Patent Issued for Systems and methods for utilizing electricity monitoring devices to reconstruct an electrical event (USPTO 11861716): State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company

2024 JAN 23 (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 June 16, 2017, was published online on January 2, 2024, according to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx correspondents.

Patent number 11861716 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 reconstructing an event associated with damage to a structure, the method comprising: monitoring, via an electricity monitoring device positioned in vicinity of an electrical distribution board of the structure, electrical activity about the structure by wirelessly detecting an electricity flow to a plurality of electric devices that are coupled to the electrical distribution board; identifying, by the electricity monitoring device, each electric device of the plurality of electric devices using the detected electricity flow based upon an electrical signature unique to each respective electric device; correlating, via one or more processors, the electrical activity with respective electric devices of the plurality of electric devices, based upon the electrical signature unique to each respective electric device; building, via 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; receiving, via the one or more processors, an indication of an insurance claim associated with claimed damage to the structure; identifying, via the one or more processors, a subset of the electrical activity to reconstruct electrical events around a time at which the claimed damage is claimed to have occurred; reconstructing, via the one or more processors, a series of electrical events around the time at which the claimed damage is claimed to have occurred using the subset of the electrical activity; comparing, via the one or more processors, the subset of the electrical activity with the structure electrical profile to determine whether the claimed damage occurred involuntarily or voluntarily; and processing, via the one or more processors, the insurance claim in response to determining that the claimed damage occurred involuntarily; wherein comparing the subset of the electrical activity with the structure electrical profile includes comparing an occupancy of the structure indicated by the subset of the electrical activity to an expected occupancy of the structure indicated by the structure electrical profile.

“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 comparing the subset of the electrical activity with the structure electrical profile includes comparing operation of a particular device of the plurality of electric devices indicated by the subset of the electrical activity to an expected operation of the particular device indicated by the structure electrical profile.

“5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the claimed damage includes a fire, and wherein determining whether the claimed damage occurred involuntarily or voluntarily includes determining whether the fire was caused by arson.

“6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the claimed damage to the structure includes claimed damage to one or more devices of the plurality of electric devices about the structure.

“7. A system configured to reconstruct an event associated with damage to a structure, the system comprising: an electricity monitoring device positioned in vicinity of an electrical distribution board of the structure; 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, via the electricity monitoring device, electrical activity about the structure by wirelessly detecting an electricity flow to a plurality of electric devices that are coupled to the electrical distribution board; identify, by the electricity monitoring device, each electric device of the plurality of electric devices using the detected electricity flow based upon an electrical signature unique to each respective electric device; correlate, via the one or more processors, the electrical activity with respective electric devices of the plurality of electric devices, based upon the electrical signature unique to each respective electric device; build, via 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; receive, via the one or more processors, an indication of an insurance claim associated with claimed damage to the structure; identify, via the one or more processors, a subset of the electrical activity to reconstruct electrical events when the claimed damage is claimed to have occurred; reconstruct, via the one or more processors, a series of electrical events around when the claimed damage is claimed to have occurred using the subset of the electrical activity; compare, via the one or more processors, the subset of the electrical activity with the structure electrical profile to determine whether the claimed damage occurred involuntarily or voluntarily; and process, via the one or more processors, the insurance claim in response to determining that the claimed damage occurred involuntarily; wherein comparing the subset of the electrical activity with the structure electrical profile includes comparing an occupancy of the structure indicated by the subset of the electrical activity to an expected occupancy of the structure indicated by the structure electrical profile.

“8. The system of claim 7, wherein the one or more processors include one or more processors of the electricity monitoring device.

“9. The system of claim 7, wherein the structure is a home.

“10. The system of claim 7, wherein comparing the subset of the electrical activity with the structure electrical profile includes comparing operation of a particular device of the plurality of electric devices indicated by the subset of the electrical activity to an expected operation of the particular device indicated by the structure electrical profile.

“11. The system of claim 7, wherein the claimed damage includes a fire, and wherein determining whether the claimed damage occurred involuntarily or voluntarily includes determining whether the fire was caused by arson.

“12. The system of claim 7, wherein the claimed damage to the structure includes claimed damage to one or more devices of the plurality of electric devices about the structure.

“13. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the claimed damage occurred involuntarily or voluntarily includes determining whether the subset of electrical activity exhibited voluntary tampering of any of the plurality of electrical devices.

“14. The system of claim 7, wherein determining whether the claimed damage occurred involuntarily or voluntarily includes determining whether the subset of electrical activity exhibited voluntary tampering of any of the plurality of electrical devices.”

URL and more information on this patent, see: Kawakita, Christopher N. Systems and methods for utilizing electricity monitoring devices to reconstruct an electrical event. U.S. Patent Number 11861716, filed June 16, 2017, and published online on January 2, 2024. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11861716)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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