Researchers Submit Patent Application, “Information Control Apparatus, System, Method, And Non-Transitory Computer Readable Medium Storing Program”, for Approval (USPTO 20230260042): NEC Corporation

2023 AUG 01 (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 inventor Kawase, Nobuaki (Tokyo, Japan), filed on June 24, 2020, was made available online on August 17, 2023.

The patent’s assignee is NEC Corporation (Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Various kinds of systems that deal with medical information have been developed.

“In a system disclosed in Patent Literature 1, for example, when non-prescription medical services or products are purchased by a method such as electronic money transaction, a facial recognition system is utilized for verification of the subject’s identity, request, or receipt of the product or service requested.

“In a medical information system disclosed in Patent Literature 2, a medical institution information processing apparatus requires authentication of a patient and a doctor and a home information processing apparatus requires authentication of the patient. Biometric information for identity authentication used here is, for example, biometric identification data for performing authentication by fingerprints. This literature discloses that the biometric information for identity authentication may include, besides the aforementioned data, the patient’s face image.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent application, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventor’s summary information for this patent application: “SUMMARY:

“Technical Problem

“A patient who has received medical treatment in a medical institution pays a medical fee for the medical treatment he/she has received and receives an insurance money from a medical insurance provider with which the patient has a contract. It is assumed that these series of procedures are taken by the patient himself/herself. However, these series of procedures are often complicated. Further, if, for example, a patient is receiving medical treatment for a sudden accident, illness, or the like in a medical institution but does not have an insurance card as he/she was not carrying it at the time the sudden accident, illness, or the like occurred, the burden on the patient of taking the above procedures increases. Also, if the language this patient speaks is different from the language spoken by staff members or the like in the medical institution, it is difficult to take the procedures for obtaining the medical insurance.

“The present disclosure has been made in order to solve the aforementioned problem, and an object of the present disclosure is to provide an information control apparatus, a system, a method, and a program that reduce the burden of taking procedures regarding medical insurance.

“Solution to Problem

“An information control apparatus according to one example embodiment of the present disclosure includes image data acquisition means, authentication control means, user identification information acquisition means, output means, and application means. The image data acquisition means acquires image data including a face image of a user captured by a predetermined image-capturing apparatus. The authentication control means causes an authentication apparatus that stores face feature information of the user to perform facial authentication for image data. The insurance information acquisition means acquires, when the facial authentication has been successful, insurance information related to the facial authentication from a storage apparatus that stores insurance information regarding medical insurance that the user has purchased. The output means outputs the insurance information to a predetermined terminal apparatus that corresponds to the image-capturing apparatus. The certificate information acquisition means acquires, from a medical institution, certificate information of medical treatment that the user has received as a response to the above output. The application means transmits, when the certificate information has been acquired from the medical institution, certificate information to an insurance provider with which the user has a contract.

“In an information control method according to one example embodiment of the present disclosure, a computer performs the following steps. The computer acquires image data including a face image of a user captured by a predetermined image-capturing apparatus. The computer causes an authentication apparatus that stores face feature information of the user to perform facial authentication for the image data. The computer acquires, when the facial authentication has been successful, the insurance information related to the facial authentication from a storage apparatus that stores insurance information regarding medical insurance that the user has purchased. The computer outputs the insurance information to a predetermined terminal apparatus that corresponds to the image-capturing apparatus. The computer acquires, from a medical institution, certificate information of medical treatment that the user has received as a response to the output. The computer transmits, when the certificate information has been acquired from the medical institution, the certificate information to an insurance provider with which the user has a contract.

“A program according to one example embodiment of the present disclosure causes a computer to execute the following steps. The computer acquires image data including a face image of a user captured by a predetermined image-capturing apparatus. The computer causes an authentication apparatus that stores face feature information of the user to perform facial authentication for the image data. The computer acquires, when the facial authentication has been successful, the insurance information related to the facial authentication from a storage apparatus that stores insurance information regarding medical insurance that the user has purchased. The computer outputs the insurance information to a predetermined terminal apparatus that corresponds to the image-capturing apparatus. The computer acquires, from a medical institution, certificate information of medical treatment that the user has received as a response to the output. The computer transmits, when the certificate information has been acquired from the medical institution, the certificate information to the insurance provider with which the user has a contract.

“Advantageous Effects of Invention

“According to the present disclosure, it is possible to provide an information control apparatus, a system, a method, and a program that reduce the burden of taking procedures regarding medical insurance.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. An information control apparatus comprising: at least one memory storing instructions, and at least one processor configured to execute the instructions to; acquire image data including a face image of a user captured by a predetermined image-capturing apparatus; cause an authentication apparatus that stores face feature information of the user to perform facial authentication for the image data; acquire, when the facial authentication has been successful, the insurance information related to the facial authentication from a storage apparatus that stores insurance information regarding medical insurance that the user has purchased; output the insurance information to a predetermined terminal apparatus that corresponds to the image-capturing apparatus; acquire, from a medical institution, certificate information of medical treatment that the user has received as a response to the output; and transmit, when the certificate information has been acquired from the medical institution, the certificate information to an insurance provider with which the user has a contract.

“2. The information control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the insurance information acquired by at least one processor includes the type of the medical insurance purchased by the user and unique identification information on the user in the medical insurance.

“3. The information control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the certificate information acquired by at least one processor includes medical institution identification information.

“4. The information control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the certificate information acquired by at least one processor includes a medical certificate related to the medical treatment.

“5. The information control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the certificate information acquired by at least one processor includes identification information on the user.

“6. The information control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the instruction to transmit a benefit request signal to the insurance provider.

“7. The information control apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the instructions to acquire benefit information of the insurance money from the insurance provider as a response to the benefit request signal, and output the benefit information to the terminal apparatus.

“8. The information control apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the benefit information acquired by at least one processor includes at least one of a notice regarding whether or not the insurance money can be paid, an advance notice that the insurance money will be paid, and a notice that the insurance money has been paid.

“9. The information control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the instruction to notify the insurance provider of, besides the certificate information, account information of a medical institution.

“10. The information control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the instruction to receive, from the user, an instruction for transmitting the certificate information to the insurance provider.

“11. The information control apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the instruction to receive, when there are a plurality of the insurance providers to which the certificate information can be transmitted, an instruction related to a selection of the insurance provider from the user.

“12. The information control apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the instruction to set an order in which the insurance providers are displayed based on the information for the selection at the time of the selection of the insurance provider.

“13. The information control apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the instruction to receive an instruction related to a selection of a method for receiving the insurance money from the insurance provider.

“14. An information control system comprising: the information control apparatus according to claim 1; and a storage apparatus configured to store the user in association with the insurance information.

“15. An information control system comprising: the information control apparatus according to claim 1; and the authentication apparatus that receives the image data from the information control apparatus and performs the facial authentication.

“16. An information control method, wherein a computer performs the following processing of: acquiring image data including a face image of a user captured by a predetermined image-capturing apparatus; causing an authentication apparatus that stores face feature information of the user to perform facial authentication for the image data; acquiring, when the facial authentication has been successful, the insurance information related to the facial authentication from a storage apparatus that stores insurance information regarding medical insurance that the user has purchased; outputting the insurance information to a predetermined terminal apparatus that corresponds to the image-capturing apparatus; acquiring, from a medical institution, certificate information of medical treatment that the user has received as a response to the output; and transmitting, when the certificate information has been acquired from the medical institution, the certificate information to an insurance provider with which the user has a contract.

“17. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing an information control program that causes a computer to execute the following processing of acquiring image data including a face image of a user captured by a predetermined image-capturing apparatus; causing an authentication apparatus that stores face feature information of the user to perform facial authentication for the image data; acquiring, when the facial authentication has been successful, the insurance information related to the facial authentication from a storage apparatus that stores insurance information regarding medical insurance that the user has purchased; outputting the insurance information to a predetermined terminal apparatus that corresponds to the image-capturing apparatus; acquiring, from a medical institution, certificate information of medical treatment that the user has received as a response to the output; and transmitting, when the certificate information has been acquired from the medical institution, the certificate information to an insurance provider with which the user has a contract.”

For additional information on this patent application, see: Kawase, Nobuaki. Information Control Apparatus, System, Method, And Non-Transitory Computer Readable Medium Storing Program. U.S. Patent Application Number 20230260042, filed June 24, 2020 and posted August 17, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(20230260042)&db=US-PGPUB&type=ids

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