Patent Issued for Virtual collaboration (USPTO 11625790): Allstate Insurance Company

2023 APR 27 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent by the inventors Beavers, Sean (Morton Grove, IL, US), Gutsell, Christopher Paul (Gurnee, IL, US), Kelsh, John P. (Antioch, IL, US), Lewis, Cheryl (Libertyville, IL, US), Striebich, Margaret K. (Chicago, IL, US), filed on April 14, 2020, was published online on April 11, 2023, according to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx correspondents.

Patent number 11625790 is assigned to Allstate Insurance Company (Northbrook, Illinois, United States).

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: “When an insurance claim is filed to cover damage to insured property, the property owner often has the damage appraised by a claims adjuster who can determine an appropriate estimate of compensation to the owner.

“However, making the property available for the adjuster’s appraisal can be inefficient and time-costly. Either the property must be conveyed to the other’s location or vice versa, and a mutually agreeable time for the appraisal must be determined beforehand.

“Traditional customer service systems may allow contact between claims adjusters and owners without travel or making appointments, but telephonic communication is virtually useless for allowing an accurate appraisal by remote means. Sending pictures is similarly deficient, especially if the owner does not understand how best to portray the damage.”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The following presents a simplified summary in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the disclosure. The summary is not an extensive overview of the disclosure. It is neither intended to identify key or critical elements of the disclosure nor to delineate the scope of the disclosure. The following summary merely presents some concepts of the disclosure in a simplified form as a prelude to the description below.

“Aspects of the disclosure relate to methods, computer-readable media, and apparatuses for providing two-way audiovisual communication between a property owner and a claims adjuster, using a camera and microphone of a mobile computing device of the property owner and a camera and microphone of a computer of the adjuster remote from the property owner.

“Claims adjusters may be organized in a queue ranked by amount of time spent waiting to answer an owner’s call. Upon an owner’s calling in, an adjuster may be selected, and may be able to use one or more cameras of the owner’s mobile computing device to view and appraise property. The adjuster may converse with the owner to ask questions or instruct the owner to change camera angles, and at the conclusion of the call, may cause the owner to be compensated for damage to the property or may dispatch an appraiser to the property based on infeasibility of thorough or accurate remote examination.

“Managers may be able to watch over the queue and to manage individual adjusters by modifying their attributes in order to keep the queue balanced with demand for adjusters appropriate to the distribution of owners currently calling.

“Other features and advantages of the disclosure will be apparent from the additional description provided herein.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method, comprising: assigning, by a virtual collaboration server, to a queue, a plurality of claims adjusters, wherein the plurality of claims adjusters comprises at least a first claims adjuster and a second claims adjuster wherein each of the plurality of claims adjusters having at least one attribute associated therewith, and the at least one attribute comprises a skill type, wherein the skill type of the at least one attribute of the first claims adjuster is a first skill and wherein the skill type of the at least one attribute of the second claims adjuster is a second skill; determining, by the virtual collaboration server, a first wait time associated with the first claims adjuster of the plurality of claims adjusters, and a second wait time associated with the second claims adjuster of the plurality of claims adjusters; causing, by the virtual collaboration server, display of: the first wait time, and the second wait time; receiving, from a property owner mobile computing device comprising a camera, a microphone, and a speaker, and by the virtual collaboration server, a request to initiate a communication session, wherein the request is associated with the second skill; retrieving, by the virtual collaboration server, after receiving the request, based on first wait time exceeding the second wait time, an instruction to modify the skill type of the at least one attribute associated with the first claims adjuster from the first skill to the second skill; based on the retrieved instructions, modifying, by the virtual collaboration server, the at least one attribute associated with the first claims adjuster from the first skill to the second skill; selecting, by the virtual collaboration server and based on the request being associated with the second skill, a computing device associated with the first claims adjuster; transmitting, by the virtual collaboration server and to the computing device of the first claims adjuster, the request to initiate the communication session; responsive to receiving an indication that the first claims adjuster has accepted the request to initiate the communication session, transmitting video and audio bidirectionally between the mobile computing device and the computing device of the first claims adjuster, wherein the video comprises video of damaged property for evaluation; based at least in part on the transmitted video and audio, determining an amount of compensation to provide to an owner of the damaged property; and transferring the determined amount of compensation for the damaged property displayed within the video to the owner of the damaged property.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second skill comprises an automotive claim type.

“3. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of claims adjusters have a status which indicates an availability of each of the plurality of claims adjusters.

“4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: prior to transferring compensation, transmitting, by the virtual collaboration server, to a computing device of another claims adjuster in a location remote from the first claims adjuster, instructions to physically inspect the damaged property.

“5. The method of claim 1, wherein the selection of the computing device associated with the at least one claims adjuster is further based on one or more statistics concerning previous calls of the first claims adjuster.

“6. The method of claim 1, wherein the selection of the computing device associated with the first claims adjuster is further based on an experience level of the first claims adjuster.

“7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: subsequent to transmitting, by the virtual collaboration server, video and audio bidirectionally between the mobile computing device and the computing device of the first claims adjuster, terminating transmission, selecting a second computing device associated with a second claims adjuster from the plurality of claims adjusters, and transmitting video and audio bidirectionally between the mobile computing device and the second computing device associated with the second claims adjuster.

“8. A system, comprising: a virtual collaboration server; and a first computing device comprising a microphone and a camera and associated with a first claims adjuster of a plurality of claims adjusters, wherein the virtual collaboration server has memory containing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the virtual collaboration sever to: assign to a queue, a plurality of claims adjusters, wherein the plurality of claims adjusters comprises at least a first claims adjuster and a second claims adjuster, wherein each of the plurality of claims adjusters has at least one attribute associated therewith, and the at least one attribute comprises a skill type, wherein the skill type of the at least one attribute of the first claims adjuster of the plurality of claims adjuster is a first skill, and wherein the skill type of the at least one attribute of a second claims adjuster is a second skill; determine a first wait time associated with the first claims adjuster of the plurality of claims adjusters, and a second wait time associated with the second claims adjuster of the plurality of claims adjusters; cause display of: the first wait time, and the second wait time; receive a request to initiate a communication session, wherein the request is associated with the second skill; retrieve, after receiving the request, based on the first wait time exceeding the second wait time, an instruction to modify the skill type of the attribute associated with the first claims adjuster from the first skill to the second skill; based on the retrieved instructions, modify the skill type of the at least one attribute associated with the first claims adjuster from the first skill to the second skill; select, based on the request being associated with the second skill, the second computing device; transmit, to the second computing device, the request to initiate the communication session; responsive to receiving an indication that the first claims adjuster has accepted the request to initiate the communication session, transmit video and audio bidirectionally to the second computing device, wherein the video comprises video of damaged property for evaluation; based at least in part on the transmitted video and audio, determine an amount of compensation to provide to an owner of the damaged property; and transfer the determined amount of compensation for the damaged property displayed within the video to the owner of the damaged property.

“9. The system of claim 8, wherein the second skill comprises an automotive claim type.

“10. The system of claim 8, wherein the plurality of claims adjuster have a status which indicates an availability of each of the plurality of claims adjusters.

“11. The system of claim 8, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the virtual collaboration server to: prior to transferring compensation, transmit, to another claims adjuster in a location remote from the first claims adjuster, instructions to physically inspect the damaged property.

“12. The system of claim 8, wherein the selection of the second computing device is further based on one or more statistics concerning previous calls of the first claims adjuster.

“13. The system of claim 8, wherein the selection of the second computing device is further based on an experience level of the first claims adjuster.

“14. The system of claim 8, wherein the information further comprises a current call duration of the first claims adjuster.

“15. The system of claim 8, further comprising a property owner mobile computing device communicatively coupled to a camera, a microphone, and a speaker and configured to bidirectionally transmit and receive the video and audio from the first computing device.”

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

URL and more information on this patent, see: Beavers, Sean. Virtual collaboration. U.S. Patent Number 11625790, filed April 14, 2020, and published online on April 11, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11625790)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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