Methods, Devices and Systems for Automatically Triggering Data Collection Events and Collecting Insurance Rating Data

• US 20150039349A1
• Filed: 01/16/2014
• Published: 02/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/02/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (State Farm)
• Original Assignee: State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (State Farm)
• Inventors: Clauss, Mark E., Lovings, Richard J., Thurber, David W.
• Granted Patent: US 9,646,346 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/724 User interfaces specially adapted for cordless or mobile telephones
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/08 Mobility data transfer

Abstract

The devices, methods, systems and computer-readable mediums of the present disclosure provide automatic data collection for insurance rating purposes. In particular, a battery powered Bluetooth device may be attached to a personal item of an insured individual. The Bluetooth device may automatically trigger a mobile telephone to begin storing data related to use of the personal item when the mobile telephone is proximate the Bluetooth device. The mobile telephone may periodically transmit the stored data to a remote server.

Claims

1. A computerized method for automatically collecting and storing insurance risk related data, the method comprising:

receiving, at a processor of a mobile computing device, via a wireless communications link of a wireless transceiver device, an indication that the mobile computing device is proximate the wireless transceiver device in response to the processor executing a wireless transceiver device and mobile computing device synchronization module;

receiving, at the processor of the mobile computing device, data representative of an identification of the wireless transceiver device in response to the processor executing an insurance risk related data logging module; and

causing the processor to automatically receive insurance risk related data via the wireless transceiver device and to store insurance risk related data correlated with the data representative of the identification of the wireless transceiver in a memory coupled to the processor in the mobile computing device in response to receiving the indication that the wireless transceiver device is proximate the mobile computing device and in response to the processor further executing the insurance risk related data logging module.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, at the processor of the mobile computing device, an indication that the mobile computing device is no longer proximate the wireless transceiver device; and

causing the processor to automatically cease storing insurance risk related data in the memory in response to receiving the indication that the mobile computing device is no longer proximate the wireless transceiver device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile computing device is a mobile telephone and the wireless transceiver is a Bluetooth device and wherein the Bluetooth device is attached to a personal item.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving at the processor of the computing device an indication of a charge remaining in a battery of the wireless transceiver device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the processor stores data representative of a sequence of locations and a sequence of times corresponding to the locations.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting the data, that is stored in the memory, to a remote server in response to the mobile computing device detecting an availability of a wireless communication network.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a user input at the processor of the mobile computing device representative of an odometer reading of a vehicle.

8. A system for automatically collecting and storing insurance risk related data, the system comprising:

a wireless transceiver device configured to provide, via a wireless communications link of the wireless transceiver device, an indication that a mobile computing device insurance application is proximate the wireless transceiver device;

a wireless transceiver device and mobile computing device synchronization module stored on a computer-readable medium that, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to receive the indication that the wireless transceiver is proximate the mobile computing device insurance application and provides an indication that the wireless transceiver device is proximate the mobile computing device insurance application, and causes the processor to receive data representative of an identification of the wireless transceiver device; and

an insurance risk related data logging module stored on a computer-readable medium that, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to automatically receive insurance risk related data via the wireless transceiver device and to store the insurance risk related data correlated with the data representative of the identification of the wireless transceiver on a memory in response to receiving the indication that the wireless transceiver device is proximate the mobile computing device insurance application.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein execution of the wireless transceiver device and mobile computing device synchronization module further comprises:

causing the processor to provide data representative of an identification of a particular personal item.

10. The system of claim 8, further comprising:

an insurance data transmission module stored on a computer-readable medium that, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to transmit the insurance risk related data from the mobile computer device insurance application to a remote server.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the wireless transceiver device is a Bluetooth device and the mobile computing device insurance application is stored on a computer-readable medium of a mobile telephone, wherein when the mobile computing device insurance application is executed by a processor to provide a user interface to enable a user to associate the mobile telephone with an insured person.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor is within the mobile telephone and the processor stores insurance risk related data, associated with the at least one personal item and correlated with the data representative of a particular insurance policy associated with the at least one personal item, in a memory within the mobile telephone.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the wireless transceiver device is a radio frequency identification device.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the wireless transceiver device further comprises a tamperproof mechanism and the mobile computing device insurance application is configured to receive an indication that the wireless transceiver device has been tampered with and transmit the indication to a remote server.

15. A computer-readable storage medium comprising non-transitory computer-readable instructions stored thereon and to be executed on a processor of a system for automatically collecting and storing insurance risk related data, the stored instructions comprising:

a wireless transceiver device and mobile computing device synchronization module that, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to receive, via a wireless communications link of a wireless transceiver device, an indication that a wireless transceiver is proximate a mobile computing device and provide an indication that the wireless transceiver device is proximate with the mobile computing device, and causes the processor to receive data representative of an identification of the wireless transceiver device; and

an insurance data logging module that, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to automatically receive insurance risk related data via the wireless transceiver device and store the insurance risk related data correlated with the data representative of the identification of the wireless transceiver on a memory in response to receiving the indication that the wireless transceiver device is proximate the mobile computing device.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein execution of the wireless transceiver device and mobile computing device synchronization module further causes the processor to receive data representative of an identification of a particular vehicle and execution of the insurance data logging module further causes the insurance risk related data to be correlated with a particular insurance policy associated with the particular vehicle.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions further comprise:

a media access control (MAC) address receiving module that, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to receive a media access control (MAC) address from the wireless transceiver device; and

a battery life data receiving module that, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to receive data representative of a remaining charge in a battery within the wireless transceiver device.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions further comprise:

a Bluetooth device identification and customization module that, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to associate the wireless transceiver device with a data file, within a mobile computing device, that is associated with a personal item to which the wireless transceiver device is attached.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein execution of the insurance data logging module further causes the processor to access a mobile computing device location device and a mobile computing device calendar and clock and to store data representative of a sequence of locations and a day and a time associated with each location.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein execution of the data transmission module further causes the processor to transmit the data representative of the sequence of locations and the day and time associated with each location to a remote server.