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US 2014/0004883 A1Published application
Methods and Systems for Remote Flood Zone Determinations
AssigneeFloodsearch LLC
InventorsBrian P. Catalano, Leonardo Paneque
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
This patent discloses methods and systems for remotely requesting a flood zone determination from a mobile device such as a smart phone. The methods and systems use the GPS receiver in the mobile device to determine the exact latitude and longitude of the user's location, thus eliminating the need for geocoding, eliminating errors introduced by manual data entry, and eliminating the need for the time consuming manual determination processes required, for example, for non-standard-addressed locations and for structures located near a 100-year flood zone.
Claims20
A system for remotely obtaining flood zone information, the system comprising:
- a mobile device comprising a GPS receiver, a computer processor and memory, a user interface, a first data network interface, and a flood search app client;
- a flood search server platform device comprising a computer processor and memory, a second and third data network interface, a flood search database, and a flood search engine;
- and
- a flood determination platform comprising a computer processor and memory, a fourth data network interface, a flood maps database, and flood zone determination software;
- where the flood search app client comprises software for receiving data from and presenting data to a user via the user interface, software for retrieving from the GPS receiver a latitude coordinate and a longitude coordinate corresponding to a geographic location associated with the mobile device, software for sending the coordinates to the flood search engine via the first data network interface, software for receiving a flood insurance rate zone corresponding to the coordinates from the flood search engine via the first data network interface, and software for displaying the flood insurance rate zone on the user interface;
- where the flood search engine comprises software for receiving the coordinates from the flood search app client via the second data network interface, software for sending the coordinates to the flood zone determination software via the third data network interface, software for receiving the flood insurance rate zone from the flood zone determination software via the third data network interface, software for storing the coordinates and flood insurance rate zone in the flood search database, and software for sending the flood insurance rate zone to the flood search app client via the second data network interface;
- and
- where the flood zone determination software comprises software for receiving coordinates from the flood search engine via the fourth data network interface, software for using the flood maps database to identify the flood insurance rate zone corresponding to the coordinates, and software for sending the flood insurance rate zone to the flood search engine via the fourth data network interface.
5 more elements
A method of remotely obtaining a flood zone determination comprising:
- on a mobile device, receiving an interaction from a user, responding to the user interaction by determining the location coordinates of the mobile device, forming a flood search app request by inserting the location coordinates into the flood search app request, and sending the flood search app request to a flood search server platform;
- on the flood search server platform, receiving the flood search app request, responding to the flood search app request by extracting the location coordinates from the flood search app request, sending the location coordinates to a flood determination platform, receiving a flood insurance rate zone from the flood determination platform, storing the location coordinates and flood insurance rate zone in a flood search database, forming a flood search app response by inserting the flood insurance rate zone into the flood search app response, and sending the flood search app response to the mobile device;
- and where
- the mobile device comprises a computer processor and memory, an integrated GPS receiver for determining the location coordinates of the mobile device, a user interface for receiving user input and displaying information, and a first data network interface for sending and receiving data communications;
- the flood search server platform comprises a computer processor and memory, a second and third data network interface, and the flood search database;
- and
- the flood determination platform comprises a computer processor and memory, a fourth data network interface, and a flood maps database, and flood zone determination software.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.