Patent Issued for Techniques to visualize and gamify risk management services (USPTO 11763392): United Services Automobile Association

2023 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 Fernandez, Jr., Jaime (San Antonio, TX, US), Osborne, Shane C. (Marion, TX, US), filed on June 24, 2021, was published online on September 19, 2023.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 11763392, is United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Today, various types of risk management services (e.g., insurance services and the like) use a variety of platforms to reach an ever-increasing customer base. In particular, risk management services leverage the power and reach of networks such as the Internet and provide an environment to advertise, solicit, send information regarding various services, and otherwise provide access to manage risk management services for respective policy holders.

“However, in leveraging the power and reach of networks, the environments created are often poorly designed, overly complex, and generally cumbersome to a user. For example, in certain instances, the environments are modeled to mimic traditional in-person brick and mortar experiences. Moreover, the next generation (and even some of the current generation) of prospective policy holders typically use the Internet (e.g., to communicate using social media, for entertainment such as applications, video games, etc., and the like) in significantly a different manner than traditional in-person communication (e.g., conventional brick and mortar establishments). Accordingly, modeling environments after traditional brick and mortar experiences often fails to relate or otherwise engage various policy holders.

“Although attempts have been made to date to simplify the experience for existing and prospective policy holders, a need still remains for techniques that dynamically engage both existing policy holders and prospective policy holders and also balance relatable interfaces and visualizations. The present disclosure provides techniques that achieve these needs.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The present disclosure provides dynamically engaging environments and relatable interfaces and visualizations for risk management services to prospective and existing policy holders. Such techniques particularly visualize and gamify risk management services.

“In one embodiment of the subject disclosure, a risk management services environment includes techniques for gamifying risk management services. In particular, a risk management server (e.g., server node(s) in a distributed processing system) associates an initial financial status of a user (e.g., a net worth, a total value of assets, a financial stock portfolio value, a bank account value, a mortgage value, a debt value, an emergency fund value, a credit value, etc.) with a defensible position display element in a gameplay scenario (e.g., a house, a building, a structure, a castle, a fortress, a fortified structure, a structure having a size correlating to the financial status of the user, etc.). The risk management server further receives risk management data regarding at least one initial risk management service (e.g., an insurance service, automobile insurance, vehicle insurance, home owners insurance, rental insurance, an emergency fund, health insurance, life insurance, term insurance, property insurance, umbrella insurance, etc.) secured by the user. The risk management server also associates the risk management service with at least one defensive display element in the gameplay scenario (e.g., a wall, a bridge, a moat, a barricade, a body of water, an obstacle, and one or more guards, a turret, a defensive weapon, a structure that fortifies and/or protects the defensible position display element, etc.) and provides the defensible position display element and each defensive display element to a display to cause the display to visualize the defensible position display element protected by each defensive display element in the gameplay scenario. The risk management server, in certain embodiments, receives a request to execute a financial impact scenario, which can include, for example, a fire, an auto accident, a car repair, a medical bill, a newborn, a death, a lawsuit, long term care, a natural disaster, and the like. Once received, the risk management server evaluates each one financial impact scenario against the initial risk management service and the initial financial status in the gameplay scenario to yield a resultant risk management service and a resultant financial status, respectively. The risk management server further modifies each defensive display element by the resultant risk management service to yield at least one modified defensive display element in the gameplay scenario and modifies the defensible position display element by the resultant financial status to yield a modified defensible position display element in the gameplay scenario. Each modified defensive display element and the modified defensible position display element is provided, by the risk management server, to a display to cause the display to visualize each modified defensive display element (e.g., in a reduced protection state, in a damaged state, etc.) and the defensible position display element (e.g., in a reduced protection state, in a damaged state, etc.), respectively, in the gameplay scenario.

“In certain other embodiments, the risk management server also determines a risk management change between the initial risk management service and the resultant risk management service and determines a financial status change between the initial financial status and the resultant financial status. In these certain other embodiments, the risk management server associates the risk management change and the financial status change with a game play time period. The risk management server further iteratively modifies each defensive position display element by the risk management change according to the game play time period and iteratively modifies the defensible position display element by the financial status change according to the game play time period. Such iterative modifications are provided to the display to cause the display to visualize the defensible position display element and each defensive display element as modified during the gameplay scenario dynamically responsive to each one financial impact scenario. For example, the risk management server can determine modifications to each defensible position display element and the defensive display element and provide such modifications to the display to visualize an attack on the at least one of the defensible position display element and the defensive display element, and visualize the modifications to the at least one of the defensible position display element and the defensive display element responsive to the attack.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method for providing a Graphical User Interface (GUI) for gamifying risk management services, the method comprising: associating, by the processor, a defensible position display element associated with a financial status of a user and generating the defensible position display element on the GUI wherein the visual size of the defensible position display element is proportional to the financial status of the user; associating, by the processor, a defensible display element associated with a risk management service of the user and generating the defensible display element on the GUI wherein the visual size of the defensible display element is proportional to a risk mitigation value; visualizing, by the processor, the defensible position display element protected by each defensive display element in the gameplay scenario; receiving, by the processor, a request to execute a financial impact scenario, wherein the financial impact scenario adversely affects the financial status of the user; evaluating, by the processor, at least one financial impact scenario using a Monte Carlo simulation engine against the risk management service and the financial status in the gameplay scenario yielding a resultant risk management service and a resultant financial status, respectively and modifying, by the processor, each defensive display element by the resultant risk management service yielding at least one modified defensive display element in the gameplay scenario displayed on the GUI; executing, by the processor, the financial impact scenario in the gameplay scenario; determining, by the processor, modifications to the at least one defensive display element responsive to the financial impact scenario; and displaying, by the processor, the modified defensive display element in the gameplay scenario and the resulting impact upon the corresponding protected defensible position display element caused by the financial impact scenario dynamically on the GUI to cause the display to visualize each modified defensive display element and the defensible position display element, respectively, in the gameplay scenario.

“2. The method of claim 1, further including: determining, by the processor, modification actions that mitigate the financial impact scenario; modifying, by the processor, the GUI display and visualizing an attack on the defensible position display element and visualizing modifications to the at least the one of the defensible position display element and the defensive display element responsive to the attack; and displaying mitigation against financial impact scenario with indication that the defensive element being protected with the modification actions.

“3. The method of claim 1, further including executing, by the processor, at least one asset purchase scenario by the user in the gameplay scenario including determining and providing modifications to at least one of the defensible position display element and the defensive display element displayed on the GUI resulting from the at least one asset purchase.

“4. The method of claim 2, further including determining and providing indication on the GUI a financial impact to the user resulting from the at least one asset purchase.

“5. The method of claim 1, further including generating, by the processor, the defensible position display element on the GUI wherein the visual size of the defensible position display element is proportional to the financial status of the user.

“6. The method of claim 5, further including generating the at least one defensive display element on the GUI wherein the visual size of the at least one defensive display element is proportional to a risk mitigation value.

“7. The method of claim 1, wherein the financial status of the user is an initial financial status and wherein the risk management service is an initial risk management service.

“8. The method of claim 1 wherein the financial impact scenario includes a fire incident, an auto accident, a car repair, a medical bill, a death, a lawsuit, long term care and natural disaster.

“9. The method of claim 1, further including modifying the display to visualize an attack on the at least the one of the defensible position display element and the defensive display element and visualize the modifications to the at least one of the defensible position display element and the defensive display element responsive to the attack to display mitigation of the financial impact scenario.

“10. The method of claim 1, wherein the risk management data comprises risk management data regarding a plurality of risk management services secured by the user, and wherein, associating the risk management service with at least one defensive display element comprises, associating, by the processor each risk management service with a corresponding defensive display element.

“11. The method of claim 1, wherein the risk management service comprises an insurance service.

“12. The method of claim 1, wherein the risk management service comprises automobile insurance, vehicle insurance, home owners insurance, rental insurance, an emergency fund, health insurance, life insurance, term insurance, property insurance, and umbrella insurance.

“13. The method of claim 1, wherein the financial status of the user comprises at least one of a net worth, a total value of assets, a financial stock portfolio value, a bank account value, a mortgage value, a debt value, an emergency fund value, and a credit value.

“14. The method of claim 1, wherein the defensible position display element comprises at least one of a house, a building, and a structure.

“15. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one defensive display element comprises at least one of a wall, a bridge, a moat, a barricade, a body of water, an obstacle, and one or more guards.

“16. The method of claim 1, wherein the defensible position display element comprises a structure having a size correlating to the financial status of the user.

“17. The method of claim 1, wherein, providing each modified defensive display element to the display comprises providing each modified defensive display element to the display to cause the display to visualize each defensive display element in a reduced protection state in the gameplay scenario.

“18. The method of claim 1, wherein, providing the modified defensible position display element to the display comprises providing the modified defensible position to the display to cause the display to visualize the defensible position display element in a damaged state in the gameplay scenario.

“19. A computer system for providing a Graphical User Interface (GUI) for gamifying risk management services, comprising: a memory configured to store instructions; a processor disposed in communication with said memory, wherein said processor upon execution of the instructions is configured to: associate a defensible position display element associated with a financial status of a user and generate the defensible position display element on the GUI wherein the visual size of the defensible position display element is proportional to the financial status of the user; associate a defensible display element associated with a risk management service of the user and generating the defensible display element on the GUI wherein the visual size of the defensible display element is proportional to a risk mitigation value; visualize the defensible position display element protected by each defensive display element in the gameplay scenario; receive a request to execute a financial impact scenario, wherein the financial impact scenario adversely affects the financial status of the user; evaluate at least one financial impact scenario using a Monte Carlo simulation engine against the risk management service and the financial status in the gameplay scenario yielding a resultant risk management service and a resultant financial status, respectively and modifying, by the processor, each defensive display element by the resultant risk management service yielding at least one modified defensive display element in the gameplay scenario displayed on the GUI; execute the financial impact scenario in the gameplay scenario; determine modifications to the at least one defensive display element responsive to the financial impact scenario; and display the modified defensive display element in the gameplay scenario and the resulting impact upon the corresponding protected defensible position display element caused by the financial impact scenario dynamically on the GUI to cause the display to visualize each modified defensive display element and the defensible position display element, respectively, in the gameplay scenario.

“20. The computer system of claim 19, wherein the processor is further configured to: determine modification actions that mitigate the financial impact scenario; modify the GUI display and visualizing an attack on the defensible position display element and visualizing modifications to the at least the one of the defensible position display element and the defensive display element responsive to the attack; and display mitigation against financial impact scenario with indication that the defensive element being protected with the modification actions.”

For more information, see this patent: Fernandez, Jr., Jaime. Techniques to visualize and gamify risk management services. U.S. Patent Number 11763392, filed June 24, 2021, and published online on September 19, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11763392)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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