APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR FINDING AND REPORTING LOST ITEMS

• US 20140329460A1
• Filed: 11/22/2013
• Published: 11/06/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/03/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Consumer Product Recovery and Finance Company, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Consumer Product Recovery and Finance Company, Inc.
• Inventors: Loutit, James F. R.
• Granted Patent: US 9,665,913 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/39
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/12 Detection or prevention of fraud
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/126 Anti-theft arrangements, e.g. protection against subscriber identity module [SIM] cloning
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/025 using location based information parameters

Abstract

Provided is a system, having: a lost-and-found system, implemented with one or more processors, the lost-and-found system having a server and a data repository, the data repository storing venue records; and a plurality of mobile devices each having a lost-and-found mobile application, the lost-and-found mobile application being operative to report a found or a lost item and associate the found item or the lost item with one of the venue records.

Claims

1. An Internet-based system for reporting items that were lost during travel and finding such items, the system comprising:

a venue data repository having a plurality of venue records, each venue record identifying other venue records of venues through which users travel to or from the respective venue;

a server operative to perform operations comprising;

receiving from a report user a request for a lost-item-input form to report lost items in association with a venue identified in the request;

in response to the request, send a lost-item input form to a remote user device, the lost-item input form including pre-populated selectable references to other venues identified in the venue data repository as venues through which users travel to or from the respective venue;

receive lost item form data describing aspects of the lost item and circumstances under which the lost item was lost, wherein the circumstances identify a plurality of user-selected venues through which the user traveled; and

store the lost item form data in a lost item data repository.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the venue is an airport, and wherein the other venues are other airports.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the venue is a bus terminal or a train station.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the server is further operative to report the lost item to agents of each of the user-selected venues.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein a venue record is stored for each route offered by an entity that transports users.

6. A method of evaluating an insurance claim for a mobile device, the the method comprising:

receiving authorization credentials from an agent of an insurance company;

identifying a profile of the insurance company in a user profile data repository;

sending an interface by which data indicative of a user device subject to an insurance claim is identified;

receiving the data indicative of a user device; and

determining, with a processor, a geolocation of the user device based on geolocation data reported by a native mobile application executing on the mobile device; and

providing the geolocation to the agent of the insurance company for determining whether the mobile device is lost.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the native mobile application comprises a native mobile application configured to report lost items and found items.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the profile of the insurance company identifies a plurality of mobile devices insured by the insurance company and indicates that the insurance company is authorize to determine geolocations of at least some of the plurality of mobile devices.

9. A tangible, machine-readable, non-transitory medium storing instructions that when executed by a data processing apparatus effectuate operations comprising:

displaying, on a screen of a mobile device, a user-selectable region of the screen by which a user indicates that they have found the mobile device in a lost state;

receiving a user selection of the region of the screen and, in response, presenting a user interface by which the user enters information to return the mobile device to an owner of the mobile device; and

receiving information entered in the user interface by which the user enters information to return the mobile device; and

causing, with a processor, a message to be sent to the owner of the mobile device based on the entered information.

10. The medium of claim 9, wherein displaying, on a screen of a mobile device, a user-selectable region of the screen by which a user indicates that they have found the mobile device in a lost state comprises:

displaying the user-selectable region on a lock-screen of the mobile device.

11. The medium of claim 9, wherein displaying, on a screen of a mobile device, a user-selectable region of the screen by which a user indicates that they have found the mobile device in a lost state comprises:

displaying the user-selectable region on a home-screen of the mobile device.

12. The medium of claim 9, wherein displaying, on a screen of a mobile device, a user-selectable region of the screen by which a user indicates that they have found the mobile device in a lost state comprises:

displaying the user-selectable region in a launch screen of a native mobile application configured to report lost items and found items.

13. The medium of claim 9, wherein receiving information entered in the user interface by which the user enters information to return the mobile device comprises:

receiving a contact phone number, a location, or a contact email address, and

wherein causing, with a processor, a message to be sent to the owner of the mobile device based on the entered information comprises;

sending the contact phone number, the location, or the contact email address

14. The medium of claim 9, wherein causing, with a processor, a message to be sent to the owner of the mobile device based on the entered information comprises:

obtaining a geolocation of the mobile device; and

sending the obtained geolocation to the owner of the mobile device.