JP7518738B2 - Elevator call operation control device and method - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an elevator call operation control device and method, and in particular to an elevator call operation control device and method using a motion sensor.

In recent years, the use of various optical sensors for elevator hall management has been proposed. For example, according to Patent Document 1, multiple pin cameras are used to detect the actions of elevator users at the hall, and it is possible to detect which of multiple buttons on a call registration device the user intends to operate, based on, for example, the movement of the palm, and then that button is selected and activated.

Patent No. 6172369

Optical sensors that detect the movement of the operator's hand, such as the multiple pin cameras exemplified in Patent Document 1, are generally called motion sensors. In the case of Patent Document 1, the motion sensor is installed on the ceiling and merely selects and displays the button on the call registration device that is intended to be operated.

In response to this, the present invention envisions incorporating and integrating a motion sensor into the call registration device. By using the motion sensor in this way, it is possible to specify the up or down direction of the elevator without touching the push button on the call registration device installed at the landing.

For example, it is possible to transmit an upward direction to the motion sensor and have it detected by raising the palm, but the natural movement of the operator is usually to then lower the whole arm rather than just the palm. This movement is interpreted by the motion sensor as an instruction to move down after detecting an upward direction. Also, if the downward direction is first transmitted by lowering the palm, and then the movement of returning the palm to its original position is subsequently performed, this may be interpreted as an instruction to move up.

The above problem means that the operator's unintentional, natural, continuous movements can cause the elevator to malfunction by specifying both directions when registering a call.

The present invention therefore aims to provide a highly reliable elevator call operation control device and method by prioritizing the preceding operation of a series of consecutive movements and preventing operation due to the following operation.

In view of the above, the present invention is a call operation control device for an elevator that processes call signals from a call registration device installed on a landing floor, the call registration device generates an upward or downward call signal, and the call operation control device is characterized by having a first means for receiving a call signal in a first direction and registering a call in the first direction, and a second means for, when receiving a call signal in a second direction opposite to the first direction on the same floor, preventing call registration of a call signal in the second direction for a certain period of time from receiving the call signal in the first direction, and permitting call registration of a call signal in the second direction after the certain period of time has elapsed.

The present invention also provides an elevator call operation control method for processing call signals from a call registration device installed on a landing floor, characterized in that it performs a first process of receiving an upward or downward call signal generated by the call registration device, receiving a call signal for a first direction, and registering a call for the first direction, and a second process of, when a call signal for a second direction opposite to the first direction on the same floor is received, preventing call registration of a call signal for the second direction for a certain period of time from receiving the call signal for the first direction, and permitting call registration of a call signal for the second direction after the certain period of time has elapsed.

The present invention also provides an elevator call operation control method that processes signals from a motion sensor that generates an upward or downward call signal in response to the user's movements, and is characterized in that it registers a call in a first direction in response to a first call signal received first, and when a call signal in a second direction opposite to the first direction on the same floor is received consecutively, it prevents call registration of a call signal in the second direction for a certain period of time from the reception of the call signal in the first direction, and allows call registration of a call signal in the second direction after the certain period of time has elapsed.

The present invention provides a highly reliable elevator call operation control device and method by prioritizing the preceding operation of a series of consecutive movements and preventing operation due to the following operation.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a call registration device with a motion sensor installed on an intermediate floor of an elevator hall. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a call registration device with a motion sensor installed on the lowest floor of an elevator hall. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a call registration device with a motion sensor installed on the top floor of an elevator hall. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a cross-sectional configuration of a call registration device with a motion sensor installed on an elevator landing floor. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a hall terminal control device 9 and an elevator call operation control device 10. FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing the operation of the elevator call operation control device 10.

The following describes an embodiment of the present invention with reference to the drawings.

Figures 1 to 3 show examples of the configuration of a call registration device with a motion sensor installed on an elevator landing floor. Figure 1 shows an example of the configuration of a call registration device on an intermediate floor, Figure 2 shows an example of the configuration of a call registration device on the bottom floor, and Figure 3 shows an example of the configuration of a call registration device on the top floor.

The call registration device 13 on the middle floor shown in Figure 1 has a motion sensor 12, an up call button 11U, and a down call button 11D arranged from the top, while the call registration device 13 on the bottom floor shown in Figure 2 has a motion sensor 12 and an up call button 11U arranged from the top, while the call registration device 13 on the top floor shown in Figure 3 has a motion sensor 12 and a down call button 11D arranged from the top.

The motion sensor 12 optically detects human movement, for example, generating an upward call signal when it detects an upward movement of a body part such as a palm, and generating a downward call signal when it detects a downward movement of a body part such as a palm. Note that the present invention does not place any particular limitations on the principle by which the motion sensor 12 identifies human movement.

In either case, it is preferable that the motion sensor 12 is provided at the upper part of the call registration device 13. The reason for this is that if the motion sensor 12 is located in the middle or lower part, and the operator goes to press the push button above it and then lowers his/her hand, the motion sensor may mistakenly interpret this as an instruction to lower the hand.

Figure 4 shows an example of the cross-sectional configuration of a call registration device with a motion sensor installed on an elevator landing floor. The call registration device 13 is placed on the front side of the wall 20 of the elevator landing floor, and from the top are the motion sensor 12, the up call button 11U, and the down call button 11D. In addition, a landing terminal control device 9 is placed on the back side of the wall 20 of the elevator landing floor, and is linked to the elevator call operation control device 10 described below.

Figure 5 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of the hall terminal control device 9 and the elevator call operation control device 10. In this diagram, the hall terminal control device 9 receives a call signal Sg1a from the motion sensor 12 of the call registration device 13 or a call signal Sg1b from the hall button 11 (call buttons 11U, 11D), and transmits the call signal Sg1 to the receiving unit 1 in the elevator call operation control device 10. The hall terminal control device 9 also receives a button control signal Sg2 from the button control unit 6 in the elevator call operation control device 10, and controls the lighting, blinking, and extinguishing of the hall button 11 (call buttons 11U, 11D).

The button operation detection unit 2 in the elevator call operation control device 10 detects that a call has been made at any floor by the call signal Sg1 received from the receiving unit 1. The permission determination unit 3 determines whether the call is permitted or not for the detected floor, and if it is not permitted, displays the floor where the call has been made via the display command unit 7, and also outputs audio via the sound guidance processing unit 8 to the floor where the call has been made.

If permission is granted, the registration determination unit 4 determines whether to register the call, and the landing floor registration unit 5 performs registration processing for the upward and downward directions of the floor from which the call originated. The button control unit 6 receives the results of the determination by the registration determination unit 4 and the landing floor registration unit 5 and controls the lighting, blinking, and extinguishing of the landing buttons 11 (call buttons 11U and 11D).

Figure 6 is a flow diagram showing the operation of the elevator call operation control device 10. In the flow of Figure 6, the first processing step S10 corresponds to the function of the button operation detection unit 2, which determines whether or not an input has been detected for a call from any floor, and if no input has been detected and no call has been made (No side), the same judgment is repeated until a call is detected, and if an input has been detected, the process proceeds to processing step S11.

Processing step S11 corresponds to the function of the permission determination unit 3, and determines whether or not service is available for the floor where the call was detected (the floor in question) according to preset determination information. If service is not available, no further processing is performed and the system returns to the initial standby state. At this time, guidance can be provided by display output from the display command unit 7 in FIG. 5 and voice output from the sound guidance processing unit 8. If service is available (Yes side), the system proceeds to processing step S12. Note that in the following explanation, call signals generated on the same floor are the subject of discussion, and calls generated on different floors are judged individually for each floor.

In processing step S12, the call signal is determined to be an upward call or a downward call, and if it is an upward call (Yes side), the process proceeds to processing step S13, and if it is a downward call (No side), the process proceeds to processing step S19.

Here, the processing steps S13 to S16 and the processing steps S19 to S22 correspond to the function of the registration determination unit 4. The processing steps S17 and S23 correspond to the function of the landing floor registration unit 5, and the processing steps S18 and S24 correspond to the function of the button control unit 6. Note that the processing steps S13 to S18 are determination processes for upward calls, and the processing steps S19 to S24 are determination processes for downward calls.

The function of the registration determination unit 4, which is the main part of the present invention, will be described in detail below. This description will cover a single occurrence case where an up or down call occurs alone, and a consecutive occurrence case where an up call occurs consecutively after a down call, or a consecutive up call occurs consecutively after a down call. Note that a single occurrence case is when only one of the hall buttons 11 (call buttons 11U, 11D) is pressed, or when the motion sensor 12 responds only to the initial action of up or down and does not detect a consecutive secondary action, while a consecutive occurrence case is when the motion sensor 12 responds to the initial action of up or down and also detects a consecutive secondary action. Note that a case where multiple people each perform up and down call operations within a short period of time on the same floor can also be considered a consecutive occurrence case.

In the case of a single case, either processing step S13 or S19 will be processed depending on the direction, whether it is up or down. Here, we will explain the up direction, but since the down direction is basically the same, we will only explain the differences and may omit duplicate explanations.

In this case, since it is an upward call, the process checks in processing step S13 whether any calls in the upward or downward directions have been registered, but they have not been registered (meaning that it is not a consecutive secondary call), so the process moves to processing step S15 on the No side. Note that processing step S19, which corresponds to the downward call, is exactly the same as processing step S13.

Processing step S15 is involved in the downward direction flag in the series of confirmation processes for the upward direction. Similarly, processing step S22 for the downward direction, which corresponds to processing step S16, is involved in the upward direction flag in the series of confirmation processes for the downward direction. This means that when registering a call in the upward direction, the downward direction is placed in a "downward call registration disabled" state for a certain period of time.

This process is intended to lock the secondary action (here, lowering) so that it does not respond to the primary action (here, raising) in the case of consecutive occurrences, and is released after about 0.5 seconds, which corresponds to the period during which the secondary action occurs, has elapsed. In any case, in this scene explaining a single case, this process is merely carried out, and there is no direct effect.

The process of processing step S16 sets the flag information, which is initially set to "upward call registration disabled", to "upward call registration disabled cancelled". This means that as soon as the conditions are met, upward call registration is enabled. Note that the corresponding processing step S20 in the case of lowering is the same as processing step S14, but differs in that it is for the downward direction. Note that, needless to say, when a vehicle is dispatched to this floor and operation in the specified direction begins, this flag is returned to the initial state of "upward call registration disabled".

Processing step S16 merely makes it possible to register an upward call once the conditions are met. It does not constitute an upward call registration; the upward call registration process is only possible in the subsequent processing step S17, and in this invention, processing steps S15 and S16 are performed before that.

In processing step S17, "upward call registration" is performed, and in response, in processing step S18, the upward call button 11U is turned on.

As is clear from the above, in the case of a single occurrence, a series of processing steps S13 to S18 in the upward direction, or a series of processing steps S19 to S24 in the downward direction are processed sequentially and then terminated. However, in the processing of a single occurrence case, processing steps S14 and S20 are not performed. This processing is performed in the case of consecutive occurrences.

In the case of consecutive occurrences, the explanation is premised on the assumption that a series of processing steps S13 to S18 are performed for the primary action (here, raising), and that a secondary action (here, lowering) is detected within a certain period of time in the "downward call registration not possible" state set by processing step S16.

The above explanation has made it clear that the series of processing steps S13 to S18 are carried out for the primary action (here, raising), so below we will explain how to handle the secondary action (here, lowering) during the certain period of time when the "downward call registration is not possible" state is set by the subsequent processing step S15.

The call signal from the secondary movement in the downward direction is processed in processing step S19 via processing steps S10 to S12. In processing step S13, the question "Has any call in the upward or downward direction been registered?" is asked, but in this state, the signal has already been processed through a series of processing steps S13 to S18 for the primary movement (here, raising), so the answer is Yes and processing proceeds to step S20.

In the process of processing step S20, it is confirmed whether the call can be registered. Specifically, it is confirmed whether the flag is "downward call registration not possible" or not, and if it is "downward call registration not possible", whether the unavailability state has passed a certain time. If it is not "downward call registration not possible", or if it is "downward call registration not possible" and the time limit counted in step S15 has expired, it is determined that the call can be registered, and the process proceeds to step S22. In the case of upward direction, in step S14, it is confirmed whether the flag is "upward call registration not possible" or if it is "upward call registration not possible", whether the unavailability state has passed a certain time. If it is not "upward call registration not possible" or if it is "upward call registration not possible" and the time limit counted in step S21 has expired, it is determined that the call can be registered, and the process proceeds to step S16.
In this state, the process in step S16 for the primary action (here, raising) results in "downward call registration not possible." Also, the fixed time set in step S15 has not elapsed. In this state, the process in step S20 selects the No side, and subsequent processes in the downward direction are not executed. Therefore, the process in step S23 for executing the downward call registration is not executed, and as a result, call registration in the secondary action is prevented.

In response to this, it is assumed that after a certain period of time, a call is registered for a downward direction. This call is not one that should be blocked by a secondary action, but is, for example, a downward call by another user on the same floor. In this case, in response to the question "Has any call for the upward or downward direction been registered?" in processing step S19, the Yes side is selected and processing proceeds to step S20, but since a certain period of time has passed and a call can be registered, the Yes side is displayed in processing step S21.

The processing content from processing step S21 onwards is the same as the processing from processing steps S16 to S18 for the upward direction, so we will not explain it here, but in essence, call registration for the downward direction is executed, and as a result, both the upper and lower registration buttons display the call status.

As explained in detail above, the present invention is able to generate calls in the up and down directions using a motion sensor without responding to sequential secondary movements of a person.

1: Receiving unit 2: Button operation detection unit 3: Permission determination unit 4: Registration determination unit 5: Landing floor registration unit 6: Button control unit 7: Display command unit 8: Sound guidance processing unit 9: Landing terminal control device 10: Elevator call operation control device 11U: Upward call button 11D: Downward call button 12: Motion sensor 13: Call registration device 20: Wall of elevator landing floor

Claims (4)

An elevator call operation control device that processes a call signal from a call registration device installed on a landing floor,
The call registration device generates an upward or downward call signal by a push button that generates an upward or downward call signal, and a motion sensor that generates an upward or downward call signal in response to the movement of a user's palm ,
The call operation control device includes a first means for receiving a call signal in a first direction and registering a call in the first direction, and a second means for, when receiving a call signal in a second direction opposite to the first direction on the same floor, preventing call registration of the call signal in the second direction for a certain time from receiving the call signal in the first direction and permitting call registration of the call signal in the second direction after the certain time has elapsed ;
An elevator call operation control device characterized in that the certain period of time is determined by the time it takes for the movement of the user's palm to reverse between an up direction and a down direction. The elevator call operation control device according to claim 1,
The first means includes a function for receiving an upward call signal and registering an upward call, and a function for receiving a downward call signal and registering a downward call,
The second means includes a function for performing processing when a downward call signal is received on the same floor in the upward call registration state, and a function for performing processing when an upward call signal is received on the same floor in the downward call registration state. The elevator call operation control device according to claim 1,
the first means generates a flag for blocking call registration in the second direction for a certain period of time when the first means receives a call signal in the first direction;
The second means, when receiving a call signal for the second direction, refers to the content of the flag for the second direction and determines the call registration of the call signal for the second direction. 1. An elevator call operation control method for processing a signal from a motion sensor that generates an up or down call signal in response to a palm movement of a user, comprising:
registering a call in a first direction in response to a firstly received call signal in the first direction, and when a call signal in a second direction opposite to the first direction on the same floor is continuously received, blocking call registration of the call signal in the second direction within a certain time from the reception of the call signal in the first direction, and permitting call registration of the call signal in the second direction after the lapse of the certain time,
An elevator call operation control method, characterized in that the certain period of time is determined by the time it takes for the movement of the user's palm to reverse between an up direction and a down direction.

Images