Obtaining insurance information in response to optical input

• US 9,443,270 B1
• Filed: 09/17/2013
• Issued: 09/13/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Allstate Insurance Company (Allstate Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Allstate Insurance Company (Allstate Corporation)
• Inventors: Friedman, Benjamin, Saban, Yuval
• Primary Examiner(s): Niquette, Robert R
• Assistant Examiner(s): KING JR., JOSEPH W
• Application Number:
  US14/029,469
• Time in Patent Office: 1,092 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3276 using a pictured code, e.g. barcode or QR-code, being read by the M-device
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for retrieving insurance information of an insurance customer at a mobile device. An insurance information token may be affixed to a vehicle and scanned by an optical input device of the mobile device. The optical input device may thus obtain optical input corresponding to the insurance information token. The insurance information of the insurance customer may be retrieved based on the optical input and presented at a display device of the mobile device upon retrieval. The mobile device may also provide a message to an insurance system indicating that the insurance information token was scanned. Telematics information may also be analyzed in response to receipt of the message to determine whether to automatically create an insurance claim for the customer.

Claims

1. A system for responding to a request for insurance policy information received from a mobile device, the system comprising:

a physical token that affixes to a vehicle of an insurance customer, the physical token comprising a unique identifier associated with the insurance customer;

a mobile device comprising a token scanning application stored thereon, the token scanning application optically scans the physical token to obtain the unique identifier and, in response to the scan, generates a scan message comprising the unique identifier a date, a time, and a location the physical token was scanned; and

an insurance information server in signal communication with the mobile device and comprising;

one or more processors;

a data store that stores insurance policy information associated with the insurance customer, including the unique identifier;

a communication interface that receives the scan message from the mobile device; and

a memory storing instructions that when executed by one of the one or more processors cause the insurance information server to;

transmit the insurance policy information to the mobile device wherein receipt of the insurance policy information by the mobile device causes the mobile device to present the insurance policy information at a display of the mobile device,

create a record of the scan message, the record comprising the date, the time, and the location the mobile device scanned the physical token,

determine whether the record substantially matches a stored record corresponding to a previously received scan message associated with a second insurance customer by comparing (i) the date of the record to a date of the stored record, (ii) the time of the record to a time of the stored record, and (iii) the location of the record to a location of the stored record, and

responsive to determining that the record substantially matches the stored record, initiate creation of an insurance claim that identifies the insurance customer and the second insurance customer.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein:

the scan message includes information corresponding to an optical input received at the mobile device in response to optically scanning the physical token using an optical input device of the mobile device; and

wherein receipt of the scan message activates the insurance information server to transmit the insurance policy information to the mobile device based on the information corresponding to the optical input included in the scan message.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein:

the information corresponding to the optical input included in the scan message includes image data that corresponds to an image included in the physical token; and

the transmitting the insurance policy information to the mobile device comprises determining that the image data substantially matches a stored image associated with the insurance customer.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein:

receipt of the scan message activates the insurance information server to generate a notification and to transmit the notification to an insurance agent wherein the notification indicates that the physical token was scanned by the mobile device.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein:

receipt of the scan message activates the insurance information server to transmit one or more questions for the insurance customer to the mobile device requesting that the insurance customer provide information regarding a reason the physical token was scanned; and

receipt of one or more answers corresponding to the one or more questions provided by the insurance customer and transmitted by the mobile device to the insurance information server activates the insurance information server to transmit the one or more answers to an insurance agent.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein:

the communication interface further receives telematics information from the vehicle which characterizes operation of the vehicle wherein the telematics information comprises a date, a time, and a location;

receipt of the telematics information activates the insurance information server to determine that an incident involving the vehicle has occurred based on the telematics information received and whether the scan message was received following the incident;

determining that the scan message was received following the incident activates the insurance information server to determine whether the record of the scan message substantially matches the telematics information by comparing (i) the date of the record to a date of the telematics information, (ii) the time of the record to a time of the telematics information, and (iii) the location of the record to a location of the telematics information; and

determining that the record of the scan message substantially matches the telematics information activates the insurance information server to initiate creation of an insurance claim that identifies the insurance customer.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein creation of the insurance claim comprises populating the insurance claim with customer information associated with the insurance customer.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein:

wherein the instructions when executed by one of the one or more processors further cause the insurance information server to;

determine whether the record of the scan message substantially matches second telematics information received from a second vehicle associated with the second insurance customer by comparing (i) the date of the record to a date of the second telematics information, (ii) the time of the record to a time of the second telematics information, and (iii) the location of the record to a location of the second telematics information, and

responsive to determining that the record substantially matches the second telematics information, initiate creation of an insurance claim that identifies the insurance customer and the second insurance customer.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the insurance claim created is a placeholder insurance claim; and

creation of the placeholder insurance claim is initiated without receiving a request from the insurance customer or an insurance agent to create the placeholder insurance claim from the mobile device.