Patent Issued for Virtual Home Inspection (USPTO 10,360,634)

2019 AUG 05 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent by the inventor Lekas, Stephen Nicholas (San Francisco, CA), filed on July 14, 2014, was published online on August 5, 2019, according to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx correspondents.

Patent number 10,360,634 is assigned to Esurance Insurance Services Inc. (San Francisco, California, United States).

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Field

“The present disclosure generally relates to insurance services, and more particularly to property inspection for property insurance.

“Description of the Related Art

“The homeowners insurance industry uses certified property inspectors to provide property inspection data. The property inspection data provides risk characteristic information to an insurance carrier to be used by the insurance carrier in rating and underwriting a property’s insurance policy. The cost of having the certified property inspector sent to the property is often passed along to the consumer purchasing the insurance policy.”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventor’s summary information for this patent: “In certain embodiments, a method is provided for facilitating virtual inspection of an insurable area. The method includes the steps of receiving an indication of a request from a user at a user mobile device to perform a virtual inspection of an insurable area, determining one or more information items needed with respect to the insurable area, providing a set of instructions to the user at the mobile device for capturing one or more image items based on the determined one or more information items, receiving a set of image items from the mobile device in response to the instructions and providing an insurance decision for the insurable area based on the received set of image items.

“In certain embodiments, a system for facilitating a virtual inspection of an insurable area is provided. The system includes a client application installed at a user mobile device and a server for hosting the client application. In certain embodiments, the server includes one or more processors and a machine-readable medium including instructions stored therein, which when executed by the processors, cause the processors to perform operations. The operations include receiving a request from the mobile device to perform a virtual inspection of an insurable area, determining one or more information items needed with respect to the insurable area, providing a set of instructions to the user at the mobile device for capturing one or more image items based on the determined one or more information items, receiving a set of image items from the mobile device in response to the instructions, analyzing the set of image items and extracting at least one of the one or more information items from the set of image items.

“In certain embodiments, a non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon for execution by a processor to perform a method for facilitating a virtual inspection of an insurable area is provided. The method may include the steps of receiving an indication of a request from a user at a user mobile device to perform a virtual inspection of an insurable area, determining one or more information items needed with respect to the insurable area, providing a set of instructions to the user at the mobile device for capturing one or more image items based on the determined one or more information items, the instructions identifying a list of areas of the insurable area, receiving a set of image items from the mobile device in response to the instructions, the set of image items providing images from one or more of the list of areas of the insurable area and providing an insurance decision for the insurable area based on the received set of image items.

“It is understood that other configurations of the subject technology will become readily apparent from the following detailed description, where various configurations of the subject technology are shown and described by way of illustration. As will be realized, the subject technology is capable of other and different configurations and its several details are capable of modification in various other respects, all without departing from the scope of the subject technology. Accordingly, the drawings and detailed description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature and not as restrictive.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“What is claimed is:

“1. A method for facilitating a virtual inspection of an insurable area, the method comprising: receiving, at a remote server, an indication of a request selected via a first graphical user interface presented at a user mobile device including a downloaded application, the indication received from a user at the user mobile device including the downloaded application configured to perform the virtual inspection of the insurable area; determining, at the remote server, one or more information items needed for making an insurance decision with respect to the insurable area, the one or more information items comprising information for at least two rooms associated with the insurable area; when a live agent is available, then providing, by the remote server, a live communication session via a first wireless channel between the live agent coupled to the remote server and the user via the user mobile device, the live communication session comprising communicated instructions from the live agent to the user for capturing, by a camera at the user mobile device, one or more video image items for the at least two rooms based on the determined one or more information items; when a live agent is not available, then providing, by the remote server, a set of visual instructions to the user mobile device via a second wireless channel, the set of visual instructions triggering, at the user mobile device including the downloaded application, display for the user a second graphical user interface presenting the set of visual instructions for capturing, by the camera at the user mobile device, the one or more video image items for the at least two rooms based on the determined one or more information items, the set of visual instructions comprising an identification of the at least two rooms for which the one or more video image items for the at least two rooms are to be captured; receiving, by the remote server, the one or more video image items from the user mobile device in response to the instructions; determining, by the remote server, a location associated with the user mobile device and/or associated with a geotag associated with the one or more video image items; validating, by the remote server, that the virtual inspection is associated with the insurable area by comparing the location with location information associated with the insurable area; and providing, by the remote server, the insurance decision for the insurable area based on the received one or more video image items, wherein a set of existing information provided regarding the insurable area is validated automatically based on information extracted from the set of video image items.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the one or more information items is performed by: accessing the set of existing information provided regarding the insurable area; and identifying the one or more information items, wherein the one or more information items provide additional information needed to verify or complete the existing information.

“3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: analyzing the set of video image items; and extracting at least the information from the set of video image items.

“4. The method of claim 3, wherein the information includes one or more size or condition information regarding the insurable area.

“5. The method of claim 3, wherein the information includes information regarding belongings or personal property in the insurable area.

“6. The method of claim 3, wherein generating the insurance decision comprises generating the insurance decision at least in part based on the information.

“7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: establishing the live communication session with a connection to the live agent in response to receiving the indication of the request.

“8. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of video image items further comprise data includes a plurality of still image items.

“9. The method of claim 8, further comprising: validating that each video image item or still image item of the plurality of video image items is associated with the insurable area by: determining a location from a geotag associated with the video image item or still image item; and comparing the location with a location associated with the insurable area.

“10. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the indication of a request comprises detecting that the user has accessed an application at the user mobile device.

“11. The method of claim 1, wherein the insurable area includes an improvement to real property.

“12. A system for facilitating a virtual inspection of an insurable area, the system comprising: a downloaded application installed at a user mobile device; and a remote server, the server comprising at least one processor including program code which when executed causes operations comprising: receiving, at a remote server, an indication of a request selected via a first graphical user interface presented at a user mobile device including a downloaded application, the indication received from a user at the user mobile device including the downloaded application configured to perform the virtual inspection of the insurable area; determining, at the remote server, one or more information items needed for making an insurance decision with respect to the insurable area, the one or more information items comprising information for at least two rooms associated with the insurable area; when a live agent is available, then providing, by the remote server, a live communication session via a first wireless channel between the live agent coupled to the remote server and the user via the user mobile device, the live communication session comprising communicated instructions from the live agent to the user for capturing, by a camera at the user mobile device, one or more video image items for the at least two rooms based on the determined one or more information items; when a live agent is not available, then providing, by the remote server, a set of visual instructions to the user mobile device via a second wireless channel, the set of visual instructions triggering, at the user mobile device including the downloaded application, display for the user a second graphical user interface presenting the set of visual instructions for capturing, by the camera at the user mobile device, the one or more video image items for the at least two rooms based on the determined one or more information items, the set of visual instructions comprising an identification of the at least two rooms for which the one or more video image items for the at least two rooms are to be captured; receiving, by the remote server, the one or more video image items from the user mobile device in response to the instructions; determining, by the remote server, a location associated with the user mobile device and/or associated with a geotag associated with the one or more video image items; validating, by the remote server, that the virtual inspection is associated with the insurable area by comparing the location with location information associated with the insurable area; and providing, by the remote server, the insurance decision for the insurable area based on the received one or more video image items, wherein a set of existing information provided regarding the insurable area is validated automatically based on information extracted from the set of video image items.

“13. The system of claim 12, the operations further comprising: providing the insurance decision for the insurable area based on the at least one of the one or more information items.

“14. The system of claim 12, wherein the set of video image items further comprise data includes one or more of videos or still image items.

“15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium including program code which when executed by at least one processor causes operations comprising: receiving, at a remote server, an indication of a request selected via a first graphical user interface presented at a user mobile device including a downloaded application, the indication received from a user at the user mobile device including the downloaded application configured to perform the virtual inspection of the insurable area; determining, at the remote server, one or more information items needed for making an insurance decision with respect to the insurable area, the one or more information items comprising information for at least two rooms associated with the insurable area; when a live agent is available, then providing, by the remote server, a live communication session via a first wireless channel between the live agent coupled to the remote server and the user via the user mobile device, the live communication session comprising communicated instructions from the live agent to the user for capturing, by a camera at the user mobile device, one or more video image items for the at least two rooms based on the determined one or more information items; when a live agent is not available, then providing, by the remote server, a set of visual instructions to the user mobile device via a second wireless channel, the set of visual instructions triggering, at the user mobile device including the downloaded application, display for the user a second graphical user interface presenting the set of visual instructions for capturing, by the camera at the user mobile device, the one or more video image items for the at least two rooms based on the determined one or more information items, the set of visual instructions comprising an identification of the at least two rooms for which the one or more video image items for the at least two rooms are to be captured; receiving, by the remote server, the one or more video image items from the user mobile device in response to the instructions; determining, by the remote server, a location associated with the user mobile device and/or, associated with a geotag associated with the one or more video image items; validating, by the remote server, that the virtual inspection is associated with the insurable area by comparing the location with location information associated with the insurable area; and providing, by the remote server, the insurance decision for the insurable area based on the received one or more video image items, wherein a set of existing information provided regarding the insurable area is validated automatically based on information extracted from the set of video image items.

“16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, the method further including the steps of: analyzing the set of video image items; and extracting at least the information from the set of video image items.

“17. A method for facilitating a virtual inspection of an insurable area, the method comprising: receiving, at a remote server, an indication of a request selected via a first graphical user interface presented at a user mobile device including a downloaded application, the indication received from a user at the user mobile device including the downloaded application configured to perform the virtual inspection of the insurable area; determining, at the remote server, one or more information items needed with respect to the insurable area; providing, by the remote server, a set of instructions via a wireless channel to the user at the mobile device for capturing one or more image items based on the determined one or more information items, the set of instruction triggering when received the user mobile device including the downloaded application to display a second graphical user interface including the set of instructions; receiving, by the remote server, the one or more image items from the mobile device in response to the instructions; determining, by the remote server, a location associated with the user mobile device and/or associated with a geotag for the one or more video image items; validating, by the remote server, that the virtual inspection is associated with the insurable area by comparing the location with a location associated with the insurable area; and providing, by the remote server, an insurance decision for the insurable area based on the received one or more image items, wherein a set of existing information provided regarding the insurable area is validated automatically based on the location of the mobile device or from the geotag associated with the one or more image items.”

URL and more information on this patent, see: Lekas, Stephen Nicholas. Virtual Home Inspection. U.S. Patent Number 10,360,634, filed July 14, 2014, and published online on August 5, 2019. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=10,360,634.PN.&OS=PN/10,360,634RS=PN/10,360,634

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