ELEVATOR BUTTON PANEL CONTROLLER FOR PROVIDING CONTACTLESS ACCESS TO ELEVATOR BUTTON PANEL AND METHOD THEREOF

Abstract

A method for registering a user's request to provide contactless access to an elevator button panel includes: sensing, by a sensor associated with the elevator button panel, a motion of an object pointing towards the panel by the user; determining a distance of the object from the panel; comparing the distance with a distance threshold to determine whether the object is within the distance threshold indicating the user's request for activating a button on the panel; responding to the determination that the distance is within the distance threshold by determining a magnitude and a direction of a velocity of the object while in motion; and registering the user's request when the velocity magnitude of the object is greater than a threshold velocity magnitude, and the direction is a positive direction indicating the motion of the object towards the button the user intended to select.

Claims

1-15. (canceled)

16. A method for registering a user's request to provide contactless access to an elevator button panel, the method comprising the steps of: sensing, by a sensor associated with the elevator button panel, a motion of an object pointing towards the elevator button panel by a user; determining a distance of the object from the elevator button panel; comparing the distance of the object with a predetermined distance threshold and determining whether the object is within the distance threshold thereby indicating an intention of the user for activating a button on the elevator button panel; in response to the determination that the distance is within the distance threshold, determining a magnitude and a direction of a velocity of the object while the object is in the motion; and registering the user's request for activating the button when the magnitude of the velocity of the object is greater than a magnitude of a predetermined threshold velocity, and the direction of the velocity of the object is a positive direction indicating the motion of the object is towards the button that the user intended to activate.

17. The method according to claim 16 including determining the distance of the object from the elevator button panel by measuring a time difference between a signal emitted from the sensor and a corresponding signal received by the sensor after the emitted signal is reflected from the object, and determining the magnitude of the velocity of the object based on the determined distance and the measured time difference.

18. The method according to claim 16 including upon sensing a plurality of objects simultaneously pointing towards the elevator button panel, determining a plurality of distances of the objects from the elevator button panel, each of the distances corresponding to an associated one of the objects and being within the distance threshold, and selecting a one of the objects having a shortest determined distance from the elevator button panel as the object indicating the intention of the user for activating the button on the elevator button panel.

19. The method according to claim 16 wherein the sensor includes at least one of a time of flight optical sensor and an ambient light sensor packaged on a single chip, and wherein the ambient light sensor detects ambient light within a sensing range of the ambient light sensor.

20. The method according to claim 16 including providing a first notification and a second notification to the user, wherein the first notification is provided in response to the object crossing the distance threshold to inform the user of the button to be activated, and wherein the second notification is provided to confirm that the elevator button panel has registered the user's request.

21. The method according to claim 20 wherein the first notification and/or the second notification is generated as at least one of an audio type notification, a visual type notification, and a combination of the audio type notification and the visual type notification.

22. The method according to claim 20 including using a light-emitting diode embedded with the elevator button panel to provide the first notification as a blinking type visual notification and the second notification as a solid type visual notification.

23. An elevator button panel controller for registering a user's request to provide contactless access to an elevator button panel, the elevator button panel controller comprising: a sensor associated with the elevator button panel and adapted to sense a motion of an object pointing towards the elevator button panel by a user; a distance determination unit determining a distance of the object from the elevator button panel based upon the motion sensed by the sensor; a comparison unit comparing the distance of the object with a predetermined distance threshold to determine when the object is within the distance threshold thereby indicating an intention of the user for activating a button on the elevator button panel; a velocity determination unit responsive to the determination that the distance is within the distance threshold to determine a magnitude and a direction of a velocity of the object while the object is in the motion; and an output unit registering the user's request for activating the button when the magnitude of the velocity of the object is greater than a magnitude of a predetermined threshold velocity, and the direction is a positive direction indicating the motion of the object is towards the button that the user intended to activate.

24. The elevator button panel controller according to claim 23 wherein the distance determination unit determines the distance of the object from the elevator button panel by measuring a time difference between a signal emitted from the sensor and a corresponding signal received by the sensor after the emitted signal is reflected from the object, and the velocity determination unit determines the magnitude of the velocity of the object based on the determined distance and the time difference.

25. The elevator button panel controller according to claim 23 wherein when the sensor senses a plurality of objects simultaneously pointing towards the elevator button panel, the distance determination unit determines a plurality of distances of the objects from the elevator button panel, each of the distances corresponding to an associated one of the objects and being within the distance threshold, and a selection unit of the elevator button panel controller selects a one of the objects having a shortest determined distance from the elevator button panel as the object indicating the intention of the user.

26. The elevator button panel controller according to claim 23 wherein the sensor includes at least one of a time of flight optical sensor and an ambient light sensor packaged on a single chip, and wherein the ambient light sensor detects ambient light within a sensing range the ambient light sensor.

27. The elevator button panel controller according to claim 23 wherein the output unit provides a first notification and a second notification to the user, wherein the first notification is provided in response to the object crossing the distance threshold to inform the user of the button to be activated, and wherein the second notification is provided to confirm that the elevator button panel has registered user's request.

28. The elevator button panel controller according to claim 27 wherein the first notification and/or the second notification is generated as at least one of an audio type notification, a visual type notification, and a combination of the audio type notification and the visual type notification.

29. The elevator button panel controller according to claim 27 including using a light-emitting diode embedded with the elevator button panel to provide the first notification as a blinking visual type notification and the second notification as a solid type visual notification.

30. An elevator installation comprising: an elevator button panel; an elevator button panel controller according to claim 23 communicatively coupled to the elevator button panel; and wherein the elevator button panel is at least one of a car operating panel and a landing operating panel.

Description

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0044] FIGS. 1A and 1B show side view and top view of an exemplary environment 100 of an elevator button panel controller for registering user's request to provide contactless access of an elevator button panel to users in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0045] FIG. 2 shows a block diagram 200 illustrating an elevator button panel controller for registering user's request to provide contactless access of an elevator button panel to users in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; and

[0046] FIG. 3 shows a method 300 for registering user's request to provide contactless access of an elevator button panel to users in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0047] The figures are only schematic and not to scale. Same reference signs refer to the same or similar features.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0048] FIGS. 1A and 1B show the side view and top view of an exemplary environment 100 of an elevator button panel controller (hereinafter also referred as panel controller) for registering user's request to provide contactless access of an elevator button panel to users in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. In one embodiment, the elevator button panel may be completely touch-less in the form of a liquid crystal display. In another embodiment, a conventional elevator can be modified with help of minimal hardware to provide contact-less functionality. Various technologies can be employed for the interactive surface of the elevator button panel such as capacitive touch (e.g., surface capacitance, projected capacitance, etc.), infrared grid, infrared acrylic projection, optical imaging, dispersive signal technology, and acoustic pulse recognition. It must be understood to a person skilled in the art that the panel controller may also be implemented in various environments, other than as shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B. Further, the exemplary environment 100 has been shown in different views such as the side view and the top view to provide better clarity towards understanding the invention.

[0049] The detailed explanation of the exemplary environment 100 is explained in conjunction with FIG. 2 that shows a block diagram 200 of the panel controller 102 for registering the user's request to provide contactless access of an elevator button panel to users in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. According to an embodiment, the panel controller 102 may be coupled to an elevator button panel 104 associated with an elevator in a multistorey building. The elevator button panel 104 may be a button panel placed inside the elevator or a call button panel placed outside the elevator. The panel controller 102 may comprise a sensor 202, a processing unit 204, a memory 206 and units 216. The memory 206 may be communicatively coupled to the processing unit 204 and the units 216. Further, the memory 206 may store a value for distance threshold D, 208, and a value for each of magnitude of threshold velocity 210, determined distances 212 and determined velocity 214. The significance and use of each of the stored quantities are explained in the upcoming paragraphs of the specification.

[0050] Further, the sensor 202 may comprise an array of sensors such that each sensor of the array of sensors is associated with a button on the elevator button panel 104. Furthermore, each sensor may comprise a time of flight (ToF) optical sensor and an ambient light sensor packaged on a single chip. A ToF optical sensor is a device that measures distance using light. In operation, a ToF sensor emits carefully controlled light toward an object in its periphery. Some of the light that impinges on the object is reflected to the sensor, where it is detected, processed, and compared to the emitted light. In one embodiment, the controlled light is delivered as short pulses. In this case, the distance of the object is determined by measuring the elapsed time from transmission to reception. In another embodiment, modulated light can be used and the phase delay of returning light can be measured to determine the distance of the object. Each of the buttons on the elevator button panel 104 may be incorporated with a light emitting diode (LED) 106 to provide notifications (first notification and second notification) to a user confirming the selection of an elevator button. The LED 106 may be a single LED provided alongside an elevator button or maybe in the form of a strip surrounding the elevator button. In another embodiment, an organic LEDs (OLED) that use an organic compound as the emissive electroluminescent layer may also be used to provide visual notification. According to other embodiments of the present disclosure, the panel controller 102 may also provide the notification using audio means i.e., audio-type notification or by using a combination of audio-visual means i.e., a combination of audio-visual notification. Further, the units 216 may comprise a distance determination unit 218, a comparison unit 220, a velocity determination unit 222, a selection unit 224 and an output unit 226. According to embodiments of the present disclosure, these units 218-226 and the processing unit 204 may comprise hardware components like processor, microprocessor, microcontrollers, and application-specific integrated circuit for performing various operations of the panel controller 102. It must be understood to a person skilled in the art that the processing unit 204 may perform all the functions of the units 218-226 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0051] Now referring back to FIGS. 1A and 1B, the environment 100 depicts two distinct embodiments of a method for providing contactless access of the elevator button panel 104 to users. In one exemplary embodiment as shown on the left-hand side of the FIGS. 1A and 1B, the environment 100 depicts an object 108 in the vicinity of the elevator button panel 104. The object 108 may be a finger on a user's hand or user's palm or an item such as a key, a stick, a toothpick, etc. used by the user for accessing the elevator button. The motion of the object 108 pointing towards an elevator button on the elevator button panel 104 is sensed by the sensor 202. To understand the user's intention of accessing the elevator button, the distance determination unit 218 determines a distance of the object 108 from the elevator button of the elevator button panel 104. Further, irrespective of the kind of object, the distance to the object is determined from a geometric center of the object 108.

[0052] As can be seen from FIGS. 1A and 1B, the distance of the object 108 is determined from the elevator button corresponding to floor 5 as the object 108 is within a sensing range of the sensor associated with the elevator button corresponding to the floor 5. The distance of the object 108 is determined based on the time of flight technique i.e., by calculating the time taken (time difference) by an optical signal to strike the object 108 and return to the sensor 202 after striking the object 108. This time taken is then multiplied with the speed of the optical signal to determine the distance of the object 108.

[0053] Once the distance 212 of the object 108 is determined, in the next step, the comparison unit 220 compares the determined distance 212 with a distance threshold D, 208 prestored in the memory 206 of the panel controller 102. As discussed above, the distance determination of the object within the distance threshold D, 208 helps the panel controller 102 to choose the corresponding elevator button (in this case floor 5) on the elevator button panel 104. As soon as it is confirmed that the distance of the object 108 is within the distance threshold D, 208, the panel controller 102 immediately also provides a blinking-type notification (first notification as a visual type notification) to the user via the LED 106. The blinking notification thus ascertains the user's intention of accessing the elevator button corresponding to the floor 5. According to other embodiments of the present disclosure, the first notification in the form of the visual type notification may be provided by changing colors of the LED, for example green indicating selected and red indicating not selected for ascertaining user's request of accessing the elevator button.

[0054] However, at this stage, providing the contactless access to the elevator button corresponding to floor 5 may not be considered to be final as the blinking notification only provides the user an indication, that based on the position of the object 108 associated with him/her, it appears that he/she wants to access the elevator button corresponding to the floor 5. This thus also gives a chance to the user to modify the position of the object 108 associated with him/her in order to point towards the correct elevator button, if required. This step thus allows avoiding any nuisance calls that may get registered due to the incorrect position of the object 108 associated with the user.

[0055] Once it has been ascertained that the user indeed wants to access the elevator button corresponding to the floor 5, the velocity determination unit 222 determines the magnitude and the direction of the velocity of the object 108 while the object is in motion. The determined magnitude of velocity 214 of the object 108 is compared with a magnitude of threshold velocity 210 prestored in the memory 206 of the panel controller 102. Here, the magnitude of threshold velocity 210 refers to a predefined threshold speed. Further, from the determined direction of the velocity of the object 108, it is determined whether the object 108 is moving towards or away from the elevator button corresponding to floor 5. If the determined magnitude of velocity 214 of the object 108 is above the magnitude of threshold velocity 210 and the direction of the velocity of the object 108 is towards the elevator button corresponding to floor 5, the output unit 224 provides a bold-type notification (second notification as a visual type notification) to the user via the LED 106 confirming that a call to the elevator button corresponding to floor 5 has been registered and thus providing contactless access to the elevator button panel 104. According to other embodiments of the present disclosure, the second notification in the form of the visual type notification may be provided by changing colors of the LED, for example turning the color from green (indicative of first notification) to yellow indicating that the user's request for activating the button is registered. It may be understood to the skilled person that the first and the second notification may also be provided as a combination of visual and audio type notification or vice-versa. For example, upon detecting the object's distance within the distance threshold, a visual type notification may be provided (first notification) by turning the color of LED corresponding to Floor 5 as green followed by an audio type notification (second notification) as Your request for Floor 5 is registered.

[0056] In another exemplary embodiment, as shown on the right-hand side of FIGS. 1A and 1B, it may so happen that the user intentionally or unintentionally points a plurality of objects 110a, 110b, 110c towards the elevator button panel 104 such that different objects simultaneously come within the sensing range of different elevator buttons. For instance, as shown on the right-hand side of the FIG. 1A, objects 110a and 110b are within the sensing range of the elevator button corresponding to floor 5, while object 110c is also partly within the sensing range of the elevator button corresponding to floor 6. Moreover, the distances of each of the objects (110a, 110b, 110c) are within the distance threshold D, 208. In such a scenario, it may conventionally become difficult to understand the intention of the user. However, the panel controller 102 of the present disclosure is robust enough to understand such a situation and ultimately selects, by means of the selection unit 224, the object 110b having the shortest distance, d from the elevator button panel 104, thereby understanding that the user intends on registering a call to the elevator button corresponding to floor 5 and not floor 6.

[0057] Further, to register a call to the elevator button corresponding to floor 5, the panel controller 102 by means of the velocity determination unit 222 determines a magnitude and a direction of the velocity of the object 110b while the object is in motion and compares the determined magnitude of velocity 214 of the object 110b with the velocity threshold 210 prestored in the memory 206 of the elevator button panel controller 102. It then determines whether the object 110b is moving towards or away from the elevator button corresponding to floor 5. The output unit 226 provides a bold-type notification to the user via the LED 106 confirming that a call to the elevator button corresponding to floor 5 has been registered and thus providing contactless access to the elevator button panel 104, if the determined magnitude of velocity 214 of the object 110b is above the magnitude of threshold velocity 210 and the direction of the velocity of the object 108 is towards the elevator button corresponding to floor 5.

[0058] FIG. 3 depicts a method 300 for registering the user's request to provide contactless access of an elevator button panel to users in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0059] As illustrated in FIG. 3, the method 300 includes one or more blocks illustrating steps of a method for registering the user's request to provide contactless access of an elevator button panel to users. The method 300 may be described in the general context of computer executable instructions. Generally, computer executable instructions can include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, procedures, modules, and functions, which perform specific functions or implement specific abstract data types.

[0060] The order in which the method 300 is described is not intended to be construed as a limitation, and any number of the described method blocks can be combined in any order to implement the method. Additionally, individual blocks may be deleted from the methods without departing from the spirit and scope of the subject matter described herein.

[0061] At block 302, the method 300 may include sensing, by a sensor 202 associated with the elevator button panel 104, a motion of an object 108 pointing towards the elevator button panel 104 by a user.

[0062] At block 304, the method 300 may include determining a distance 212 corresponding to the object 108 from the elevator button panel 104. The distance of the object 108 is determined based on the time of flight technique i.e., by calculating the time taken by an optical signal to strike the object 108 and return to the sensor 202 after striking the object 108. The time taken is then multiplied with the speed of the optical signal to determine the distance of the object 108.

[0063] At block 306, the method 300 may include comparing the distance 212 of the object 108 with a distance threshold 208 to determine whether the object 108 is within the distance threshold 208 indicating the user's intention for accessing a button on the elevator button panel 104.

[0064] At block 308, the method 300 may include determining a magnitude and a direction of a velocity 214 of the object 108 while being in the motion.

[0065] At block 310, the method 300 may include registering the user's request for activating the button when it is determined that the magnitude of the velocity 214 of the object 108 is greater than the magnitude of a threshold velocity 210, and the direction determined is a positive direction indicating the motion of the object 108 towards the button the user intended to select.

[0066] A description of an embodiment with several components in communication with each other does not imply that all such components are required. On the contrary, a variety of optional components are described to illustrate the wide variety of possible embodiments of the invention.

[0067] When a single device or article is described herein, it will be clear that more than one device/article (whether they cooperate) may be used in place of a single device/article. Similarly, where more than one device or article is described herein (whether they cooperate), it will be clear that a single device/article may be used in place of the more than one device or article or a different number of devices/articles may be used instead of the shown number of devices or programs. The functionality and/or the features of a device may be alternatively embodied by one or more other devices which are not explicitly described as having such functionality/features. Thus, other embodiments of the invention need not include the device itself.

[0068] Finally, the language used in the specification has been principally selected for readability and instructional purposes, and it may not have been selected to delineate or circumscribe the inventive subject matter. It is therefore intended that the scope of the invention be limited not by this detailed description, but rather by any claims that issue on an application based here on. Accordingly, the embodiments of the present invention are intended to be illustrative, but not limiting, of the scope of the invention, which is set forth in the following claims.

[0069] While various aspects and embodiments have been disclosed herein is related to elevators, aspects of this disclosure may also be applied in connection with other types of conveyance or transportation devices, such as a dumbwaiter, an escalator, a moving sidewalk, a wheelchair lift and the like which will be apparent to those skilled in the art. The various aspects and embodiments disclosed herein are for purposes of illustration and are not intended to be limiting, with the true scope and spirit being indicated by the following claims.

[0070] In accordance with the provisions of the patent statutes, the present invention has been described in what is considered to represent its preferred embodiment. However, it should be noted that the invention can be practiced otherwise than as specifically illustrated and described without departing from its spirit or scope.