Patent Issued for Utilizing credit and informatic data for insurance underwriting purposes (USPTO 11532004): United Services Automobile Association

2023 JAN 11 (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 Allen, Michael J. (San Antonio, TX, US), Devereaux, Ramsey (San Antonio, TX, US), Franck, David S. (San Antonio, TX, US), Healy, Jodi J. (Johns Creek, GA, US), McCaw, Erin (San Antonio, TX, US), Moritz, Karen (Fair Oaks Ranch, TX, US), Norman, Christopher (San Antonio, TX, US), Prasad, Bharat (San Antonio, TX, US), Read, Spencer (Helotes, TX, US), Swain, Kathleen L. (Peoria, AZ, US), Vaith, Eric (San Antonio, TX, US), Wheeler, Daniela (Boerne, TX, US), filed on June 22, 2020, was published online on December 20, 2022.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 11532004, is United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Smart home functionality is a maturing space, but the opportunity for insurance companies remains largely untapped. Currently, there are few useful early warning and loss mitigation systems that actually save costs and time for both the property owner and insurance company alike. For instance, currently, homeowners insurance claim events are detected by the homeowner, who contacts the insurance company to inform them that there has been a loss. However, the loss could be mitigated with automated warning and detection systems that interface with the insurance company systems. For example, homeowners may not become aware of minor to medium hail damage to their roofs until such time as that damage leads to water damage to the interior or exterior of the home. If they could be made aware of such loss events earlier and then take corrective actions, then the increased damage could have been mitigated or avoided.

“Another maturing space concerns vehicle telematics in which the latest developments in automotive electronics are dealing with the automatic monitoring of the state of a vehicle. Such monitoring is based on the integration of numerous sensors into the vehicle such that important functional parts and components may be monitored. It is becoming of increasing interest to collect a variety of information, regarding different aspects of a vehicle, which may have different applications depending on their usage. The use of telematics in automobiles has become more common in recent years, particularly as implemented with in-car navigation systems.

“Finally, another maturing area relates to the use of credit information, such as a credit score or credit history, in making underwriting, pricing or other decisions about the terms and conditions on which to offer or provide insurance coverage. Such use involves modeling and making determinations as to whether there is a correlation between a person’s credit information and the person’s risk profile (which may affects the person’s insurance rates).

“In this regard, there is utility and functionality to be provided by utilizing smart home and vehicle telematics data with credit information, as factors in formulating the terms of an insurance policy to be issued or offered.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The purpose and advantages of the below described illustrated embodiments will be set forth in and apparent from the description that follows. Additional advantages of the illustrated embodiments will be realized and attained by the devices, systems and methods particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof, as well as from the appended drawings.

“To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the illustrated embodiments, in one aspect, a computer device and method for processing risk or loss related data to determine insurance underwriting, pricing, or other decisions contingent upon informatic and credit score data is provided. An insurance underwriting decision is identified which is to be rendered regarding an insured. Informatic data is received from one or more of an insured property and vehicle associated with the insured. Credit score data relating to the insured is also received. Analytics is performed on the received informatic data and credit score data to determine the insurance underwriting, pricing, or other decision.

“In another aspect, numerous sensors may be installed in a vehicle in order to measure and/or record a variety of information, regarding different aspects of the vehicle. For example, the sensors may record information such as movements, status and behavior of a vehicle, or any other factors. The information captured by the vehicle telematics may be utilized, for example, to ensure that the premiums policyholders are paying are reflective of their driving style and the way their vehicle is used. In another aspect, a determination is made as to whether the received credit score data is to be utilized to determine the insurance underwriting, pricing, or other decision. In yet another aspect, a weighted value for the received credit score data is determined to be utilized to determine the insurance underwriting, pricing, or other decision.

“This summary section is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described subsequently in the detailed description section. This summary section is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A system comprising: one or more sensors configured to generate sensor data representative of characteristics of a property, wherein the one or more sensors comprise a plurality of motion sensors; and an analysis server, configured to: receive sensor data, wherein the sensor data comprises motion sensor data comprising an indication of detected movement of people within a range of the plurality of motion sensors; identify a consistent steady state of activity patterns with respect to the property, by: aggregating the sensor data from the plurality of motion sensors; and estimating inhabitant activities comprising at least one of: expected bedtime, expected rise time, expected naptime, and a sleep latency, wherein the inhabitant activities define the consistent steady state of activity patterns with respect to the property; determine an indication that indicates whether the property has been used as a habitat using the sensor data, by: identifying activity patterns of the property at particular times, based upon the motion sensor data; when the activity patterns include spikes in the movement of people, frenetic changes in the movement of people, or a combination thereof, which cause the activity patterns to fall out of the consistent steady state of activity patterns with respect to the property, determining that the property is not being used as a habitat; and otherwise, when the activity patterns do not include spikes in the movement of people, frenetic changes in the movement of people, or both and instead are within the consistent steady state of activity patterns with respect to the property, determining that the property is being used as a habitat; determine one or more suggested insurance coverage modifications for the property based upon the indication; and provide an electronic notification indicating the one or more suggested insurance coverage modifications.

“2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a computing device configured to: provide the aggregated sensor data to the analysis server as an aggregated packet.

“3. The system of claim 2, wherein the computing device is further configured to: pre-process the aggregated sensor data, by filtering the sensor data prior to sending the aggregated sensor data to the analysis server.

“4. The system of claim 1, wherein the analysis server is further configured to: determine a second indication whether appliances of the property have been maintained using the sensor data; and determine the one or more suggested insurance coverage modifications for the property based in part upon the second indication.

“5. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more sensors comprise a temperature sensor, and wherein the analysis server is configured to: determine, from the sensor data, one or more temperatures of the property; determine a second indication of whether the property has been climate controlled in a prescribed manner based upon the one or more temperatures of the property; and determine the one or more suggested insurance coverage modifications for the property based in part upon the second indication.

“6. The system of claim 1, wherein the analysis server is further configured to: modify a maintenance score based upon whether the property has been used as a habitat.

“7. The system of claim 1, wherein the analysis server is further configured to: determine whether the property has been repaired with a prescribed promptness; and update a maintenance score based upon whether the property has been repaired with the prescribed promptness.

“8. A tangible, non-transitory, machine-readable medium, comprising machine-readable instructions, that when executed by one or more processors, cause a machine to: receive sensor data generated from a plurality of motion sensors configured to generate the sensor data, wherein the sensor data is representative of characteristics of a property, wherein the sensor data comprises motion sensor data comprising an indication of detected movement of people within the range of the plurality of motion sensors; identify a consistent steady state of activity patterns with respect to the property, by: aggregating the sensor data from the plurality of motion sensors; and estimating inhabitant activities comprising at least one of: expected bedtime, expected rise time, expected naptime, and a sleep latency, wherein the inhabitant activities define the consistent steady state of activity patterns with respect to the property; determine an indication that indicates whether the property has been used as a habitat using the sensor data, by: identifying activity patterns of the property at particular times, based upon the motion sensor data; when the activity patterns include spikes in the movement of people, frenetic changes in the movement of people, or a combination thereof, which cause the activity patterns to fall out of the consistent steady state of activity patterns with respect to the property, determining that the property is not being used as a habitat; and otherwise, when the activity patterns do not include spikes in the movement of people, frenetic changes in the movement of people, or both and instead are within the consistent steady state of activity patterns with respect to the property, determining that the property is being used as a habitat; determine one or more suggested insurance coverage modifications for the property based upon the indication; and provide an electronic notification indicating the one or more suggested insurance coverage modifications.

“9. The machine-readable medium of claim 8, comprising machine-readable instructions that when executed by the one or more processors, cause the machine to: determine one or more temperatures of the property from the sensor data, wherein the sensor data further comprises temperature sensor data; determine a second indication of whether the property has been climate controlled in a prescribed manner based upon the one or more temperatures of the property; and determine the one or more suggested insurance coverage modifications for the property based in part upon the second indication.

“10. The machine-readable medium of claim 8, comprising machine-readable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the machine to: determine a second indication of whether appliances of the property have been maintained using the sensor data; and determine the one or more suggested insurance coverage modifications for the property based in part upon the second indication.

“11. The machine-readable medium of claim 8, comprising machine-readable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the machine to: receive the sensor data in an aggregated form, as aggregated sensor data packets.

“12. The machine-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the aggregated sensor data packets comprise pre-processed aggregated sensor data from a plurality of sensors, filtered using a predetermined condition.

“13. The machine-readable medium of claim 8, comprising machine-readable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the machine to: determine whether the property has been repaired with a prescribed promptness; and update a maintenance score based upon whether the property has been repaired with the prescribed promptness.

“14. A computer-implemented method, comprising: receiving sensor data generated from a plurality of motion sensors configured to generate the sensor data, wherein the sensor data is representative of characteristics of a property and comprises an indication of detected movement of people within the range of the plurality of motion sensors; identifying a consistent steady state of activity patterns with respect to the property, by: aggregating the sensor data from the plurality of motion sensors; and estimating inhabitant activities comprising at least one of: expected bedtime, expected rise time, expected naptime, and a sleep latency, wherein the inhabitant activities define the consistent steady state of activity patterns with respect to the property; determining an indication that indicates whether the property has been used as a habitat using the sensor data, by: identifying activity patterns of the property at particular times, based upon the sensor data; when the activity patterns include spikes in the movement of people, frenetic changes in the movement of people, or a combination thereof, which cause the activity patterns to fall out of the consistent steady state of activity patterns with respect to the property, determining that the property is not being used as a habitat; and otherwise, when the activity patterns do not include spikes in the movement of people, frenetic changes in the movement of people, or both and instead are within the consistent steady state of activity patterns with respect to the property, determining that the property is being used as a habitat; determining one or more suggested insurance coverage modifications for the property based upon the indication; and providing an electronic notification indicating the one or more suggested insurance coverage modifications.

“15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, comprising: determining one or more temperatures of the property from the sensor data, wherein the sensor data comprises temperature sensor data; determining a second indication of whether the property has been climate controlled in a prescribed manner based upon the one or more temperatures of the property; and determining the one or more suggested insurance coverage modifications for the property based in part upon the second indication.”

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

For more information, see this patent: Allen, Michael J. Utilizing credit and informatic data for insurance underwriting purposes. U.S. Patent Number 11532004, filed June 22, 2020, and published online on December 20, 2022. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11532004)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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