System and method for real-time accident documentation and claim submission

• US 10,387,960 B2
• Filed: 05/24/2012
• Issued: 08/20/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 05/24/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (State Farm)
• Original Assignee: State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (State Farm)
• Inventors: Tofte, Nathan Lee, Gish, Kristina Renee, Chizmar, Jennifer
• Primary Examiner(s): Hamilton, Sara C
• Application Number:
  US13/480,225
• Publication Number:
  US 20130317861A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,644 Days
• Field of Search: 705 4, 701 323, 701 332, 701 333
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance

Abstract

An insurance claim processing application that facilitates efficient and convenient processing of an insurance claim using a mobile device. The claim processing application can receive text, image, and audio data associated with the insurance claim. Using the received data, a model of the user'"'"'s vehicle and the scene of the accident are generated and displayed on the user'"'"'s mobile device. Damaged portions of the user'"'"'s vehicle can be identified automatically or by the user. Damage can be tagged using the mobile device and additional data can be provided by the user and associated with each tag. The claim processing application can be used to provide a preliminary claim assessment, submit a completed insurance claim application to an insurance provider, and/or process the insurance claim.

Claims

1. A method for processing a claim for an insured loss across an electronic communications network between a user handheld mobile device and an insurer server, the method comprising:

(a) automatically initiating a claim for an insured loss at the insurer server, in response to receiving electronic user data associated with the claim over the electronic communications network from an insurance processing application executed by a processor of the user handheld mobile device,

(i) wherein the user handheld mobile device comprises a camera and the insurance processing application when executed by the processor of the user handheld mobile device captures a photo image of an insured object and a photo image of a scene of physical surroundings via the camera and transmits the photo images to the insurer server,

(ii) wherein the electronic user data comprises the photo image of an insured object,

(iii) wherein the electronic user data comprises the photo image of a scene of the physical surroundings where the insured loss occurred;

(b) automatically providing the electronic user data to a computer processor of the insurer server;

(c) automatically generating, by the computer processor, an electronic model of the scene of physical surroundings where the insured loss occurred based at least in part on the electronic user data;

(d) automatically generating, by the computer processor, an electronic model of the insured object associated with the claim based at least in part on the electronic user data, wherein automatically generating an electronic model of the insured object comprises generating dimensions of the electronic model of the insured object;

(e) automatically combining, by the computer processor, the electronic model of the scene and the electronic model of the insured object into a combined electronic model;

(f) automatically identifying, by the computer processor, a damaged portion of the insured object in the combined electronic model, comprising;

(i) extracting a first set of one or more features from the combined electronic model, wherein the first set of one or more features is selected from color, texture, brightness, contrast, edge detection, corner detection, text, object component coordinates, depth/surface mapping,

(ii) analyzing the first set of one or more features and identifying portions of the combined electronic model where the first set of one or more features are irregular or not in alignment with reference object data;

(g) automatically determining, by the computer processor, a force of impact on the insured object, comprising;

(i) extracting a second set of one or more features from the combined electronic model, wherein the second set of one or more features is selected from contrast, edge detection, corner detection, object component coordinates, and depth/surface mapping,

(ii) comparing one or more of the features of the second set from the combined electronic model with corresponding feature information included in the reference object data, and

(iii) determining magnitude and direction of force applied to the insured object based on the compared one or more features; and

(h) automatically analyzing, by the computer processor, the automatically identified damaged portion and the automatically determined force of impact and determining whether the claim for the insured loss satisfies a processing criteria, and

(i) when it is determined that the claim does not satisfy the processing criteria;

automatically sending, by the computer processor and over the electronic communications network to the user handheld mobile device, the combined electronic model and the identified damaged portion, and sending an electronic request for additional electronic user data over the electronic communications network to the user handheld mobile device, and

(ii) when it is determined that the claim satisfies the processing criteria;

processing, by the computer processor, the claim for the insured loss and submitting, by the computer processor, the processed claim to an insurance service provider.

2. The method for processing a claim for an insured loss of claim 1, wherein the electronic user data further includes at least one of text data, voice data, and video image data.

3. The method for processing a claim for an insured loss of claim 1, wherein said automatically generating, by the computer processor, an electronic model of the scene of physical surroundings where the insured loss occurred comprises automatically generating a model in three dimensions.

4. The method for processing a claim for an insured loss of claim 1, wherein said automatically generating, by the computer processor, an electronic model of the insured object comprises automatically generating a model in three dimensions.

5. The method for processing a claim for an insured loss of claim 1, wherein said automatically generating, by the computer processor, an electronic model of the insured object comprises automatically generating a model of a user vehicle.

6. The method for processing a claim for an insured loss of claim 1, further comprising:

automatically retrieving, by the computer processor, vehicle information associated with the insured object from a database; and

automatically retrieving, by the computer processor, scene information from the database, the scene information including a location of the insurance claim;

wherein generating the electronic model of the insured object further includes analyzing the vehicle information; and

wherein generating the electronic model of the scene further includes analyzing the scene information.

7. The method for processing a claim for an insured loss of claim 1, wherein the electronic user data further comprises ancillary data to the claim for the insured loss, the ancillary data including at least one of location information where the insured loss occurred, time information when the insured loss occurred, weather information when the insured loss occurred, and emergency services information.

8. The method for processing a claim for an insured loss of claim 1, wherein the electronic user data further comprises data associated with a second object comprising a vehicle, and said method further comprises:

automatically generating, by the computer processor, an electronic model of the second object based at least in part on the electronic user data associated with the second object;

automatically combining, by the computer processor, the electronic model of the scene, the electronic model of the insured object, and the electronic model of the second object into a combined electronic model; and

automatically identifying, by the computer processor, a damaged portion of the second object in the combined electronic model.

9. The method for processing a claim for an insured loss of claim 1, wherein the electronic user data further comprises a user indication of a damaged portion of the insured object.

10. The method for processing a claim for an insured loss of claim 1, further comprises automatically identifying, by the computer processor, at least one of:

a force of impact on an occupant of the insured object, an identity of a damaged component of the insured object, and an identity of a candidate damaged component of the insured object.

11. The method for processing a claim for an insured loss of claim 10, further comprising:

automatically determining, by the computer processor, a cost of repair based on at least one of the identity of the damaged component and the identity of the candidate damaged component; and

automatically sending, by the insurer server, an initial claim assessment over the electronic communications network to the user handheld mobile device when a cost of repair in the initial claim assessment is less than a threshold repair cost.

12. The method for processing a claim for an insured loss of claim 10, further comprising:

automatically analyzing, by the computer processor, a force of impact on an occupant of the insured object to identify a potential injury to the occupant; and

automatically analyzing, by the computer processor, the force of impact on the occupant to validate a medical claim of the occupant.

13. The method for processing a claim for an insured loss of claim 1, further comprising, when it is determined that the claim does not satisfy the processing criteria, receiving a user input indicating a portion of the insured object in the combined electronic model corresponding to a damaged portion of the insured object, and including a received indication corresponding to the damaged portion of the insured object into the electronic user data.

14. A method for processing a claim for an insured loss across an electronic communications network between a user handheld mobile device and an insurer server, the method comprising:

(a) automatically initiating a claim for an insured loss at the insurer server, in response to receiving electronic user data associated with the claim over the electronic communications network from an insurance processing application executed by a processor of the user handheld mobile device,

(i) wherein the user handheld mobile device comprises a camera and a memory storage device and the insurance processing application when executed by the processor of the user handheld mobile device captures a photo image of a user'"'"'s insured vehicle via the camera and transmits the photo image to the insurer server,

(ii) wherein the electronic user data comprises a photo image of the user'"'"'s insured vehicle and at least one of text data, voice data, and video image data,

(iii) wherein the electronic user data comprises a photo image of a scene of physical surroundings where the insured loss occurred

(iv) wherein the electronic user data comprise a user indication of a damaged portion of the user'"'"'s insured vehicle;

(b) automatically providing the electronic user data to a computer processor of the insurer server;

(c) automatically retrieving, by the computer processor, scene information from the database, the scene information including a location of the insurance claim;

(d) automatically generating, by the computer processor, an electronic model in three dimensions of the scene of physical surroundings where the insured loss occurred based at least in part on the electronic user data and the scene information from the database;

(e) automatically retrieving, by the computer processor, vehicle information associated with the user'"'"'s insured vehicle from a database;

(f) automatically generating, by the computer processor, an electronic model of the user'"'"'s insured vehicle associated with the claim based at least in part on the electronic user data and vehicle information from the database, wherein vehicle comprises generating dimensions of the of the electronic model of the user'"'"'s insured vehicle;

(g) automatically combining, by the computer processor, the electronic model of the scene and the electronic model of the user'"'"'s insured vehicle into a combined electronic model;

(h) automatically identifying, by the computer processor, a damaged portion of the user'"'"'s insured vehicle in the combined electronic model, comprising;

(i) extracting a first set of one or more features from the combined electronic model, wherein the first set of one or more features is selected from color, texture, brightness, contrast, edge detection, corner detection, text, coordinates relative to coordinate system of the model, coordinates relative to a coordinate other than that of the model, depth/surface mapping,

(ii) analyzing the first set of one or more extracted features and identifying portions of the electronic model of the user'"'"'s insured vehicle where the first set of one or more features are irregular or not in alignment with reference vehicle data;

(i) automatically determining in the combined electronic model, by the computer processor, a force of impact on the user'"'"'s insured vehicle, comprising;

(i) extracting a second set of one or more features from the combined electronic model, wherein the second set of one or more features is selected from contrast, edge detection, corner detection, the user'"'"'s insured vehicle component coordinates, and depth/surface mapping;

(ii) comparing one or more features of the second set from the combined electronic model with corresponding feature information included in the reference vehicle data, and

(iii) determining magnitude and direction of force applied to the user'"'"'s insured vehicle based on the compared one or more features; and

(j) automatically analyzing, by the computer processor, the combined electronic model and determining whether the claim satisfies a processing criteria, and

(i) when it is determined that the claim does not satisfy the processing criteria;

automatically sending, by the computer processor and over the electronic communications network to the user handheld mobile device, the combined electronic model and the identified damaged portion, and sending an electronic request for additional electronic user data over the electronic communications network to the user handheld mobile device, and

(ii) when it is determined that the claim satisfies the processing criteria;

submitting, by the computer processor, the processed claim to an insurance service provider.

15. The method for processing a claim for an insured loss of claim 14, further comprising:

automatically determining, by the computer processor, a cost of repair based on at least one of the identity of the damaged component and the identity of the candidate damaged component; and

automatically sending, by the computer processor, an initial claim assessment over the electronic communications network to the user handheld mobile device when a cost of repair in the initial claim assessment is less than a threshold repair cost.

16. The method for processing a claim for an insured loss of claim 14, further comprising, when it is determined that the claim does not satisfy the processing criteria, receiving a user input indicating a portion of the user'"'"'s insured vehicle in the combined electronic model corresponding to a damaged portion of the user'"'"'s insured vehicle, and including a received indication corresponding to the damaged portion of the user'"'"'s insured vehicle into the electronic user data.