Smart Home Water Flow Monitoring for Automated Leak Mitigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current home insurance systems lack the ability to effectively aggregate and analyze data from smart appliances to detect and mitigate risks associated with insurance-related events, such as water damage, leading to inefficiencies in preventing property damage and managing insurance claims.
Innovation Solution
A computer-implemented method and system that utilizes a smart home controller to receive and analyze data from devices associated with water flow, generating instructions to prevent or mitigate potential or actual water leakage, and communicating alerts to homeowners and insurance providers via wireless communication networks.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If smart appliances communicate data via mesh networks, then the quantity of available data increases, but the ability to aggregate and analyze this data remains insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a server as an intermediary component that receives data from multiple smart appliances via mesh networks, aggregates the data, performs analysis to detect potential damage events, and coordinates mitigation actions. This intermediary handles the complexity of data aggregation and analysis, allowing individual appliances to remain relatively simple while the system as a whole achieves sophisticated monitoring and response capabilities.
2Device complexity
If manual monitoring of water leakage is used, then system complexity is low, but the speed of damage detection and response is slow
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables self-service monitoring where smart appliances automatically transmit their operational status and sensor data to the server without human intervention. The server then automatically analyzes this data to detect potential water leakage events, eliminating the need for manual monitoring while achieving rapid, automated detection and response to damage events.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements continuous feedback loops where smart appliances send real-time data to the server, which analyzes the data and immediately triggers alerts or mitigation actions when anomalies are detected. This feedback mechanism enables rapid response to potential damage events, with the system continuously monitoring and adjusting based on incoming data from multiple sources.
3Reliability
If automated mitigation actions are implemented, then the effectiveness of damage prevention increases, but the extent of automation required increases system complexity
Solution Approach 1:
The automated mitigation system is segmented into distinct functional modules: data collection from smart appliances, data aggregation and analysis on the server, damage event detection, alert generation, and mitigation action execution. Each module performs a specific function, making the overall automated system more manageable and less complex while maintaining high effectiveness through coordinated operation of these specialized components.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and systems for automatically mitigating risks of water damage to a property caused by insurance-related events are provided. A smart home controller and/or insurance provider remote processor may analyze data received from a smart device disposed on, within, or proximate to a property associated with monitoring water flow, as well as data received from an insurance provider. If it is determined that an actual or potential risk of water leakage exists, the smart home controller or remote processor may automatically issue commands to the smart device to take actions that mitigate the risk of water damage. The smart home controller may transmit information about the actual or potential water leakage risks and any mitigative actions to an insurance provider. The insurance provider remote processor may interpret the transmitted data and perform insurance activities, such as providing a discount or premium, and/or adjusting an insurance policy associated with the property.