Apparatus and method for finding and reporting lost items

• US 9,665,913 B2
• Filed: 11/22/2013
• Issued: 05/30/2017
• 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.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Nam V
• Application Number:
  US14/087,716
• Publication Number:
  US 20140329460A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,285 Days
• Field of Search: 340 758, 340571, 3405721, 340 531, 340457, 455410, 455411, 455418, 705 75, 705 50, 7071041, 707 3, 707 6
• 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 computer system comprising a server and operative to perform operations comprising;

receiving from a remote user a request for a lost-item input form to report lost items in association with a venue identified in the request, wherein the lost-item input form corresponds to a route operated by an entity having venue pages, and wherein the route corresponds to a flight route operated by an airline;

in response to the request, send the 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 venue identified in the request;

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 computer system 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. The system of claim 1, wherein receiving lost item form data comprises:

receiving a user selection of multiple venues among the pre-populated selectable references to other venues.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the multiple venues comprise:

an origin venue, a layover venue, and a destination venue.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the venue data repository comprises a travel graph of venues through which users travel.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the pre-populated selectable references comprise entries corresponding to adjacent nodes on a travel graph.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the lost item input form corresponds to an instance of traversal of the route.

11. The system of claim 1, the computer system comprising means for reporting lost items to employees at the multiple identified locations.

12. The system of claim 1, the computer system comprising means for a user to report multiple locations from a venue page for a loss.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer system is configured to push lost-item alerts to agents of a selected venue.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer system is configured to broadcast a lost-item alert to mobile devices of users within a selected geographic area.

15. The system of claim 14, comprising means for identifying mobile devices within a threshold distance of a geographic location.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer system is configured to service more than ten thousand user computing devices distributed over a country.