Researchers Submit Patent Application, “User Devices In Claims Damage Estimation”, for Approval (USPTO 20220036463): Allstate Insurance Company

2022 FEB 21 (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 Faga, Mark E. (Evanston, IL, US); Johnson, Robert H. (Hoffman Estates, IL, US); Marlow, Clint J. (Barrington, IL, US); Stricker, Kurt M. (Northfield, IL, US), filed on March 15, 2013, was made available online on February 3, 2022.

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: “Conventional insurance claims processing is a complex process that starts with a first notification of loss related to an insured item. Upon notification of loss, the claim may be routed to multiple claims adjusters that analyze different aspects of the damage associated with the insured item in order to determine whether compensation for the loss is appropriate.

“In general, conventional claims adjustment can involve paperwork processing, telephone calls, and potentially face-to-face meetings between claimant and adjuster. In addition, a significant amount of time can elapse between a first notice of loss from the claimant and the final settlement of the claim.

“In addition, while consumers may take advantage of conventional claims processing to determine if they will receive any compensation for loss associated with an item, consumers have traditionally had very few options for obtaining advice associated with loss prior to submission of an insurance claim.”

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 of the present disclosure in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the disclosure. This summary is not an extensive overview of the disclosure. It is not intended to identify key or critical elements of the disclosure or 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 more detailed description provided below.

“Aspects of the disclosure involve a streamlined and efficient process for claims management and disclose methods, computer-readable media, and apparatuses for automating the processing and settling of claims related to an insured item. A mobile device may transmit data (e.g., images, video, etc.) related to damage associated with an insured item to an enhanced claims processing server. The enhanced claims processing server may manage analysis of damage associated with the insured item and settlement of a claim related to the damage.

“In another aspect of the disclosure, an enhanced claims processing server may analyze damage data received from a mobile device to generate a repair cost estimate for repairing the insured item.

“In another aspect of the disclosure, an enhanced claims processing server may receive damage data associated with damage to an insured item, prior to submission of a claim for the damage. This data may be analyzed along with other data related to terms of an insurance policy that insures the insured item to provide advice to insurance consumers on the overall monetary valuation of submitting an insurance claim for damage to the insured item.

“In another aspect of the disclosure, a user device may be used as a portal that enables a third party entity such as a repair agency to view and learn more about damage associated with an insured item while the damage is still being assessed through a claims adjustment process.

“Further aspects of the disclosure may be provided in a computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause a computer, user terminal, or other apparatus to at least perform one or more of the processes described herein.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method comprising: transmitting, by an enhanced claims processing server and to a user computing device, an Internet link to a web site displaying one or more images; receiving, from the user computing device and responsive to transmitting the Internet link, data related to damage of an insured item, wherein the data comprises a first image depicting the damage of the insured item and wherein the data is part of an insurance claim; determining a type of insurance claim associated with the first image; responsive to determining that the type of insurance claim is not excluded from an automated processing system, applying, by the enhanced claims processing server, an automated damage assessment process to the image, the automated damage assessment process comprising: transmitting, in real-time and to a third party entity, the data related to the damage of the insured item; determining a damaged portion of the insured item, comprising: generating a grayscale version of the first image; applying a blur filter to the grayscale version of the first image; and determining the damaged portion of the insured item from the grayscale version of the first image with the blur filter applied thereto, comprising executing an edge detection algorithm on a portion of the grayscale version of the first image identified by the blur filter; generating a first damage estimate based on an analysis of one or more characteristics of the damaged portion; retrieving, from a database storing historical damage estimate data, a second set of images; selecting, from the second set of images and using an object recognition algorithm, a set of reference images depicting damage related to the damaged portion depicted in the first image; transmitting, to the user computing device, the set of reference images; receiving, from the user computing device, a user-selected reference image from the set of reference images; retrieving, from the database, a damage template associated with the user-selected reference image, wherein the damage template comprises damage estimate data associated with the damage; and generating a second damage estimate based on the first damage estimate and the damage estimate data from the damage template; receiving a cost estimate for repairing the damage to the insured item from the third party entity; determining a final estimate based on the second damage estimate and the cost estimate; and transmitting the final estimate to the user computing device.

“2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving a request for additional data related to the damage of the insured item from the third party entity.

“3. The method of claim 2, further comprising: transmitting the request to the user computing device.

“4. The method of claim 3, further comprising: receiving the additional data from the user computing device.

“5. The method of claim 4, further comprising: transmitting the additional data to the third party entity.

“6. The method of claim 1, wherein the insured item comprises a vehicle.

“7. The method of claim 1, wherein the third party entity comprises a repair shop.

“8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, from the third party entity, information regarding a strategy to repair the damage to the insured item.

“9. The method of claim 1, further comprising: transmitting the data related to the damage of the insured item to an additional third party entity; and receiving a third cost estimate for repairing the damage to the insured item from the additional third party entity.

“10. The method of claim 1, wherein the data further includes video related to the damage to the insured item.

“11. The method of claim 1, wherein the third party entity is a preferred partner of an entity managing the enhanced claims processing server.

“12. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the final estimate comprises adjusting the second damage estimate based on the cost estimate.

“13. The method of claim 1, further comprising: based on the second damage estimate and the cost estimate, determining, at the enhanced claims processor, a projected settlement amount for settling the insurance claim.

“14. The method of claim 1, further comprising: transmitting the data related to the insured item to a governmental agency.

“15. A system comprising: an insured item, wherein the insured item comprises at least one damaged portion; a server configured to: transmit, to a user computing device, an Internet link to a web site displaying one or more images; receive, from the user computing device and responsive to transmitting the Internet link, a first image depicting the at least one damaged portion of the insured item; determine a type of insurance claim associated with the first image; responsive to determining that the type of insurance claim is not excluded from an automated processing system, apply an automated damage assessment process to the image, the automated damage assessment process comprising: transmitting, in real-time, the first image to a third party entity; identifying, within the first image, the at least one damaged portion of the insured item, comprising: generating a grayscale version of the first image; applying a blur filter to the grayscale version of the first image; and determining the at least one damaged portion of the insured item from the grayscale version of the first image with the blur filter applied thereto, comprising executing an edge detection algorithm on a portion of the grayscale version of the first image identified by the blur filter; generating a first damage estimate based on an analysis of one or more characteristics of at least one damaged portion; retrieving, from a database storing historical damage estimate data, a second set of images; selecting, from the second set of images and using an object recognition algorithm, a set of reference images depicting damage related to the at least one damaged portion of the insured item; transmitting, to the user computing device, the set of reference images; receiving, from the user computing device, a user-selected reference image from the set of reference images; retrieving, from the database, a damage template associated with the user-selected reference image, wherein the damage template comprises damage estimate data associated with the damage; and generating a second damage estimate based on the first damage estimate and the damage estimate data in the damage template; receiving, from the third party entity, a cost estimate for repairing the at least one damaged portion of the insured item; determining a final damage estimate based on the second damage estimate and the cost estimate; and transmitting the final damage estimate to the user computing device.

“16. The system of claim 15, wherein the server is further configured to: generate a settlement amount for settling an insurance claim for the insured item based on the final damage estimate.

“17. The system of claim 15, wherein the insured item comprises a vehicle.

“18. The system of claim 16, wherein the settlement amount is further based on the cost estimate.

“19. An apparatus comprising: a processor; and a memory storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus at least to: transmit, to a user computing device, an Internet link to a web site displaying one or more images; receive, from the user computing device and responsive to transmitting the Internet link, a first image depicting damage to an insured vehicle; determine a type of insurance claim associated with the first image; and responsive to determining that the type of insurance claim is not excluded from an automated processing system, apply an automated damage assessment process to the image, the automated damage assessment process comprising: transmitting the first image to a repair shop in real-time as the first image is received; identifying, within the first image, at least one damaged portion of the insured vehicle, comprising: generating a grayscale version of the first image; applying a blur filter to the grayscale version of the first image; and determining the damaged portion of the insured item from the grayscale version of the first image with the blur filter applied thereto, comprising executing an edge detection algorithm on a portion of the grayscale version of the first image identified by the blur filter; generating a first damage estimate based on an analysis of one or more characteristics of the at least one damaged portion; retrieving, from a database storing historical damage estimate data, a set of reference images; selecting, from the set of reference images and using an object recognition algorithm, a second set of images depicting first damage related to the damage of the insured vehicle; transmitting, to the user computing device, the set of reference images; receiving, from the user computing device, a user-selected reference image from the set of reference images; retrieving, from the database, a damage template associated with the user-selected reference image, wherein the damage template comprises damage estimate data associated with the first damage; determining a second damage estimate based on the first damage estimate and the damage estimate data in the damage template; receiving, from the repair shop, a cost estimate associated with repairing the damage to the insured vehicle; comparing the cost estimate with the second damage estimate to determine a final cost estimate for repairing the damage to the insured vehicle; and transmitting the final cost estimate to the user computing device.

“20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein user computing device is associated with a user of the insured vehicle.”

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

For additional information on this patent application, see: Faga, Mark E.; Johnson, Robert H.; Marlow, Clint J.; Stricker, Kurt M. User Devices In Claims Damage Estimation. Filed March 15, 2013 and posted February 3, 2022. Patent URL: https://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220220036463%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20220036463&RS=DN/20220036463

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