System And Method For Real-Time Accident Documentation And Claim Submission

• US 20130317861A1
• Filed: 05/24/2012
• Published: 11/28/2013
• 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
• Granted Patent: US 10,387,960 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/4
• 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, the method comprising:

initiating the claim based at least in part on an insured object and a scene of the insured loss including one or more physical surroundings;

receiving electronic user data associated with the claim over an electronic communications network from a user'"'"'s handheld mobile device, the user data including an image;

providing the user data to a computer processor;

generating, by the computer processor, an electronic model of the scene of the claim based at least in part on the electronic user data,

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

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

analyzing, by the computer processor, the user data to identify a damaged portion of the object;

analyzing, by the computer processor, the damaged portion to determine a claim element; and

analyzing, by the computer processor, the combined electronic model to determine whether the claim satisfies a processing criteria.

2. The method 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 of claim 1, wherein the model of the scene is in three dimensions;

and

wherein the model of the insured object is in three dimensions.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the model of the insured object comprises a model of a user'"'"'s vehicle.

5. The method of claim 1, further including:

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

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

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

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

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the user data includes ancillary data to the insurance claim, the ancillary data including at least one of accident location information, accident time information, accident weather information, and emergency services information.

7. The method of claim 1, further including:

receiving, by the computer processor, data associated with a second object comprising a vehicle;

generating, by the computer processor, a model of the second object using the data associated with the second object;

analyzing, by the computer processor, the data associated with the second object to identify a damaged portion of the vehicle.

8. The method of claim 1, further including:

receiving, by the computer processor, a user indication of a damaged portion of the insured object;

receiving, by the computer processor, an insurance provider indication of a damaged portion of the insured object.

9. The method of claim 1, further including:

requesting by the computer processor, additional user data when the claim does not satisfy the processing criteria.

10. The method of claim 1, further including:

submitting, by the computer processor, the claim to an insurance service provider when the claim satisfies the processing criteria.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the claim element includes at least one of a force of impact on the insured object, a force of impact on an occupant of the insured object, an identity of a damaged object component, and an identity of a candidate damaged component.

12. The method of claim 11, further including:

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

providing, by the computer processor, an initial claim assessment when the cost of repair is less than a threshold repair cost.

13. The method of claim 11, further including:

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

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

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer processor includes a remote server.

15-20. -20. (canceled)