Patent Application
20240311612
The present disclosure generally relates to vehicle damage claims self-service techniques, and more specifically, to techniques for training and using machine learning models to determine vehicle damage claim amounts/values based on vehicle telematics data and image data.
Claim valuation is a technique that is performed continuously by human insurance claim analysts and actuaries, who must view and inspect vehicle damage to assess the extent of damage, and who rely on their past experience and judgment to evaluate losses. The prior art includes attempts to quantify damage to vehicles via image analysis, and attempts to quantify damage to vehicles via analysis of telematics (e.g., “black box”/vehicle event data recorder (EDR) data). No known method analyzes both images and telematics data, and the current human-based and computer-based claim valuation models are not ideal. Human judgment is subject to bias, distraction, fatigue and other factors. Existing computerized valuation models may be limited to determining whether damage to a vehicle represents a total loss or not. The amount and/or extent of damage to a vehicle may not be perceptible until the damaged vehicle is disassembled partially or fully. This imperceptibility is a technical problem due to the fact that modern vehicles comprise layered material (e.g., plastic, rubber, etc.) that may obscure interior damage. Therefore, quantifying damage via images alone may be flawed. Similarly, telematics alone may not work. For example, electrical failure at or prior to a collision may result in partial or full telematics data loss. Using images or telematics in isolation leads to inaccurate vehicle damage valuations. In summary, claim valuations are lacking in uniformity, consistency, and repeatability. Faster, more efficient, more accurate, and less expensive methods and systems, which analyze both vehicle telematics data and image data to determine claim valuations, are needed.
The present disclosure generally relates to vehicle damage claims self-service techniques. Embodiments of exemplary systems and computer-implemented methods are summarized below. The methods and systems summarized below may include additional, fewer, or alternate components, functionality, and/or actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.
In one aspect, a computer-implemented method of determining a claim value corresponding to a damaged vehicle includes receiving exception data corresponding to the damaged vehicle, receiving one or more image corresponding to the damaged vehicle, generating a set of image parameters by analyzing the one or more image corresponding to the damaged vehicle using a first trained artificial neural network, generating the claim value corresponding to the damaged vehicle by analyzing the set of image parameters and the exception data using a second trained artificial neural network, and transmitting the claim value.
In another aspect, a computing system comprising one or more processors and one or more memories storing instructions is provided. When the instructions are executed by the one or more processors, the instructions cause the computing system to receive one or more image corresponding to a damaged vehicle and exception data corresponding to the damaged vehicle. The instructions may further cause the computing system to generate a set of image parameters by analyzing the one or more image using a first trained artificial neural network, to generate a claim value by analyzing the set of image parameters and the exception data using a second trained artificial neural network, and to transmit the claim value.
The figures described below depict various aspects of the system and methods disclosed therein. It should be understood that each figure depicts one embodiment of a particular aspect of the disclosed system and methods, and that each of the figures is intended to accord with a possible embodiment thereof. Further, wherever possible, the following description refers to the reference numerals included in the following figures, in which features depicted in multiple figures are designated with consistent reference numerals.
There are shown in the drawings arrangements which are presently discussed, it being understood, however, that the present embodiments are not limited to the precise arrangements and instrumentalities shown, wherein:
The figures depict preferred embodiments for purposes of illustration only. One skilled in the art will readily recognize from the following discussion that alternative embodiments of the systems and methods illustrated herein may be employed without departing from the principles of the invention described herein.
The embodiments described herein relate to, inter alia, providing methods and systems for providing vehicle damage claims self-service for customers (e.g., users of applications, policy holders, etc.). More specifically, in some embodiments, machine learning (ML) techniques may be used to train one or more ML models to determine a damage value of a claim by analyzing a plurality of training parameters and/or data. The training parameters and/or data may include telematics data. The telematics data may be collected from one or more device (e.g., an EDR, a mobile device of vehicle operator/occupant, and/or an after-market device). Telematics data may include information relating to time periods before, during, and after vehicle damage events including crashes, impacts, and/or accidents. For example, speed, location, braking, steering, airbag deployment data may be collected. The data may be collected continuously and/or sampled at an interval (e.g., one millisecond or less). Crash pulses may be collected which include delta-V, also known as change in forward velocity. Delta-V may be collected in lateral and forward dimensions. An image may be collected via a digital camera such as a camera of a mobile device (e.g., a smartphone). The image may be analyzed using a trained artificial neural network to determine one or more image parameters. The one or more image parameters may be provided as input to a second trained artificial neural network along with telematics data. The second artificial neural network may output a value indicative of a dollar value of an insurance claim. However, as noted above, telematics data may be incomplete. There may be a time lag between impact and the triggering of recording. A severe crash may cause an electrical power loss which can cause data loss and/or incomplete recording of impact data. In crashes having multiple impacts, data of one impact may affect the recording of data relating to the other impacts. Therefore, supplementing telematics data with image data relating to the damaged vehicle may improve the ability of predictive models to determine the severity of loss and the value of claims relating to the repair and/or replacement of the vehicle.
In one embodiment, a hardware device may be provided to drivers. The device may be similar to State Farm® Drive Safe & Save™ app. The device may include instructions which, when executed, cause telematics data to be collected, stored, and/or transmitted to an analysis system. The device may include instructions for encrypting and/or decrypting telematics data, to maintain the privacy of customers. The device may record speed and g-forces, which may include delta-V. When an impact is detected, the device may cause the recorded information to a remote system for analysis by one or more ML model. A user may also take photographs of the damaged vehicle using a device (e.g., a mobile device). The photograph may be analyzed by the model. The model may then predict an amount and/or type of damage. Unlike prior art methods and systems, the present invention fuses physical knowledge regarding the impact obtained from sensors in the vehicle as well as optical image data. The speed, angle of impact, intensity of impact, and images of the vehicle damaged in the impact allow for automated claims decisions that are fairer, faster, and which may result in significant cost savings for customers.
In some embodiments the transmission of telematics data may occur only after vehicle damage (e.g., an accident) has occurred. After the accident, the policy holder may use a mobile application to upload photos of the damaged covered vehicle. The telematics and image data may be used as input to a series of models. For example, a convolutional neural network (CNN) may process the image data while an ensemble-based estimator may analyze the telematics data. The result of the series of models may be a damage estimate for the insured vehicle.
The diagnostic device 106 may be any suitable computing device (e.g., a mobile phone, tablet, phablet, laptop, server, etc.) and may include instructions for reading, decrypting, and/or interpreting the telematics data stored in the EEPROM 124 of the EDR 104. In some embodiments, the diagnostic device 106 may be communicatively coupled with the EDR 104 via the network 108. The network 108 may be a single communication network, or may include multiple communication networks of one or more types (e.g., one or more wired and/or wireless local area networks (LANs), and/or one or more wired and/or wireless wide area networks (WANs) such as the Internet). The network 108 may comprise any type or types of suitable network(s). The DLC 112 may be a multi-pin diagnostic connection port in a vehicle. The DLC may allow a diagnostic device (e.g., the diagnostic device 106) to access data stored in the EDR, and/or to store data in the EDR. In some cases, third-party devices may be coupled to the DLC, wherein the third party devices include instructions for reading data from and writing data to the EDR.
The mobile device 114 may be a portable device of the user (e.g., a smart phone). The mobile device 114 may include an application capable of continuously and/or periodically reading data from the EDR 104. The mobile device may also collect data from the DLC 112 and/or from the EDR 104. The mobile device 114 may be communicatively coupled to the network 108 and may transmit data received from the EDR 104 and/or DLC to other devices (e.g., the diagnostic device 106, a remote server, etc.). In some embodiments, all of the data collected/processed relating to the vehicle may be collected by the EDR 104. In other embodiments, the EDR 104 may not be present and all data collected/processed may be collected by the mobile device 114. In some embodiments, the vehicle operator 116 may be a mere occupant and not an operator. For example, in autonomous vehicles, the operator 116 may be an inactive participant and/or not present.
It should be appreciated that the application in the mobile device 114 may be capable of performing additional functions, in some embodiments. For example, the mobile device 114 may include instructions for looking up information about an authenticated user of the mobile device 114 (e.g., vehicle operator 116, an occupant/passenger of vehicle 102, etc.). To continue the example, the mobile device 114 may include additional instructions for determining, based on the information about the authenticated user of the mobile device 114, whether the authenticated user is associated with one or more automobile insurance policies. If so, the application may retrieve/receive policy information (e.g., via the mobile device 114 and/or a remote computing device). The application may use the policy information to determine whether the vehicle 102 is a covered vehicle under one or more policy. The application may also prompt the authenticated user to enter information identifying one or more insurance policy under which the vehicle 102 is covered.
The remote computing device 212 may include a CPU 214, a memory 216, a machine learning training module 218, a machine learning operation module 220, a claim valuation module 222, and an electronic database 224 that is communicatively linked to the remote computing device 212. Generally, the CPU 214 may be configured to execute software instructions stored in the memory 216. The instructions may, when executed, cause the machine learning training module 218 to read data and train ML models. The trained ML models may be stored in the memory 216, for example. The instructions may, when executed, cause machine learning operation module to load, initialize, execute, and/or operate existing (i.e., trained ML models). The claim valuation module 222 may interpret the output of ML models executing in machine learning operation module 220 to generate a value corresponding to the value of a claim.
In operation, after the occurrence of an impact event (e.g., a crash, accident, etc.) resulting in the damaged vehicle 202, the customer 206 may open an application in the mobile computing device 204. The application may be available to the public in an application store, and the customer 206 may be required to authenticate (e.g., to login) using credentials obtained from the proprietor of the methods and systems herein. The customer 206 may have the option of submitting an insurance claim relating to the damaged vehicle 202 via the application. The application may prompt the customer 206 to enter information relating to the damaged vehicle 202. For example, the customer 206 may be prompted to select the cause of the damage from a pre-filled list (e.g., accident, weather, vandalism, etc.). One of the pieces of information that the customer may be invited/required to provide is an image 208 depicting the damage to the vehicle. Once the customer 206 has entered the information the application requires, the user may submit the information via the network 210 to the remote computing device 212.
Communication between the application and remote computing device 212 may be implemented using any suitable programming language, technology stack, and/or framework. For example, a client-server web development framework may be used to implement a web site, mobile application (e.g., an Android application package, etc.), and/or set of server-side processing scripts/programs. The server-side components may execute in an application server. In some embodiments, a front-end web application framework (e.g., a JavaScript web framework) may implement some or all of the server-side components. Once the remote computing device 212 receives the information submitted by the customer 206, the remote computing device may invoke a trained ML model in ML operation module 220. That is, by the time a user submits a self-service request for information relating to vehicle damage, remote computing device 212 may have already trained one or more ML model. A first ML model may be provided with the image 208 as input, and may output a set of image parameters. As stated above, telematics data may also be received via the network 210. The set of image parameters and the telematics data may be provided as input to a second ML model executing in ML operation module 222. The second ML model may be configured to output a claim valuation prediction, which may be analyzed by claim valuation module 222 to determine a precise value corresponding to the damage to the vehicle 202.
It should be appreciated that, like the application in the mobile device 114 of
The CNN depicted in
The ANN depicted in
In general, training ML models may include establishing a network architecture, or topology, and adding layers that may be associated with one or more activation functions (e.g., a rectified linear unit, softmax, etc.), loss functions and/or optimization functions. Multiple different types of artificial neural networks may be employed, including without limitation, recurrent neural networks, convolutional neural networks, and deep learning neural networks. Data sets used to train the artificial neural network(s) may be divided into training, validation, and testing subsets; these subsets may be encoded in an N-dimensional tensor, array, matrix, or other suitable data structures. Training may be performed by iteratively training the network using labeled training samples. Training of the artificial neural network may produce byproduct weights, or parameters which may be initialized to random values. The weights may be modified as the network is iteratively trained, by using one of several gradient descent algorithms, to reduce loss and to cause the values output by the network to converge to expected, or “learned”, values. In an embodiment, a regression neural network may be selected which lacks an activation function, wherein input data may be normalized by mean centering, to determine loss and quantify the accuracy of outputs. Such normalization may use a mean squared error loss function and mean absolute error. The artificial neural network model may be validated and cross-validated using standard techniques such as hold-out, K-fold, etc. In some embodiments, multiple artificial neural networks may be separately trained and operated, and/or separately trained and operated in conjunction. In another embodiment, a Bayesian model may be used to train the ML model.
Training the CNN in
The ANN depicted in
Although a preferred embodiment may include a daisy-chained set of ML models, wherein the output of one ML model is provided as input to a successive ML model; in some embodiments, a voting classifier/regression structure may be used, wherein a plurality of models determine independent predictions, and the independent predictions are averaged, compared, or weighted in a voting scheme. In some embodiments, a CNN and an ANN may be used, but may be separated (e.g., may run on different computing devices). For example, the CNN and ANN may both be trained in a server, but one or both may be executed in a mobile device of a user. In some embodiments, different models may be used for different purposes. For example, evaluating the claim value of claims involving certain classes of vehicles (e.g., rare cars, late model cars, etc.) may require the training, selection, and use of multiple trained models for those respective classes. The model used for analyzing the customer's claim may be selected based on answers that the customer 206 provides via the mobile device 204.
Training the CNN and ANN ML models may include assembling a pipeline of different regressors, wherein each regressor uses various different parameters, to determine which regressor provides the most accurate outcome. Each model may be operated, programmatically, with different combinations of hyperparameters (e.g., all possible hyperparameters in a search space). Eventually, the performance of the multiple regressors/models may be compared to identify best-performing model, and a copy of the tuned hyperparameters for that model may be identified, persisted, and/or further tuned (e.g., by manual investigation/experimentation). The ML models trained in the embodiments discussed herein may be trained using large volumes of data. For example, several years of telematics data obtained from customer devices may be used. The data may be on the order of one petabyte or larger. In some embodiments, customers may be incentivized to consent to allow the continuous and/or periodic collection of such data from a mobile device and/or a vehicle interface. In some areas, regulators may require the collection of some telematics data by automobiles. As such, a minimum amount of data may already be present in some vehicles without customer opt-in, while accessing the data may require opt-in/consent. Once a model is trained, a customer may be able to receive an instantaneous or near-instantaneous claim result. In such cases, the customer may first be required to consent to having their claim processed by the trained ML model. Once a dollar amount of the claim is determined, the value may be provided to the customer to replace/repair the damaged vehicle, for total loss detection, and/or provided to another business process. Value may be provided to customers via any suitable means, including via paper check, electronic transfer of any currency, etc. Ultimate determinations of claim coverage and settlement may be governed by customers' insurance policy.
The method 400 may further include receiving an image of a damaged vehicle (block 404). The damaged vehicle may have been damaged by any circumstance, including all forms of unintentional damage (e.g., a “fender-bender,” storm damage, serious accident, etc.) and intentional damage (e.g., vandalism). The exception data and/or image data may be transmitted to a remote computing system for processing, and/or may be received in a mobile device of a user where it is processed in situ. In such embodiments, the trained ML models discussed above may be distributed to the mobile computing device of the user. For example, the application discussed in conjunction with
The method 400 may further include generating one or more image parameter by analyzing one or more image of a damaged vehicle using a first ANN (block 406). As noted, the first ANN may be a convolutional neural network (CNN) as discussed with respect to
Next, the method 400 may include generating a claim value corresponding to the damaged vehicle by analyzing the image parameters and exception data using a second ANN, and transmitting the claim value to a computing device (block 408). The second ANN may accept a set of inputs, wherein the output of the CNN is one of the inputs. The remaining inputs may include telematics data as discussed above (e.g., speed, angle of impact, delta-V, etc.), and may also include other information that may prove dispositive of claim value during training and experimentation. For example, in some embodiments, demographic information relating to the customer may be used to train the second ANN. As noted above, the ability of the method 400 and other methods and systems disclosed herein to train separate and complementary models for the analysis of both telematics data and image-based data overcomes technical problems inherent to using one or the other, but not both, sources of data. An approach relying on only visually apparent information about a vehicle lacks information about the physical circumstances of an impact, in the same way that an approach relying only on the physical circumstances of an impact may be flawed. As discussed, telematics data and/or sensor data may be inaccurate, having been damaged or disrupted due to an impact.
The claim value(s) determined by the trained models may be used in any suitable way, including for claim settlement purposes. For example, in the embodiment discussed above wherein one or both of the trained ML models are executing in the mobile device of the customer, the claim value may be displayed to the customer via an application executing in the mobile device. The application may include instructions which when executed prompt the customer to accept the claim value as a final binding settlement of an insurance claim relating to the damaged vehicle. In this way, the methods and systems depicted herein may be used to enable a fully-automated claim reporting, processing, and settlement procedure without any human input from the perspective of the insurer-proprietor. Over time, such automated methods and systems may result in significant cost savings.
With the foregoing, an insurance customer may opt-in to a rewards, insurance discount, or other type of program. After the insurance customer provides the customer's affirmative consent, an insurance provider remote server may collect data from the customer's mobile device, smart vehicle controller, or other smart devices-such as with the customer's permission or affirmative consent. The data collected may be related to certain functionalities or profiles, and/or insured assets before (and/or after) an insurance-related event, including those events discussed elsewhere herein. In return, risk averse insureds, vehicle owners, home owners, or home or apartment occupants may receive discounts or insurance cost savings related to home, renters, personal articles, auto, and other types of insurance from the insurance provider.
In one aspect, smart or autonomous vehicle data, smart or interconnected home data, mobile device data, social media data, and/or other data, including the types of data discussed elsewhere herein, may be collected or received by an insurance provider remote server, such as via direct or indirect wireless communication or data transmission from a smart or autonomous vehicle, mobile device, smart home controller, other customer computing device, or customer social media content after a customer affirmatively consents or otherwise opts-in to an insurance discount, reward, or other program. The insurance provider may then analyze the data received with the customer's permission to provide benefits to the customer. As a result, risk averse customers may receive insurance discounts or other insurance cost savings based upon data that reflects low risk behavior and/or technology that mitigates or prevents risk to (i) insured assets, such as vehicles, personal belongings, or homes, and/or (ii) vehicle, home or apartment occupants.
Although the text herein sets forth a detailed description of numerous different embodiments, it should be understood that the legal scope of the invention is defined by the words of the claims set forth at the end of this patent. The detailed description is to be construed as exemplary only and does not describe every possible embodiment, as describing every possible embodiment would be impractical, if not impossible. One could implement numerous alternate embodiments, using either current technology or technology developed after the filing date of this patent, which would still fall within the scope of the claims.
It should also be understood that, unless a term is expressly defined in this patent using the sentence “As used herein, the term ‘______’ is hereby defined to mean . . . ” or a similar sentence, there is no intent to limit the meaning of that term, either expressly or by implication, beyond its plain or ordinary meaning, and such term should not be interpreted to be limited in scope based upon any statement made in any section of this patent (other than the language of the claims). To the extent that any term recited in the claims at the end of this disclosure is referred to in this disclosure in a manner consistent with a single meaning, that is done for sake of clarity only so as to not confuse the reader, and it is not intended that such claim term be limited, by implication or otherwise, to that single meaning. Finally, unless a claim element is defined by reciting the word “means” and a function without the recital of any structure, it is not intended that the scope of any claim element be interpreted based upon the application of 35 U.S.C. § 112(f). The systems and methods described herein are directed to an improvement to computer functionality, and improve the functioning of conventional computers.
Throughout this specification, the word “set”, unless expressly defined otherwise, is hereby defined to mean a set having one or more elements, but not the empty set.
Throughout this specification, plural instances may implement components, operations, or structures described as a single instance. Although individual operations of one or more methods are illustrated and described as separate operations, one or more of the individual operations may be performed concurrently, and nothing requires that the operations be performed in the order illustrated. Structures and functionality presented as separate components in example configurations may be implemented as a combined structure or component. Similarly, structures and functionality presented as a single component may be implemented as separate components. These and other variations, modifications, additions, and improvements fall within the scope of the subject matter herein.
Additionally, certain embodiments are described herein as including logic or a number of routines, subroutines, applications, or instructions. These may constitute either software (code embodied on a non-transitory, tangible machine-readable medium) or hardware. In hardware, the routines, etc., are tangible units capable of performing certain operations and may be configured or arranged in a certain manner. In example embodiments, one or more computer systems (e.g., a standalone, client or server computer system) or one or more modules of a computer system (e.g., a processor or a group of processors) may be configured by software (e.g., an application or application portion) as a module that operates to perform certain operations as described herein.
In various embodiments, a module may be implemented mechanically or electronically. Accordingly, the term “module” should be understood to encompass a tangible entity, be that an entity that is physically constructed, permanently configured (e.g., hardwired), or temporarily configured (e.g., programmed) to operate in a certain manner or to perform certain operations described herein. Considering embodiments in which modules are temporarily configured (e.g., programmed), each of the modules need not be configured or instantiated at any one instance in time. For example, where the modules comprise a general-purpose processor configured using software, the general-purpose processor may be configured as respective different modules at different times. Software may accordingly configure a processor, for example, to constitute a particular module at one instance of time and to constitute a different module at a different instance of time.
Modules can provide information to, and receive information from, other modules. Accordingly, the described modules may be regarded as being communicatively coupled. Where multiple of such modules exist contemporaneously, communications may be achieved through signal transmission (e.g., over appropriate circuits and buses) that connect the modules. In embodiments in which multiple modules are configured or instantiated at different times, communications between such modules may be achieved, for example, through the storage and retrieval of information in memory structures to which the multiple modules have access. For example, one module may perform an operation and store the output of that operation in a memory device to which it is communicatively coupled. A further module may then, at a later time, access the memory device to retrieve and process the stored output. Modules may also initiate communications with input or output devices, and can operate on a resource (e.g., a collection of information).
The various operations of example methods described herein may be performed, at least partially, by one or more processors that are temporarily configured (e.g., by software) or permanently configured to perform the relevant operations. Whether temporarily or permanently configured, such processors may constitute processor-implemented modules that operate to perform one or more operations or functions. The modules referred to herein may, in some example embodiments, comprise processor-implemented modules.
Similarly, the methods or routines described herein may be at least partially processor-implemented. For example, at least some of the operations of a method may be performed by one or more processors or processor-implemented modules. The performance of certain of the operations may be distributed among the one or more processors, not only residing within a single machine, but deployed across a number of machines. In some example embodiments, the processor or processors may be located in a single location (e.g., within a home environment, an office environment or as a server farm), while in other embodiments the processors may be distributed across a number of locations.
The performance of certain of the operations may be distributed among the one or more processors, not only residing within a single machine, but deployed across a number of machines. In some example embodiments, the one or more processors or processor-implemented modules may be located in a single geographic location (e.g., within a home environment, an office environment, or a server farm). In other example embodiments, the one or more processors or processor-implemented modules may be distributed across a number of geographic locations.
Unless specifically stated otherwise, discussions herein using words such as “processing,” “computing,” “calculating,” “determining,” “presenting,” “displaying,” or the like may refer to actions or processes of a machine (e.g., a computer) that manipulates or transforms data represented as physical (e.g., electronic, magnetic, or optical) quantities within one or more memories (e.g., volatile memory, non-volatile memory, or a combination thereof), registers, or other machine components that receive, store, transmit, or display information. Some embodiments may be described using the expression “coupled” and “connected” along with their derivatives. For example, some embodiments may be described using the term “coupled” to indicate that two or more elements are in direct physical or electrical contact. The term “coupled,” however, may also mean that two or more elements are not in direct contact with each other, but yet still co-operate or interact with each other. The embodiments are not limited in this context.
As used herein any reference to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particular element, feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment may be included in at least one embodiment. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. In addition, use of the “a” or “an” are employed to describe elements and components of the embodiments herein. This is done merely for convenience and to give a general sense of the description. This description, and the claims that follow, should be read to include one or at least one and the singular also includes the plural unless it is obvious that it is meant otherwise.
As used herein, the terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “includes,” “including,” “has,” “having” or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements is not necessarily limited to only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Further, unless expressly stated to the contrary, “or” refers to an inclusive or and not to an exclusive or. For example, a condition A or B is satisfied by any one of the following: A is true (or present) and B is false (or not present), A is false (or not present) and B is true (or present), and both A and B are true (or present).
This detailed description is to be construed as exemplary only and does not describe every possible embodiment, as describing every possible embodiment would be impractical, if not impossible. One could implement numerous alternate embodiments, using either current technology or technology developed after the filing date of this application. Upon reading this disclosure, those of skill in the art will appreciate still additional alternative structural and functional designs for the systems and methods described herein, through the disclosed principles herein. Thus, while particular embodiments and applications have been illustrated and described, it is to be understood that the disclosed embodiments are not limited to the precise construction and components disclosed herein. Various modifications, changes and variations, which will be apparent to those skilled in the art, may be made in the arrangement, operation and details of the method and apparatus disclosed herein without departing from the spirit and scope defined in the appended claims.
The particular features, structures, or characteristics of any specific embodiment may be combined in any suitable manner and in any suitable combination with one or more other embodiments, including the use of selected features without corresponding use of other features. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular application, situation or material to the essential scope and spirit of the present invention. It is to be understood that other variations and modifications of the embodiments of the present invention described and illustrated herein are possible in light of the teachings herein and are to be considered part of the spirit and scope of the present invention.
While the preferred embodiments of the invention have been described, it should be understood that the invention is not so limited and modifications may be made without departing from the invention. The scope of the invention is defined by the appended claims, and all devices that come within the meaning of the claims, either literally or by equivalence, are intended to be embraced therein. It is therefore intended that the foregoing detailed description be regarded as illustrative rather than limiting, and that it be understood that it is the following claims, including all equivalents, that are intended to define the spirit and scope of this invention.
The present application is a continuation of and claims priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/529,056, filed on Aug. 1, 2019, which claims priority to U.S. Application No. 62/713,355, filed Aug. 1, 2018. The priority applications are hereby incorporated by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 16529056 | Aug 2019 | US |
| Child | 18675882 | US |
