Patent Publication Number: US-8527306-B1

Title: Automation and security application store suggestions based on claims data

Description:
FIELD OF INVENTION 
     This disclosure generally relates to computer networking, particularly the networking of automation and/or security products in a building or home. 
     BACKGROUND 
     As computer and computer networking technology has become less expensive and more widespread, more and more devices have started to incorporate digital “smart” functionalities. For example, controls and sensors capable of interfacing with a network can now be incorporated into devices such as appliances, security systems, light switches, and water valves. Such smart devices may be fully or partially integrated into a intelligent home or intelligent building system. These smart devices may be able to prevent or ameliorate losses leading to, for example, homeowner&#39;s or renter&#39;s insurance claims. However, for a smart device to be able to prevent or ameliorate a loss, the device must first be installed. After all, an automatic gas valve to stop gas flow to the stove will not prevent a fire in the kitchen from becoming explosive if the automatic gas valve is not present. Accordingly, it may be advantageous to recommend various smart devices to user of an intelligent home or intelligent building system based on the insurance claims of other users 
     SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE 
     A method for recommending intelligent home system products to a user of an intelligent home system including: (1) receiving usage data about the user&#39;s utilization of the intelligent home system, wherein the intelligent home system includes a plurality of installed devices, and wherein the usage data is associated with a user account information, includes usage data about each of the plurality of installed devices, and is stored on a computer-readable medium; (2) receiving claims data about a plurality of insurance claims, wherein each insurance claim includes one or more of information about the loss or information about the claimant; (3) analyzing the usage data and claims data to identify one or more intelligent home system products to recommend to the user when it is determined to recommend one or more intelligent home system products; and (4) presenting to the user the one or more intelligent home system products when it is determined to recommend one or more intelligent home system products wherein steps (1) to (4) are performed using one of one or more processors. 
     In an embodiment, a computer system including: a processor; and a program memory storing executable instructions that when executed by the processor cause the computer system to: receive usage data about the user&#39;s utilization of the intelligent home system, wherein the intelligent home system includes a plurality of installed devices, and wherein the usage data is associated with a user account, includes usage data about each of the plurality of installed devices, and is stored on a computer-readable medium; receive claims data about a plurality of insurance claims, wherein each insurance claim includes one or more of information about the loss or information about the claimant; analyze the usage data to identify one or more intelligent home system products to recommend to the user when it is determined to recommend one or more intelligent home system products; and present to the user the one or more intelligent home system products when it is determined to recommend one or more intelligent home system products. 
     In another embodiment, a tangible, computer-readable medium storing executable instructions that when executed by a processor of a computer system cause the computer system to: receive usage data about the user&#39;s utilization of the intelligent home system, wherein the intelligent home system includes a plurality of installed devices, and wherein the usage data is associated with a user account, includes usage data about each of the plurality of installed devices, and is stored on a computer-readable medium; receive claims data about a plurality of insurance claims, wherein each insurance claim includes one or more of information about the loss or information about the claimant; analyze the usage data to identify one or more intelligent home system products to recommend to the user when it is determined to recommend one or more intelligent home system products; and present to the user the one or more intelligent home system products if when is determined to recommend one or more intelligent home system products. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The figures described below depict various aspects of the system and methods disclosed herein. It should be understood that each figure depicts an 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. 
         FIG. 1  illustrates a block diagram of a computer network, a computer server, an intelligent home system controller, and intelligent home system products on which an exemplary intelligent home product recommendation system and method may operate in accordance with the described embodiments; 
         FIG. 2  illustrates a block diagram of an intelligent home system controller; 
         FIG. 3  illustrates an exemplary intelligent home product recommendation method for implementing the intelligent home product recommendation system in accordance with the presently described embodiments; 
         FIG. 4  illustrates an exemplary intelligent home product recommendation back-end method for implementing the intelligent home product recommendation system in accordance with the presently described embodiments; 
         FIG. 5  illustrates an exemplary illustration of how various intelligent home system products may be related to a particular type of loss or damage; 
         FIG. 6  illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary home with intelligent home system products installed. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Although the following text 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 on 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 patent is referred to in this patent 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 on the application of 35 U.S.C. §112, sixth paragraph. 
       FIG. 1  illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary intelligent home product recommendation system  100 . The high-level architecture includes both hardware and software applications, as well as various data communications channels for communicating data between the various hardware and software components. The intelligent home product recommendation system  100  may be roughly divided into front-end components  102  and back-end components  104 . The front-end components  102  are disposed within one or more homes  130 . It will be appreciated that while the word “home” is used to refer to the site at which the exemplary embodiment is installed, the exemplary intelligent home product recommendation system  100  could be installed in any number of locations such as a single-family house, apartment, condominium, or even non-residential locations such as businesses or warehouses. Further, while some of the exemplary front-end components  102  are described as being disposed “within” a home, it will be understood that some or all of the front-end components  102  may be installed outside or nearby a home. Further still, some or all of the front-end components  102  (for example, the intelligent home system controller  106 R discussed below) may be remote from the home  130  (e.g., the functions described here in as being performed by the intelligent home system controller  106  may be performed all or in part by products connected to the home  130  over the network  132  in a distributed processing or cloud computing arrangement). The front-end components  102  may include an intelligent home system controller  106 , a control device  110 , a sensor  112 , an appliance  114 , a display  116 , and/or an input device  118 . The front-end components  102  may be connected to each other via a link  120  and/or connected to a network  108  by the link  120 . The link  120  may be a wired connection, a wireless connection (e.g., one of the IEEE 802.11 standards), an optical connection, etc. 
       FIG. 2  illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary intelligent home system controller  106 . The intelligent home system controller  106  may have a controller  202  that is operatively connected to the database  210  via a link  218 . It should be noted that, while not shown, additional databases may be linked to the controller  202  in a known manner. The controller  202  may include a program memory  204 , a processor  206  (may be called a microcontroller or a microprocessor), a random-access memory (RAM)  208 , and an input/output (I/O) circuit  214 , all of which may be interconnected via an address/data bus  216 . It should be appreciated that although only one microprocessor  206  is shown, the controller  202  may include multiple microprocessors  206 . Similarly, the memory of the controller  202  may include multiple RAMs  208  and multiple program memories  204 . Although the I/O circuit  214  is shown as a single block, it should be appreciated that the I/O circuit  214  may include a number of different types of I/O circuits. The program memory  204  and/or the RAM  208  may include a graphical user interface  220 , an intelligent home system application  222 , a plurality of software applications  224 , and a plurality of software routines  226 . The graphical user interface  220  may be a set of instructions that when executed by the processor  206  cause the display(s)  116  and the input device(s)  118  to display information to a user and/or receive input from the user. As used herein, the terms “user” or “customer” refers to a user of the intelligent home product recommendation system described below and may be used interchangeably. The intelligent home system application  222  may be a set of instructions that when executed by the processor  206  cause the intelligent home system controller  106  to carry out the functions associated with the exemplary intelligent home product recommendation system  100  described herein. The RAM(s)  208  and program memories  204  may be implemented as semiconductor memories, magnetically readable memories, and/or optically readable memories, for example. The controller  202  may also be operatively connected to the network  108  via a link  120 . The intelligent home system controller  106  further includes a database  210  or other data storage mechanism (e.g., one or more hard disk drives, optical storage drives, solid state storage devices, etc.). The database  210  is adapted to store data related to the operation of the intelligent home product recommendation system  100 . Such data might include, for example, customer data collected by the intelligent home system controller  106  from the intelligent home products  110 ,  112 ,  114 ,  116 ,  118  pertaining to the intelligent home product recommendation system  100  such as sensor data, power usage data, control data, input data, other data pertaining to the usage of the intelligent home products, user profiles and preferences, application data for the plurality of applications  224 , routine data for the plurality of routines  226 , or other kinds of data. The intelligent home system controller  106  may access data stored in the database  210  when executing various functions and tasks associated with the operation of the intelligent home product recommendation system  100 . 
     Referring again to  FIG. 1 , as an alternative to or in addition to the intelligent home system controller  106 , a remote intelligent home system controller  106 R may be used to replace or augment the functions of the intelligent home system controller  106 . The remote intelligent home system controller  106 R may be a computer system or server connected to the network  132  by link  128 . Further, the remote intelligent home system controller  106 R may be implemented using distributed processing or “cloud computing” wherein the functions of the remote intelligent home system controller  106 R may be performed by one or more computers or servers connected to the network  132 . The remote intelligent home system controller  106 R may be implemented a server  140  in the back end  104  or in a similar server in the front end  102 . 
     A control device  110  may be any of a number of devices that allow automatic and/or remote control of systems in the home  130 . For example, the control device  110  may be a thermostat that can be adjusted according to inputs from the intelligent home system controller  106  to increase or decrease the temperature in the home  130 . Such a thermostat may control the temperature in a room and/or the entire home  130 . The control device  110  may also be a light switch that can be adjusted according to inputs from the intelligent home system controller  106  to turn on, turn off, brighten, and/or dim lights in the home. Such light switches may be coupled to all the lights in a room and/or an individual light fixture. The control device  110  may be an automated power outlet that can be adjusted according to inputs from the intelligent home system controller  106  to apply power and/or remove power from an outlet. Such an automated power outlet may, for example, allow for remote turning off of a television that was left on with a user command, automatic turning off of an electric stove that was left on after a threshold amount of time has elapsed since motion was detected in the home  130 , automatic turning on of a lamp when motion is detected in the room, etc. Similarly, the control device  110  may be an automated circuit breaker that can be adjusted according to input from the intelligent home system controller  106  to automatically and/or remotely apply or remove power to the entire home  130 . The control device  110  may be an automated water valve that can be adjusted according to inputs from the intelligent home system controller  106  to adjust the flow of water in and around the home  130  (e.g., turning on or turning off sprinklers, turning on a pump to prevent the basement from flooding, etc.). The control device  110  may be an automated gas valve that can be adjusted according to input from the intelligent home system controller  106  to adjust the flow of gas in and around the home  130 . Such an automated gas valve may, for example, allow for automatic and/or remote shutting off of gas during a fire or earthquake, etc. 
     The sensor  112  may be any of a number of sensors that may gather information about conditions in the home  130  and/or activities in the home  130 . For example, the sensor  112  may be a smoke detector which may send an input to the intelligent home system controller  106  indicating the presence of smoke in the home  130 . The sensor  112  may also be a part of the thermostat discussed above which may send input to the intelligent home system controller  106  indicating the temperature in the home  130 . The sensor  112  may be a water sensor which may send input to the intelligent home system controller  106  indicating, for example, the flow rate of a faucet, the presence of water in the basement, a roof leak in the attic, whether the sprinkler system is turned on, etc. The sensor  112  may be an energy monitor which may measure the power usage of a light fixture, an appliance, an entire room, the entire home  130 , etc. The sensor  112  may be any of a number of security sensors. Such security sensors may include motion sensors, door sensors (to detect the opening, closing, and/or breaking of a door), window sensors (to detect the opening, closing, and/or break of a window), etc. The sensor  112  may be a camera and/or a microphone which may send visual and/or audible input to the intelligent home system controller  106 . 
     The appliance  114  may be any of a number of appliances that may be present in the home  130  and communicating with the intelligent home system controller  106 . Each appliance  114  may be a “smart” appliance. For example, the appliance  114  may have an integrated computer system that helps to optimize the operation of the appliance  114 . Such an integrated computer system may assist, for example, with scheduling usage of the appliance (e.g., a smart dishwasher that will wait to run the dishwashing cycle until off-peak hours), sending usage reports to the intelligent home system controller  106 , sending sensor data to the intelligent home system controller  106 , receiving commands from the intelligent home system controller  106 , etc. An appliance  114  may be a refrigerator, dishwasher, a washing machine, a dryer, an oven, stove, a microwave, a coffeemaker, a blender, a stand mixer, a television, a video game console, a cable box or digital video recorder, etc. Additionally, an appliance  114  may also be a household robot (e.g., a robotic vacuum cleaner). 
     The display  116  may be any of a number of visual and/or audible output devices that may be used to display output from the intelligent home system controller  106 . Such output may include sensor readings, alarm messages, alerts, reports on the usage of various system in the home (e.g., electricity, water, etc), a list of supplies to purchase (e.g., a smart refrigerator has reported that the milk and eggs are running out and recommends to purchase some of each), video or images from a camera, a user interface operating in conjunction with the input device  118 , etc. The display  116  may also display data generated outside the home  130 , such as information about weather conditions, public safety announcements, sports scores, advertisements, television channels, videos, etc. The display  116  may be a monitor (e.g., an LCD monitor, a CRT monitor), a television, a screen integrated into a control panel of the intelligent home system controller  106 , a screen integrated into an appliance  114 , etc. The display  116  may be used to present a graphical user interface  220  with which the user can interact with the intelligent home system controller  106 . Additionally, the display  116  may also include or be connected to speakers (not shown). Such speakers may be used to present information from the intelligent home system controller  106 , for example, in connection with the graphical user interface  220 , an audible alarm, etc. The display  116  may also be a display that is remote from the home  130 . For example, the display  116  may be a remote display  116 R (e.g., a smartphone, tablet computer, or personal computer, etc) that sends and receives information over the network  132  over a wireless connection  124  (e.g., a cellular network connection, an 802.11 connection) or a wired connection  126 . The remote display  116 R may include a user interface to display information about the intelligent home system to a user via an application installed on the smartphone, tablet computer, or laptop computer. The remote input device  116 R may receive information from the intelligent home system controller  106  and display information about one or more of the control device  110 , sensor  112 , appliance  114 , display  116 , or input device  118 . For example, a user may use the application on his smartphone  116 R to receive an alert from the intelligent home system controller  106  over the wireless connection  124 . Of course, it will be understood that devices other than a smartphone, tablet computer, or personal computer may be a remote input device  116 R. 
     The input device  118  may be any of a number of input devices that may be used to input data and/or commands to the intelligent home system controller  106 . For example, the input device  118  may be a keyboard, mouse, remote control, etc. The input device  118  may also be integrated with the display  116 , for example, as a touchscreen. The input device  118  may also be a microphone which can receive verbal commands from a user. The input device  118  may be used to receive commands in connection with the graphical user interface  220 , the intelligent home system application  222 , and/or any other applications or routines associated with the exemplary intelligent home product recommendation system  100 . The input device  118  may be a remote input device  118 R (e.g., a smartphone, tablet computer, or personal computer, etc) that sends and receives information over the network  132  over a wireless connection  124  (e.g., a cellular network connection, an 802.11 connection) or a wired connection  126 . The remote input device  118 R may receive user input via an application installed on the smartphone, tablet computer, or laptop computer that may present a user interface to display information about the intelligent home system and receive user input. The remote input device  118 R may send commands (e.g., activate, deactivate, toggle, etc.) to the intelligent home system controller  106  to affect one or more of the control device  110 , sensor  112 , appliance  114 , display  116 , or input device  118 . For example, a user may use the application on his smartphone  118 R to turn off his stove over the wireless connection  124 . Of course, it will be understood that devices other than a smartphone, tablet computer, or personal computer may be a remote input device  118 R. 
     The front-end components  102  communicate with the back-end components  104  via the network  132 . For example, the intelligent home system products  106 - 118  situated in the home  130  may be connected to the network  132  via the home network  108  and the link  122 . The link  122  may be a wired connection, a wireless connection (e.g., one of the IEEE 802.11 standards), an optical connection, etc. The remote products  106 R,  116 R,  118 R may be similarly connected to the network  132  over respective links  128 ,  124 , and  126 . The network  132  may be a proprietary network, a secure public internet, a virtual private network or some other type of network, such as dedicated access lines, plain ordinary telephone lines, satellite links, combinations of these, etc. Where the network  132  comprises the Internet, data communications may take place over the network  132  via an Internet communication protocol. The back-end components  104  include a server  140 . The server  140  may include one or more computer processors adapted and configured to execute various software applications and components of the intelligent home product recommendation system  100 , in addition to other software applications. 
     Similarly to the intelligent home system controller  106 , the server  140  may have a controller  155  that is operatively connected to the database  146  via a link  156 . It should be noted that, while not shown, additional databases may be linked to the controller  155  in a known manner. The controller  155  may include a program memory  160 , a processor  162  (may be called a microcontroller or a microprocessor), a random-access memory (RAM)  164 , and an input/output (I/O) circuit  166 , all of which may be interconnected via an address/data bus  165 . It should be appreciated that although only one microprocessor  162  is shown, the controller  155  may include multiple microprocessors  162 . Similarly, the memory of the controller  155  may include multiple RAMs  164  and multiple program memories  160 . Although the I/O circuit  166  is shown as a single block, it should be appreciated that the I/O circuit  166  may include a number of different types of I/O circuits. The RAM(s)  164  and program memories  160  may be implemented as semiconductor memories, magnetically readable memories, and/or optically readable memories, for example. The controller  155  may also be operatively connected to the network  132  via a link  135 . The server  140  further includes a database  146  or other data storage mechanism (e.g., one or more hard disk drives, optical storage drives, solid state storage devices, etc.). The database  146  is adapted to store data related to the operation of the intelligent home product recommendation system  100 . Such data might include, for example, customer data collected by the intelligent home system controller  106  pertaining to the intelligent home product recommendation system  100  and uploaded to the server  140  such as data pertaining to the usage of the intelligent home products, data pertaining to insurance claims filed by customers, customer profiles, information about various intelligent home products that are available for installation, web page templates and/or web pages, or other kinds of data. The server  140  may access data stored in the database  146  when executing various functions and tasks associated with the operation of the intelligent home product recommendation system  100 . 
     As shown in  FIG. 1 , the program memory  160  and/or the RAM  164  may store various applications for execution by the microprocessor  162 . For example, a user-interface application  236  may provide a user interface to the server  140 . The user interface application  236  may, for example, allow a network administrator to configure, troubleshoot, or test various aspects of the server&#39;s operation, or otherwise to access information thereon. A server application  238  operates to transmit and receive information from one or more intelligent home system controllers  106  on the network  132 . The server application  238  may aggregate usage and/or claims data and select intelligent home system products to recommend to the user as discussed herein. The server application  238  may be a single module  238  or a plurality of modules  238 A,  238 B. While the server application  238  is depicted in  FIG. 1  as including two modules,  238 A and  238 B, the server application  238  may include any number of modules accomplishing tasks related to implantation of the server  140 . By way of example, the module  238 A may populate and transmit the client application data and/or may receive and evaluate inputs from the user to receive a data access request, while the module  238 B may communicate with one or more of the back end components  104  to fulfill a data access request. 
     Although the intelligent home product recommendation system  100  is shown to include one server  140 , one home  130 , one intelligent home system controller  106 , one control device  110 , one sensor  112 , one appliance  114 , one display  116 , and one input device  118  it should be understood that different numbers of servers  140 , homes  130 , intelligent home system controllers  106 , control devices  110 , sensors  112 , appliances  114 , displays  116 , and input devices  118  may be utilized. For example, the system  100  may include a plurality of servers  140  and hundreds of homes  130 , all of which may be interconnected via the network  132 . Further, each home  130  may include more than one of each of an intelligent home system controller  106 , a control device  110 , a sensor  112 , an appliance  114 , a display  116 , and an input device  118 . For example, a large home  130  may include two intelligent home system controllers  106  that are connected to multiple control devices  110 , multiple sensors  112 , multiple appliances  114 , multiple displays  116 , and/or input devices  118 . Additionally several homes  130  may be located, by way of example rather than limitation, in separate geographic locations from each other, including different areas of the same city, different cities, or different states. Furthermore, the processing performed by the one or more servers  140  may be distributed among a plurality of servers in an arrangement known as “cloud computing.” According to the disclosed example, this configuration may provide several advantages, such as, for example, enabling near real-time uploads and downloads of information as well as periodic uploads and downloads of information. 
       FIG. 3  is a block diagram of an exemplary intelligent home system product recommendation method  300  implemented on the system  100 . One or more customers who live in a home  130  may utilize the devices  106 - 118  as described herein (block  302 ). The system  100  monitors the usage of the devices  106 - 118  and records customer usage data as described herein. The customer may then use the user interface  220  and access his or her account (block  304 ). For example, the user interface  220  may be used by customers to purchase additional products, pay bills, adjust settings for products already installed, access third party information, etc. The customer&#39;s usage data may be transmitted to the server  140  (or other back-end  104  component) for processing over the network  132  (block  308 ). Such transmissions may occur as the data is generated or may occur during low utilization times of the front-end components  102  (e.g., late at night when many devices may be turned off). Further, such transmissions may occur sporadically and/or periodically. After receiving the customer&#39;s usage data, the server  140  may store the usage data (block  310 ) and analyze the usage data (block  312 ). Additionally, the server  140  may also receive insurance claim data (block  314 ) and analyze the insurance claim data ( 316 ). The server  140  may then use the analyzed usage data and analyzed insurance claim data to generate a recommended products list (block  318 ) and output one or more recommended products (block  320 ). The activities associated with blocks  310 - 320  are discussed with further detail below in relation to  FIG. 4 . The display of one or more recommended products may occur at a one of the displays  116  at the user interface  220  discussed above or it may be over a web browser on a personal computer unconnected to the system  100  (block  306 ). Furthermore, recommendations may be displayed using direct mail or other printed materials in addition or as an alternative to display on a computer screen. The recommended product list may be presented as a sidebar, box, pop-up, featured item, etc. on a user interface  220  associated with the system  100 . 
       FIG. 4  is a block diagram of an exemplary intelligent home system product recommendation back-end method  400  implemented on the system  100  in blocks  310 - 320  as shown in  FIG. 3 . Particularly the method  400  may be performed on the server  140 . The server  140  may analyze the customer&#39;s usage data and rank the products by usage (block  402 ). The usage data may be associated with user account data. The user account data may contain biographical (e.g., name, insurance policy number), demographic (e.g., age, gender, marital status, number of children/pets, etc.), economic (e.g., yearly household income, net worth, etc.), and geographic (e.g., the address of the claimant, latitude and longitude of the claimant, the elevation of the claimant, etc.) information about the user. The products may be ranked according to frequency of use. For example, in an embodiment wherein a particular home  130  includes an outlet control module, a light control module, and a motion sensor and the usage log indicates that the light control module is used more frequently than the outlet control module, then the light control module may be ranked before the outlet control module. It may be beneficial to rank the products in the customer&#39;s system to determine which products are most useful to the customer and for which the user may be more likely to entertain a recommendation to upgrade or buy a related product. However, it will be understood that some kinds of products such as interior light switches may be used more frequently than other products such as automated outdoor security cameras because a user is expected to have more interaction with the former. To account for this known difference, it may be advantageous to weigh the usage rankings either by using the user&#39;s historical data or by using data from the usage of many customers. Accordingly, the ranked customer product list may be able to detect an increase or decrease in the usage of one or more products in the former case and to detect an extraordinary amount of usage in the latter case. Additionally, the ranked customer product list may be an M-dimensional vector, where M is the number of products installed in the home  130 . The vector may be comprised of a sum of dimensions each multiplied by coefficients (e.g., representing weighed or unweighted usage metrics as discussed above). Thus, a more used product may have a greater effect on the vector than a less used product. 
     The server  140  may next access a database of claims data and a similar claimant list (block  404 ). The similar claimant list (block  406 ) may be generated using some or all of the claims data previously received by the server  140  (or other back-end  104  component). As customers of an insurance company submit claims for losses, the server  140  (or other back-end  104  component) may store claim data about each claim in a database  146 . Claim data may include what kind of claim was submitted (e.g., homeowners, renters, flood, etc.), what kind of loss or damage was reported (e.g., flooding, fire, burglary), additional details about where the loss or damage occurred (e.g., flooding in the basement, rodent damage in the attic, termite damage to porch, etc.), etc. Additionally, claim data may include or be associated with biographical (e.g., name, insurance policy number), demographic (e.g., age, gender, marital status, number of children/pets, etc.), economic (e.g., yearly household income, net worth, etc.), and geographic (e.g., the address of the claimant, latitude and longitude of the claimant, the elevation of the claimant, etc.) information about the claimant. Alternatively, the biographical, demographic, economic, and geographic information about the claimant may be stored separately from the claims data but be referenced by the claims data. The claim data may be used in conjunction with any of a number of known algorithms such as collaborative filtering, cluster models, or search-based filtering to generate the similar claimant list. 
     Collaborative filtering may be implemented, for example, to create and compares N-dimensional vectors for each claimant and customer, where N is the number of entries for biographical, demographic, economic, and geographic information about the claimants and customers. For example, a claimant vector for Claimant A may include the following:
 
28 age+1 marital+0 children+1 pet+$60000 income+30.2837° N lat+97.7325° W long+489 ft elevation
 
A claimant vector for Claimant B may include the following:
 
40 age+1 marital+2 children+2 pet+$100000 income+41.9480° N lat+87.6557° W long+597 ft elevation
 
Similarly to the claimants in the claims data, an N-dimensional vector may be created for U, the user being provided a recommendation. For example:
 
32 age+1 marital+1 children+2 pet+$150000 income+32.7478° N lat+97.0928° W long+430 ft elevation
 
The vectors for Claimant A and Claimant B may be compared (e.g., using a mathematical operation such as the sine or cosine of the vectors) to the vector for U to determine which vector is most similar to U. Of course, it will be understood that many more (e.g., hundreds, thousands, etc.) claims and claimant vectors may be compared to the vector for U. Further, it will be understood that while an eight-dimensional vector is used in the example above, the N-dimensional vector may have a much higher number of dimensions (e.g., tens, hundreds, etc.). After comparing the user being provided a recommendation to the claimant vectors, the similar claimant list may be created to include all of the claimants that have vectors of sufficient similarity (e.g., the result of a mathematical operation used to compare the vectors is above a threshold value) to the vector for the user being provided a recommendation.
 
     Additionally or alternatively, the similar claimant list may be created using a cluster model to assign each of the claimants to a cluster of claimants with similar characteristics. For example, claimants who are married, have children, and earn between $100,000 and $200,000 annually may be clustered together and claimants who are single, earn between $50000 and $100000 and live in Illinois may be clustered together. Further, claimants may be clustered according to the type or age of their homes, for example, claimants with fifteen-year-old two story homes with basement may be clustered together and claimants in condominiums may be clustered together. Clusters may be created using known clustering or other learning algorithms. In such a cluster model, the similar claimants list may include the claimants in the same cluster and as the user being provided a recommendation. A search-based filtering algorithm may be used in addition or as an alternative. A search-based algorithm may draw on characteristics of the user being provided a recommendation (e.g., address, demographics, type/age of home, etc.) and search through the database of claimants to determine other customers that have similar characteristics. The search algorithm may rank each result according to search relevance according to known techniques. Each customer may therefore have an associated ranking of each claimant by search relevance. Thus, the similar claimant list may include the claimants with a search relevance above a threshold value. As discussed herein, the generation of the similar claimant list may be performed in real-time as the user accesses the system  100  or asynchronously. It may be advantageous to restrict the similar claimant list comparison automatically or by user control. For example, it may be advantageous to compare the usage of the user to the claims of a subset of similar claimants (e.g., similar claimants with similar types of homes  130 ). Further, the restriction may be inserted before and/or after the comparison is made (e.g., streamlining the similar claimant list if the similar claimant list is longer than a threshold number, narrowing the recommended products list to allow filtering by a subset of the similar claimant list, etc.). 
     With the similar claimant list and the claims filed by the similar claimants, the server  140  may identify products related to the loss or damage in the claims (block  408 ).  FIG. 5  is an exemplary illustration  500  of how various intelligent home system products may be related to a particular type of loss or damage. Generally, intelligent home system products may be designed to prevent damage or loss (e.g., automatic locks, automatic storm doors); detect a source of damage or loss and to ameliorate the loss (e.g., security cameras, water sensors to detect a flooded basement), ameliorate damage (e.g., a gas kill switch to shutoff gas during a fire), detect theft and assist in the recovery of a lost item (e.g., tags on items such as RFID tags, etc.), etc. Thus, each intelligent home system product may be associated with a source of the loss (e.g., fire, water, etc.) and how the product may have affected the loss event (e.g., preventing, detecting). Of course, it will be understood that there may be other sources of loss, ways a product could affect the loss event, and intelligent home system products than those shown in  FIG. 5 . Referring again to  FIG. 4 , the server  140  may identify the product(s) that may have affected the losses claimed by the claimants on the similar claimants list and add those product(s) to the recommended products list. 
     The server  140  may also analyze the customer&#39;s usage data to determine the location of each use (block  410 ). As discussed above, many of the front-end components  102  are disposed within a home  130  (e.g., a control  110 , etc.). However, some intelligent home system products may be used outside the home  130  as well as inside the home  130 . For example, a user may use a remote display  116 R and/or a remote input device  118 R (e.g., a smartphone, tablet computer, etc.). Additionally, a user may monitor more than one home  130  (e.g., a user may own a main residence and a vacation property, a user may be a property manager or landlord using the intelligent home system to monitor properties) with intelligent home system products. 
     The location of the use may be determined by a number of known methods including analyzing the internet protocol (IP) address of the product. For example, the IP address of the remote display  116 R and/or remote input device  118 R may indicate that the remote display  116 R and/or remote input device  118 R connected to the network  132  through one of the wireless connection  124  or wired connection  126 , indicating use outside the house  130 , rather than using the network  108  and connection  112 , indicating use inside the house  130 . Additionally, the system  100  may determine that there are two or more homes  130  associated with the user&#39;s account (e.g., there are two or more sets of related IP addresses). The location of the use may also be determined by analyzing the geographic coordinates of the remote display  116 R and/or remote input device  118 R as determined by components of the remote display  116 R and/or remote input device  118 R (e.g., a Global Positioning System receiver of a smartphone, etc.). The geographic coordinates of the use may be compared to the geographic coordinates of the home  130 . If the geographic coordinates of the use differ from the geographic coordinates of the home  130  by a certain amount (e.g., &gt;twenty feet), the server  140  may detect that the use occurred outside the home. The geographic coordinates of the use may also be determined using a flag or other settable variable (e.g. a “home identifier” flag) to associate various products  106 - 118  with a particular home  130 . The home identifier flag may be a globally unique flag for each home  130  in the system  100  or unique for each home  130  associated with the user&#39;s account. 
     If the system  100  determines that one or more uses occurred outside the home  130 , the system  100  may add one or more products to the recommended product list based on the claims data. For example, if a user&#39;s usage information indicates that the user owns two or more homes  130 , the system  100  may perform a similar claimant list comparison as discussed above for each of the homes  130  separately because the needs of the two homes  130  may be different (e.g., one home  130  is a small, vacation beach house and the second home  130  is a larger, two-story home in a suburb). Additionally, if the usage indicates that the user has two homes  130  but does not use a remote display  116 R and/or remote input device  118 R, the system  100  may add a remote display  116 R and/or remote input device  118 R to the recommended product list. Further, if a user&#39;s usage indicates the user is a landlord or property manager, the system  100  may add to the recommended product list a remote display  116 R and/or remote input device  118 R with additional capabilities to aggregate information and alerts about the multiple properties. 
     After compiling a recommended products list, it may be advantageous to filter the recommended product list to avoid redundant recommendations (block  412 ). The server  140  may analyze the ranked product list to determine if one or more of the products on the recommended products list is already being used in the user&#39;s home  130 . It may be advantageous to remove such products from the recommended products list. Additionally or alternatively, it may be advantageous to reorder the recommended product list by any of a number of known techniques in order to favor certain products relative to others. For example, the recommended product list may be reordered by favoring the most profitable products, favoring the most popular products, favoring products that would more easily integrate into the user&#39;s current intelligent home system (e.g., if a user currently has water sensors but no security system, recommending automatic water valves over motion sensors or cameras), etc. When the recommended product list is ready, it may be displayed to the customer (block  414 ). Portions of the method  400  may or may not be executed in real-time. For example, the analysis, loading, and comparing activities discussed in relation to blocks  402 - 412  may be conducted periodically independently of a customer&#39;s interaction with the user interface  220  described above. In order to make more efficient use of the server&#39;s  140  computing resources, it may be advantageous to perform the activities associated with blocks  402 - 412  asynchronously (i.e., not in real-time) and display the one or more recommended products. However, some servers  140  may have sufficient computing resources to perform more of the activities associated with the method  400  in real-time. 
       FIG. 6  is an exemplary diagram of an intelligent home system  600  installed in a home that may collect customer usage data to send to a server  140  (or other back-end component  104 ). A user  602  may remotely interact with the intelligent home system  600  using a mobile device  604 . Such a mobile device  604  may include, for example, a mobile phone  604 A, a tablet computer  604 B, etc. The intelligent home system  600  may include an intelligent lock  606 . Such an intelligent lock  606  may include a sensor to detect the state of the intelligent lock  606  (e.g., locked or unlocked) and/or a control mechanism to respond to commands from the intelligent home control system  100  (e.g., a remote command to lock the door). The intelligent home system  600  may include one or more intelligent home control panels  608  such as the downstairs home control panel  608 A and the upstairs intelligent home control panel  608 B as shown in  FIG. 6 . The intelligent home control panel  608  may include a display and/or input device (e.g., a touchscreen). Such an intelligent home control system panel  608  or a mobile device  604  may be used to receive user input to the intelligent home control system  100  as described above. The intelligent home system  600  may include one or more lights  610  (e.g., the three lights  610 A, B, C as shown in  FIG. 6 ). Such intelligent lights  610  may include a sensor component to detect, for example, when a light  610  is on or off, and/or a control component to allow remote control of the intelligent light  610 . The intelligent home system  600  may also include a camera or motion sensor  612 . The intelligent home system  600  may further include an intelligent outlet  614 . Such an intelligent outlet  614  may include a sensor component to detect, for example, when the outlet  614  is on or off, and/or a control component to allow remote control of the intelligent outlet  614 . The intelligent outlet  614  may be coupled to a television  614 A and/or game system  614 B. The intelligent outlet may therefore detect when the television  614 A and/or game system  614 B are turned on or off and/or allow the user  602  to remotely power on or power off either or both of the television  614 A and game system  614 B. The intelligent home system  600  may also include one or more air conditioner  616 , window sensor  618 , refrigerator  620 , dishwasher  622 , and/or robot vacuum cleaner  624 . Some or all of the air conditioner  616 , window sensor  618 , refrigerator  620 , and dishwasher  622  may be intelligent such that they are able to send a sensor data to the intelligent home system  600  and/or receive commands from the intelligent home system  600 . Any possible components for the intelligent home system  600  that are not installed and are associated with a claim made by a another customer may lead to a recommendation to install the appropriate intelligent home system  600  component as described herein. For example, if the user  602  is a twenty-eight-year-old single male who lives alone in an urban area, the method  300  described above may compare the products used by the user  602  to the products associated with claims made by other young, single males in similar neighborhoods. In another example, the method  300  described above may compare the products used by the user  602  to the products associated with claims made by claimants in similar homes (e.g., two story homes with a basement and similar square-footage, etc.). By way of illustration, if customers similar to the user  602  have made claims for losses caused by theft, the method  300  may recommend to the user  602  a camera  612 . 
     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 (e.g., code embodied on a 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 hardware 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 hardware module that operates to perform certain operations as described herein. 
     In various embodiments, a hardware module may be implemented mechanically or electronically. For example, a hardware module may comprise dedicated circuitry or logic that is permanently configured (e.g., as a special-purpose processor, such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) to perform certain operations. A hardware module may also comprise programmable logic or circuitry (e.g., as encompassed within a general-purpose processor or other programmable processor) that is temporarily configured by software to perform certain operations. It will be appreciated that the decision to implement a hardware module mechanically, in dedicated and permanently configured circuitry, or in temporarily configured circuitry (e.g., configured by software) may be driven by cost and time considerations. 
     Accordingly, the term “hardware 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 hardware modules are temporarily configured (e.g., programmed), each of the hardware modules need not be configured or instantiated at any one instance in time. For example, where the hardware modules comprise a general-purpose processor configured using software, the general-purpose processor may be configured as respective different hardware modules at different times. Software may accordingly configure a processor, for example, to constitute a particular hardware module at one instance of time and to constitute a different hardware module at a different instance of time. 
     Hardware modules can provide information to, and receive information from, other hardware modules. Accordingly, the described hardware modules may be regarded as being communicatively coupled. Where multiple of such hardware modules exist contemporaneously, communications may be achieved through signal transmission (e.g., over appropriate circuits and buses) that connect the hardware modules. In embodiments in which multiple hardware modules are configured or instantiated at different times, communications between such hardware modules may be achieved, for example, through the storage and retrieval of information in memory structures to which the multiple hardware modules have access. For example, one hardware module may perform an operation and store the output of that operation in a memory device to which it is communicatively coupled. A further hardware module may then, at a later time, access the memory device to retrieve and process the stored output. Hardware 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 hardware 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. 
     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 is 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. 
     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, 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). 
     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. 
     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.