Server for real-time accident documentation and claim submission

• US 9,721,302 B2
• Filed: 02/27/2013
• Issued: 08/01/2017
• 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: Chizmar, Jennifer, Tofte, Nathan Lee, Gish, Kristina Renee
• Primary Examiner(s): HAMILTON, SARA CHANDLER
• Application Number:
  US13/779,123
• Publication Number:
  US 20130317865A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,616 Days
• Field of Search: 705 4, 701 322, 701 332, 701 333
• 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 server that facilitates efficient and convenient processing of an insurance claim. 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 server'"'"'s 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. An insurance claim processing server comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable media having stored thereon an insurance claim processing application; and

a processor, wherein said processor upon execution of the insurance claim processing application, is configured to;

initiate an insurance claim based on a vehicle and a claim location;

receive first video images associated with the insurance claim from a user'"'"'s mobile device, the first video images comprising the vehicle that is the subject of the insurance claim captured by a user'"'"'s mobile device;

analyze the first video images including

determine whether the first video images are too blurred to generate a model therefrom, and

when the first video images are too blurred, transmit to the user'"'"'s mobile device a request for second video images and pacing information indicating a rate for panning the user'"'"'s mobile device while capturing the second video images by the user'"'"'s mobile device;

receive the second video images captured by the user'"'"'s mobile device;

analyze and combine the second video images with stored data regarding the claim location and generate a model of a physical scene associated with the insurance claim generated based on the received second video images of the vehicle, the model of the physical scene including a model of the vehicle;

analyze the model of the physical scene and automatically identify a damaged portion of the vehicle;

automatically add a damage tag to the model of the physical scene, the damage tag indicating the automatically identified damaged portion of the vehicle;

transmit the model of the physical scene, including the automatically added damage tag, to the user'"'"'s mobile device;

receive damage-related data from the user'"'"'s mobile device regarding the damaged portion of the vehicle identified by the damage tag in the model of the physical scene;

automatically update the model of the physical scene based on the damage-related data received from the user'"'"'s mobile device regarding the damaged portion of the vehicle identified by the damage tag in the model of the physical scene, and transmit the automatically updated model to the user'"'"'s mobile device;

analyze the damaged portion of the vehicle and determine a claim element;

determine at least one vehicle characteristic selected from;

a estimated force of impact on the vehicle, an estimated force of impact on an occupant of the vehicle, an identity of a damaged vehicle component, and an identity of a candidate damaged component of the vehicle;

analyze at least one of the updated model of the scene and the claim element and determine whether the insurance claim satisfies a processing criteria; and

process the insurance claim when the processing criteria is satisfied.

2. The insurance claim processing server of claim 1, wherein said processor, upon execution of the insurance claim processing application is further configured to request user data when the processing criteria is not satisfied.

3. The insurance claim processing server of claim 2, wherein the user data further includes at least one of text data, voice data, and video image data.

4. The insurance claim processing server of claim 2, 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.

5. The insurance claim processing server of claim 1, wherein said processor, upon execution of the insurance claim processing application is further configured to:

determine a cost of repair based on the claim element; and

provide an initial claim assessment when the cost of repair is less than a threshold repair cost.

6. The insurance claim processing server of claim 1, wherein said processor, upon execution of the insurance claim processing application is further configured to:

analyze the model of the physical scene to estimate a force of impact on an occupant of the vehicle and identify a potential injury to the occupant; and

analyze the estimated force of impact on the occupant and validate a medical claim of the occupant.

7. The insurance claim processing server of claim 1, wherein the model of the vehicle is a three dimensional model.

8. The insurance claim processing server of claim 1, wherein said processor, upon execution of the insurance claim processing application is further configured to:

retrieve vehicle information associated with the vehicle from a database; and

generate a model of the vehicle by analyzing the vehicle information.

9. The insurance claim processing server of claim 1, wherein said processor, upon execution of the insurance claim processing application is further configured to:

receive data associated with an other vehicle;

generate a model of the other vehicle using other vehicle data; and

analyze the other vehicle data to identify a damaged portion of the other vehicle.

10. The insurance claim processing server of claim 1, wherein said processor, upon execution of the insurance claim processing application is further configured to:

receive a user indication of a damaged portion of the vehicle that is the subject of the insurance claim; and

receive an insurance provider indication of a damaged portion of the vehicle that is the subject of the insurance claim.

11. The insurance claim processing server of claim 1, wherein said processor, upon execution of the insurance claim processing application is further configured to submit the insurance claim to an insurance service provider when the insurance claim satisfies the processing criteria.

12. An insurance claim processing server comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable media having stored thereon an insurance claim processing application; and

a processor, wherein said processor upon execution of the insurance claim processing application, is configured to;

initiate an insurance claim based on a vehicle and a claim location;

receive first video images associated with the insurance claim from a user'"'"'s mobile device, the first video images comprising the vehicle that is the subject of the insurance claim captured by the user'"'"'s mobile device;

analyze the first video images including

determine whether the first video images are too blurred to generate a model therefrom, and

when the first video images are too blurred, transmit to the user'"'"'s mobile device a request for second video images and pacing information indicating a rate for panning the user'"'"'s mobile device while capturing the second video images by the user'"'"'s mobile device;

receive the second video images captured by the user'"'"'s mobile device;

analyze the second video images and combine the second video images with stored data regarding the claim location to generate a model of a physical scene associated with the insurance claim based on the received second video images, the model of the physical scene including a model of the vehicle;

analyze the model of the physical scene and automatically identify a damaged portion of the vehicle;

automatically add a damage tag to the model of the physical scene, the damage tag indicating the automatically identified damaged portion of the vehicle;

transmit the model of the physical scene, including the automatically added damage tag, to the user'"'"'s mobile device;

receive damage-related data from the user'"'"'s mobile device regarding the damaged portion of the vehicle identified by the damage tag in the model of the physical scene;

automatically update the model of the physical scene based on the damage-related data received from the user'"'"'s mobile device regarding the damaged portion of the vehicle identified by the damage tag in the model of the physical scene, and transmit the automatically updated model to the user'"'"'s mobile device;

determine at least one vehicle characteristic selected from;

a estimated force of impact on the vehicle, an estimated force of impact on an occupant of the vehicle, an identity of a damaged vehicle component, and an identity of a candidate damaged component of the vehicle;

analyze the damaged portion of the vehicle to identify a claim element;

analyze at least one of the updated model of the scene and the identification of the claim element and determine whether the insurance claim satisfies a processing criteria;

process the insurance claim when the processing criteria is satisfied;

request user data when the insurance claim does not satisfy the processing criteria;

determine a cost of repair based on the identification of the claim element; and

provide an initial claim assessment when the cost of repair is less than a threshold repair cost.

13. The insurance claim processing server of claim 12, wherein the user data further includes at least one of text data, voice data, and video image data.

14. The insurance claim processing server of claim 12, wherein the model of the vehicle transmitted to the user'"'"'s mobile device is a three dimensional model.