Researchers Submit Patent Application, “Bilateral Communication In A Login-Free Environment”, for Approval (USPTO 20230026515): Allstate Insurance Company

2023 FEB 15 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Washington, D.C., NewsRx journalists report that a patent application by the inventors Beavers, Sean Michael (Morton Grove, IL, US); Genc, Steven (Hainesville, IL, US); Gilkison, David (Libertyville, IL, US); Patel, Pinal (Libertyville, IL, US); Zahn, David M. (Lake Villa, IL, US), filed on September 30, 2022, was made available online on January 26, 2023.

The patent’s assignee is Allstate Insurance Company (Northbrook, Illinois, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Traditional customer service systems may allow contact between users without travel or making appointments, but telephonic communication is virtually useless for allowing accurate property evaluation by remote means. Sending pictures is similarly deficient, especially if an owner does not understand how best to portray the property.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent application, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent application: “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 client, who may be an owner of the property being evaluated and an agent, who may be a user of a plurality of users associated with one or more systems or devices evaluating the property. The two-way audiovisual communication may be performed using a camera and microphone of a mobile computing device of the client and a camera and microphone of a computer of the agent remote from the client.

“The plurality of users may be organized in a queue ranked by amount of time spent waiting to answer an owner’s call. When the system receives a client call, the system may automatically route the call to an appropriate queue based on the prioritized ranking. The system may then utilize a camera on the client device to capture images and/or video of property according to the systems and methods described herein. Information gathered from the call may be used in evaluating the property.

“An administrative system may monitor the queue and to manage individual agents by modifying their attributes in order to keep the queue balanced with demand for agents appropriate to the distribution of clients currently calling.

“Calls may be dynamically connected in a login-free environment in order to facilitate data collection for one or more organizations. Methods and systems may facilitate data collection, reconnection in the event of disconnections, and/or call degradation handling in the event of weak or unstable connections.

“Agents may be reassigned using a skill-based approach wherein agents are assigned based on a primary skill, but may be reassigned based on one or more secondary skills if the need arises.

“Photos taken throughout the call process may be analyzed to determine if there are any inconsistencies indicative of fraud.

“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: receiving, by a virtual collaboration server and from a computing device, a request to initiate a communication session regarding a damaged property, wherein the request comprises an indication of a claim type; determining, by the virtual collaboration server, a number of available first agents in a first queue, wherein the first agents have a primary skill indicator associated with the claim type; determining, by the virtual collaboration server, based on the determining that the number of available first agents is below a threshold and based on a secondary skill indicator, one or more second agents assigned to one or more other queues, wherein the one or more second agents are associated with the secondary skill indicator, and wherein the secondary skill indicator is associated with the claim type; reassigning, by the virtual collaboration server and based on the determining the one or more second agents, the one or more second agents from the one or more other queues to the first queue; assigning, by the virtual collaboration server, and from the first agents and the reassigned one or more second agents, an agent to the communication session; and responsive to receiving an indication that the agent has accepted the request to initiate the communication session, transmitting video and audio bidirectionally between the computing device and an additional computing device.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein the request comprises a response to a personalized link, and wherein the personalized link comprises an indication of: an individual associated with the computing device; and the claim type.

“3. The method of claim 1, wherein the request comprises one or more first images of damaged property for evaluation, and further comprising: transmitting the one or more first images of damaged property for storage by a database external to the virtual collaboration server.

“4. The method of claim 3, wherein the video comprises one or more second images of the damaged property for evaluation, and further comprising: transmitting the one or more second images of the damaged property for storage by the database.

“5. The method of claim 4, further comprising determining an instance of fraud based on comparing the one or more first images with the one or more second images.

“6. The method of claim 1, further comprising reducing either agent communication transmission or client communication transmission between the additional computing device and the computing device comprises reducing a bitrate of the transmissions between the additional computing device and the computing device, wherein the bitrate is proportional to a quality of transmission.

“7. The method of claim 1, wherein the request to initiate the communication session regarding the damaged property comprises a request to initiate the communication session using a login-free connection.

“8. An apparatus, comprising: one or more processors; and a memory storing instructions, the instructions when executed by the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to: receive, by a virtual collaboration server and from a computing device, a request to initiate a communication session regarding a damaged property, wherein the request comprises an indication of a claim type; determine, by the virtual collaboration server, a number of available first agents in a first queue, wherein the first agents have a primary skill indicator associated with the claim type; determine, by the virtual collaboration server, based on the determining that the number of available first agents is below a threshold and based on a secondary skill indicator, one or more second agents assigned to one or more other queues, wherein the one or more second agents are associated with the secondary skill indicator, and wherein the secondary skill indicator is associated with the claim type; reassign, by the virtual collaboration server and based on the determining the one or more second agents, the one or more second agents from the one or more other queues to the first queue; assign, by the virtual collaboration server, and from the first agents and the reassigned one or more second agents, an agent to the communication session; and responsive to receiving an indication that the agent has accepted the request to initiate the communication session, transmit video and audio bidirectionally between the computing device and an additional computing device.

“9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the request comprises a response to a personalized link, and wherein the personalized link comprises an indication of: an individual associated with the computing device; and the claim type.

“10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the request comprises one or more first images of damaged property for evaluation, and further comprising: transmitting the one or more first images of damaged property for storage by a database external to the virtual collaboration server.

“11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the video comprises one or more second images of the damaged property for evaluation, and wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to: transmit the one or more second images of the damaged property for storage by the database.

“12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to determine an instance of fraud based on comparing the one or more first images with the one or more second images.

“13. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to reduce either agent communication transmission or client communication transmission between the additional computing device and the computing device by reducing a bitrate of the transmissions between the additional computing device and the computing device, wherein the bitrate is proportional to a quality of transmission.

“14. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the request to initiate the communication session regarding the damaged property comprises a request to initiate the communication session using a login-free connection.

“15. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising computer-executable instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when executed by a processor, configured to perform operations comprising: receiving, by a virtual collaboration server and from a computing device, a request to initiate a communication session regarding a damaged property, wherein the request comprises an indication of a claim type; determining, by the virtual collaboration server, a number of available first agents in a first queue, wherein the first agents have a primary skill indicator associated with the claim type; determining, by the virtual collaboration server, based on the determining that the number of available first agents is below a threshold and based on a secondary skill indicator, one or more second agents assigned to one or more other queues, wherein the one or more second agents are associated with the secondary skill indicator, and wherein the secondary skill indicator is associated with the claim type; reassigning, by the virtual collaboration server and based on the determining the one or more second agents, the one or more second agents from the one or more other queues to the first queue; assigning, by the virtual collaboration server, and from the first agents and the reassigned one or more second agents, an agent to the communication session; and responsive to receiving an indication that the agent has accepted the request to initiate the communication session, transmitting video and audio bidirectionally between the computing device and an additional computing device.

“16. The media of claim 15, wherein the request comprises one or more first images of damaged property for evaluation and one or more second images of the damaged property for evaluation, the operations further comprising: transmitting the one or more first images of damaged property for storage by a database external to the virtual collaboration server.

“17. The media of claim 16, wherein the request comprises the one or more first images of damaged property for evaluation and the one or more second images of the damaged property for evaluation, the operations further comprising: transmitting the one or more second images of the damaged property for storage by the database; and determining an instance of fraud based on comparing the one or more first images with the one or more second images.

“18. The media of claim 15, the operations further comprising: receiving an indication of insufficient connection for the bidirectional transmission; and reducing a bitrate of the transmissions from the computing device until the bitrate is within an available bandwidth for the bidirectional transmission.

“19. The media of claim 15, wherein the request to initiate the communication session regarding the damaged property comprises a request to initiate the communication session using a login-free connection.

“20. The media of claim 15, wherein the request comprises a response to a personalized link, and wherein the personalized link comprises an indication of: an individual associated with the damaged property; and the claim type.”

For additional information on this patent application, see: Beavers, Sean Michael; Genc, Steven; Gilkison, David; Patel, Pinal; Zahn, David M. Bilateral Communication In A Login-Free Environment. U.S. Patent Application Number 20230026515, filed September 30, 2022 and posted January 26, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(20230026515)&db=US-PGPUB&type=ids

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