Researchers Submit Patent Application, “Systems And Methods For Utilizing Electricity Monitoring Devices To Mitigate Or Prevent Structural Damage”, for Approval (USPTO 20230387675): State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company

2023 DEC 18 (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 Kawakita, Christopher N. (Bloomington, IL, US); Olander, Erin Ann (Bloomington, IL, US); Riblet, Jeff (Normal, IL, US), filed on August 15, 2023, was made available online on November 30, 2023.

The patent’s assignee is State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (Bloomington, Illinois, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Conventional homes are subject to electrical fires or other electrical issues that lead to damage to the home, as well as to personal property. Also, with the proliferation of the “internet of things,” more household devices are gaining communication and network connectivity capabilities. Still, conventional homes may remain subject to insurance-related events, such as those caused by electrical issues.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent application, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent application: “The present embodiments may, inter alia, facilitate communications with connected devices and items, and/or facilitate insurance-related processing associated with the connected devices and items, among other functionalities. For instance, the present embodiments may dynamically monitor electricity flow to various electronic devices associated with a property (e.g., smart or conventional home) that may be populated with a plurality of devices. An Electricity Monitoring (EM) device may be within the home or proximal to the home, such as in the vicinity of the home’s main electrical distribution board (or “breaker box”). The EM device may wirelessly sense, detect, monitor, and/or generate Electricity Flow (EF) data indicative of the electricity flowing to each and every electric or electronic device within a home (such as every device connected to the home’s electrical system and drawing power therefrom). The wireless EM device may wirelessly identify the electricity flow to and from each electric or electronic device based upon each device’s unique electronic signature (or “fingerprint”). The EF data may be monitored for trends, and/or abnormal or unexpected conditions, and based upon the trends and/or abnormal electricity flow one or more corrective actions may be taken. The corrective actions may mitigate or prevent insurance-related events, such as electrical fires or suddenly failed equipment at the most inconvenient time.

“The electricity usage or flow data for individual electric or electronic devices that are located within, or powered by, a home generated by the EM device may be used for various purposes, such as (1) device and appliance fault, irregularity, and/or degradation detection; (2) preventative maintenance programs or logs; (3) control and optimization of energy usage within a home; (4) safe and/or low energy usage compliance programs; (5) risk evaluation and underwriting; (6) insurance claim verification; (7) insurance fraud or “buildup” detection (e.g., theft or arson); (8) insurance-related event or disaster reconstruction and analysis (e.g., cause of a fire); (9) analysis of quality and stability of energy/electricity received from an energy provider; (10) home occupancy detection, monitoring, and verification, and subsequently risk profile adjustment for insureds and/or the home; (11) home, auto, life, health, and personal articles insurance discount or rewards programs; (12) quote generation for home, auto, and/or personal articles insurance; (13) updating risk profiles associated with (i) homes, (ii) personal articles and/or electric devices within or about a home, and/or (iii) vehicles that routinely connect and exchange electrical power with the home’s electrical system; (14) determining electric arc sparking; (15) identifying home wiring degradation or issues; and/or other purposes, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

“The EF data or other data generated by the EM device may be combined with other sources of data, such as home telematics data, vehicle telematics data, data gathered from consumer wearable devices and/or mobile devices, and/or data gather by other electronic devices. The combined data may be used for various purposes, including the purposes discussed directly above and elsewhere herein.

“In one aspect, a computer-implemented method of taking corrective action based upon abnormal electricity usage within a home may be provided. The method may include (1) building, via one or more processors, a historic or an expected electricity usage, flow, and/or consumption profile for a home and electric devices therein, the expected electricity usage, flow, and/or consumption profile including day-of-week and time-of-day information, and may be based upon electricity detected by a wireless Electricity Monitoring (EM) device (which may include one or more processors, sensors, and/or transceivers) over a period of time; (2) monitoring, via the wireless EM device, current home and individual electric device/appliance electricity usage, flow, and/or consumption via the EM device, the EM device being an electric or electronic component that wirelessly detects unique electric or electronic signatures of each electric or electronic device being powered by the home’s electricity or electrical system; (3) comparing, via the one or more processors, the current electricity usage, flow, and/or consumption with the expected electricity usage, flow, and/or consumption to detect an abnormal electricity usage or abnormal trend; and/or (4) when the abnormal electricity usage or trend is detected, via the one or more processors, take a corrective action to mitigate or prevent potential damage to the home or the electric devices being monitored. The method may include additional, less, or alternate actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

“In another aspect, a computer-implemented method of determining home occupancy may be provided. The method may include (1) monitoring, via a wireless Electricity Monitoring (EM) device (which may include one or more processors, sensors, and/or transceivers), (i) current home electricity usage, flow, and/or consumption, and/or (ii) current individual electric device/appliance electricity usage, flow, and/or consumption, the EM device configured to wirelessly detect unique electric signatures of each electric device being powered via the home’s electrical system; (2) receiving, via one or more processors and/or transceivers, data indicative of (i) current home electricity usage, flow, and/or consumption, and/or (ii) current individual electric device/appliance electricity usage, flow, and/or consumption from the EM device via wireless communication or data transmission over one or more radio links or communication channels; (3) determining, via one or more processors, an average amount of home occupancy (such as for a period of time) based upon the (i) current home electricity usage, flow, and/or consumption, and/or (ii) current individual electric device/appliance electricity usage, flow, and/or consumption (such as comparing actual home or appliance electricity usage, flow, and/or consumption with historic or expected electricity usage, flow, and/or consumption for a home presently occupied by one or more persons); (4) updating, via the one or more processors, (i) an home occupancy profile, or (ii) a risk profile for the home (or for the home owner, or a vehicle associated with the home) based upon the average amount of home occupancy; and/or (5) updating, via the one or more processors, an insurance discount for the home or insured home owner based upon the home occupancy profile and/or risk profile to facilitate providing insurance discounts to risk averse home owners or households. The method may include additional, less, or alternate actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

“In another aspect, a computer system equipped with a machine learning program may be configured for evaluating the integrity of a home’s electrical system and the electric devices therein may be provided. The computer system may include one or more processors, transceivers, and/or sensors configured to: (1) train a processing element (programmed with a machine learning program or algorithm) to identify deficiencies or degradation of electric devices based upon electricity flow, usage, or consumption (EF) data gathered or generated by a wireless Electricity Monitoring (EM) device, the EM device configured to wirelessly identify individual electricity flow to a specific electric device and/or correlate that individual electricity flow to that specific electric device based upon the unique electrical signature of the specific electric device; (2) receive, via a communication element (such as via wired or wireless communication or data transmission over one or more radio links or communication channels), current electricity flow, usage, or consumption (EF) data for the home and electric devices therein gathered or generated by the wireless Electricity Monitoring (EM) device; (3) analyze the current EF data for the home and electric devices therein with the trained processing element to determine or detect one or more deficiencies or degradations for the home and electric devices therein; and/or (4) initiate, via the processing element, a corrective action that mitigates or prevents damage to the home or the electric device when one or more deficiencies or degradations for the home and electric devices therein are detected to facilitate proactive home monitoring and maintenance. The system may include additional, less, or alternate functionality, including that discussed elsewhere herein.”

There is additional summary information. Please visit full patent to read further.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1-20. (canceled)

“21. A computer-implemented method of verifying an electrical event about a structure, the method comprising: wirelessly receiving, by a monitoring device positioned in vicinity of an electrical distribution board of the structure, data collected from at least one of a smart appliance or a sensor; monitoring, by the monitoring device, electrical activity about the structure by wirelessly detecting an electricity flow to one or more electric devices that are coupled to the electrical distribution board; correlating, by at least one processor, the electrical activity with respective electric devices based upon an electrical signature unique to each respective electric device; receiving, by the at least one processor, an indication of a cause of damage to the structure or to the one or more electric devices; and determining, by the at least one processor, whether the indicated cause of damage is consistent with a cause of damage determined based at least upon the correlated electrical activity and the data.

“22. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, wherein the at least one processor includes at least one processor of the monitoring device.

“23. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, wherein the structure is a home.

“24. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, further comprising verifying an insurance claim upon determining that the indicated cause of damage is consistent with the cause of damage as determined based at least upon the correlated electrical activity and the data.

“25. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, further comprising processing the insurance claim when the insurance claim is verified, wherein processing the insurance claim includes transmitting a virtual message to a party associated with the structure to initiate a corrective action.

“26. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, further comprising determining, by the at least one processor, a replacement device to replace at least one of the one or more electric devices; generating, by the at least one processor, a virtual message indicating the replacement device; and transmitting, by the at least one processor, the virtual message to a mobile device of a party associated with the structure.

“27. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, wherein wirelessly detecting an electricity flow includes wirelessly monitoring at least one of (i) a time at which the electricity flow was transmitted to the respective electric devices, (ii) a duration for which the electricity flow was transmitted to the respective electric devices, and (iii) a magnitude of an electric current of the electricity flow.

“28. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, wherein correlating the electrical activity with the respective electric devices comprises: differentiating, by the at least one processor, the electricity flow transmitted to the respective electric devices based upon the electrical signature unique to each respective electric device; and generating, by the at least one processor, data indicative of at least one of a time, a duration, and a magnitude of electricity consumption by the respective electric devices during a period of electrical activity monitoring.

“29. A system configured to verify an electrical event about a structure, the system comprising: at least one processor; and one or more computer memories storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to: wirelessly receive, by a monitoring device positioned in vicinity of an electrical distribution board of the structure, data collected from at least one of a smart appliance or a sensor; monitor, by the monitoring device, electrical activity about the structure by wirelessly detecting an electricity flow to one or more electric devices that are coupled to the electrical distribution board; correlate, by the at least one processor, the electrical activity with respective electric devices based upon an electrical signature unique to each respective electric device; receive, by the at least one processor, an indication of a cause of the damage to the structure or to the one or more electric devices; and determine, by the at least one processor, whether the indicated cause of damage is consistent with a cause of damage determined based at least upon the correlated electrical activity and the data.

“30. The system of claim 29, wherein the at least one processor include at least one processor of the monitoring device.

“31. The system of claim 29, wherein the structure is a home.

“32. The system of claim 29, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the system to verify an insurance claim upon determining that the indicated cause of damage is consistent with the cause of damage as determined based at least upon the correlated electrical activity and the data.

“33. The system of claim 32, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the system to process the insurance claim when the insurance claim is verified, including by transmitting a virtual message to a party associated with the structure to initiate a corrective action.

“34. The system of claim 29, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the system to: determine, by the at least one processor, a replacement device to replace at least one of the one or more electric devices; generate, by the at least one processor, a virtual message indicating the replacement device; and transmit, by the at least one processor, the virtual message to a mobile device of a party associated with the structure.

“35. The system of claim 29, wherein wirelessly detecting an electricity flow includes wirelessly monitoring at least one of (i) a time at which the electricity flow was transmitted to the respective electric devices, (ii) a duration for which the electricity flow was transmitted to the respective electric devices, and (iii) a magnitude of an electric current of the electricity flow.

“36. The system of claim 29, wherein correlating the electrical activity with the respective electric devices comprises: differentiating the electricity flow transmitted to the respective electric devices based upon the electrical signature unique to each respective electric device; and generating data indicative of at least one of a time, a duration, and a magnitude of electricity consumption by the respective electric devices during a period of electrical activity monitoring.

“37. A non-transitory computer-readable medium with an executable program stored thereon for verifying an electrical event about a structure, wherein the program instructs a processing element of a computing device to perform the following steps: wirelessly receiving, by a monitoring device positioned in vicinity of an electrical distribution board of the structure, data collected from at least one of a smart appliance or a sensor; monitoring, by the monitoring device, electrical activity about the structure by wirelessly detecting an electricity flow to one or more electric devices that are coupled to the electrical distribution board; correlating the electrical activity with respective electric devices based upon an electrical signature unique to each respective electric device; receiving an indication of a cause of damage to the structure or to the one or more electric devices; and determining whether the indicated cause of damage is consistent with a cause of damage determined based at least upon the correlated electrical activity and the data.

“38. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 37, wherein the program further instructs the processing element to verify an insurance claim upon determining that the indicated cause of damage is consistent with the cause of damage as determined based at least upon the correlated electrical activity and the data.

“39. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 38, wherein the program further instructs the processing element to process the insurance claim when the insurance claim is verified, wherein processing the insurance claim includes transmitting a virtual message to a party associated with the structure to initiate a corrective action.

“40. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 37, wherein the program further instructs the processing element to: determine a replacement device to replace at least one of the one or more electric devices; generate a virtual message indicating the replacement device; and transmit the virtual message to a mobile device of a party associated with the structure.”

For additional information on this patent application, see: Kawakita, Christopher N.; Olander, Erin Ann; Riblet, Jeff. Systems And Methods For Utilizing Electricity Monitoring Devices To Mitigate Or Prevent Structural Damage. U.S. Patent Application Number 20230387675, filed August 15, 2023 and posted November 30, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(20230387675)&db=US-PGPUB&type=ids

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