Smart Home Event Sequencing for Accurate Damage Attribution
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current insurance systems face challenges in accurately determining the cause and sequence of events leading to property damage during insurance-related events, particularly when multiple potential causes are involved, leading to inefficiencies in claim processing and potential misallocation of damages.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a system that utilizes interconnected smart devices and a smart home controller to monitor and record data before, during, and after an insurance-related event, analyzing this data to generate a time-sequence of events and assign damage portions to specific causes, thereby facilitating the automatic generation and adjustment of insurance claims.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If traditional insurance claim processing methods are used, then manual assessment of damage causes is required, but this leads to inefficiency and potential misallocation of damages
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by deploying smart devices and sensors throughout the property before insurance-related events occur. These devices continuously monitor and record environmental conditions, device operations, and potential risk factors, so that when an event occurs, the data is already captured and ready for immediate analysis, eliminating the need for manual post-event investigation
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces manual mechanical assessment processes with automated electronic systems. Smart devices, sensors, and processors automatically collect, transmit, and analyze data to determine damage causes, substituting the traditional human-adjuster site visit and manual inspection process with an automated digital ecosystem that provides both efficiency and precision
2Loss of information
If multiple smart devices are deployed to monitor property conditions, then data collection capability is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The smart devices in the ecosystem are designed with multi-functionality, serving multiple purposes simultaneously. For example, smart cameras not only capture visual damage evidence but also monitor environmental conditions, track property usage patterns, and provide security surveillance. This universal approach reduces the total number of devices needed while maintaining comprehensive data collection
Solution Approach 2:
The smart home controller acts as an intermediary that manages communication between multiple smart devices and the insurance provider's processing system. It aggregates data from various sources, standardizes formats, and coordinates device operations, thereby simplifying the overall system complexity while maintaining complete data collection capabilities
3Loss of time
If automated analysis of recorded data is implemented, then claim processing speed is improved, but requirement for sophisticated processing algorithms increases
Solution Approach 1:
The automated analysis process is segmented into distinct functional modules: data collection from smart devices, data transmission to the controller, preliminary filtering and validation, causal relationship analysis, damage quantification, and claim generation. Each module handles a specific aspect of the analysis, making the overall complex process manageable and maintainable while achieving rapid processing
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs self-service by automatically analyzing its own collected data without requiring external human intervention. The processing algorithms autonomously identify damage causes, quantify losses, and generate claims, with the system serving its own data processing needs through integrated analytics capabilities
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and systems for assigning damage to a property to causes of loss are provided. A smart home controller and/or an insurance provider remote processor (or server) may generate a time sequence of events for damage associated with an insure-related event. The time-sequence of events may be analyzed to identify causes of loss associated with damage to the property. The smart home controller or insurance provider remote processor may further analyze the time-sequence of event to determine a portion of the overall damage associated with each cause of loss. Subsequently, according to certain aspects, the smart home controller or insurance provider remote processor may automatically generate a prepopulated insurance claim for damage associated with the insurance-related event, and/or transmit the automatically prepared insurance claim to an insured for their review, approval, and/or modification, such as via wireless communication to a mobile device associated with the insured.