity flow to the one or more electric devices includes wirelessly monitoring at least one of (i) a time at which the electricity flow was transmitted to the respective electric devices, (ii) a duration for which the electricity flow was transmitted to the respective electric devices, and (iii) a magnitude of an electric current of the electricity flow.

“16. The system of claim 9, wherein correlating the electrical activity with the respective electric device comprises: differentiating the electricity flow transmitted to the respective electric devices based upon the electrical signature unique to each respective electric device; and generating data indicative of at least one of a time, a duration, and a magnitude of electricity consumption by the respective electric devices during a period of electrical activity monitoring.

“17. A non-transitory computer-readable medium with an executable program stored thereon for verifying an electrical event about a structure, wherein the program instructs a processing element of a computing device to perform the following steps: wirelessly receiving, by an electricity monitoring device positioned in vicinity of an electrical distribution board of the structure, home telematics data collected from at least one of a smart appliance or a sensor; monitoring, by the electricity monitoring device, electrical activity about the structure by wirelessly detecting an electricity flow to one or more electric devices that are coupled to the electrical distribution board; correlating the electrical activity with respective electric devices of the one or more electric devices based upon an electrical signature unique to each respective electric device; receiving an indication of damage to the structure or to one or more devices of the one or more electric devices and an indication of a cause of the damage; determining whether the indicated damage occurred by analyzing the correlated electrical activity and the home telematics data; and determining, in response to determining that the indicated damage occurred, whether the indicated cause of the indicated damage is consistent with a cause of the indicated damage as determined based at least upon the correlated electrical activity and the home telematics data.

“18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the indication of damage is an insurance claim, the insurance claim being verified upon determining that the indicated cause of the indicated damage is consistent with the cause of the indicated damage as determined based at least upon the correlated electrical activity and the home telematics data.

“19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the program further instructs the processing element to process the insurance claim when the insurance claim is verified, wherein processing the insurance claim includes transmitting a virtual message to a party associated with the structure to initiate a corrective action.”

There are additional claims. Please visit full patent to read further.

URL and more information on this patent, see: Kawakita, Christopher N. Systems and methods for utilizing electricity monitoring devices to mitigate or prevent structural damage. U.S. Patent Number 11769996, filed August 15, 2022, and published online on September 26, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11769996)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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