Elevator system

Abstract

To improve convenience of a supervisor and a supervised person in a technology for preventing a door of an elevator from being closed while the supervisor and the supervised person are separated from each other when using the elevator.SOLUTION: An elevator system according to one embodiment includes a camera capable of photographing a hall and an inside of a car, storage means for storing pair information indicating a pair of a supervisor and a supervised person supervised by the supervisor, the pair information in which an image of the supervisor and an image of the supervised person are associated with each other, detection means for detecting a user in the hall or the car based on an image photographed by the camera, and control command means for controlling whether or not a door-closing operation of a door of the car is permitted based on a positional relationship between the supervisor and the supervised person when the supervisor or the supervised person indicated by the pair information is included in the detected user.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] FIELD OF THE INVENTION An embodiment of the present invention relates to an elevator system. [Background technology]

[0002] In recent years, a technology has become known to prevent the elevator doors from closing when a supervisor and a person being supervised (e.g., a child or pet) are separated when using an elevator.This technology involves having the supervisor and the person being supervised carry IC tags, and controlling the elevator doors based on the relative positions of the supervisor and the person being supervised obtained from these IC tags.

[0003] However, the above-mentioned technology has a problem in that both the supervisor and the supervised person must carry an IC tag at all times, which is inconvenient. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] Patent No. 6661527 [Patent Document 2] Patent No. 6950823 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] The problem that this invention aims to solve is to provide an elevator system that can improve convenience for supervisors and supervised persons by providing technology that prevents the elevator doors from closing when the supervisor and supervised person are separated when using the elevator. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] An elevator system in one embodiment comprises a camera capable of photographing the landing and the inside of the car, a storage means for storing pair information indicating pairs of supervisors and supervised persons supervised by the supervisor, in which an image of the supervisor and an image of the supervised person are linked, a detection means for detecting users at the landing or inside the car based on the images taken by the camera, and a control command means for controlling whether or not the doors of the car are to close based on the relative positions of the supervisor and the supervised person if the detected users include the supervisor or the supervised person indicated by the pair information. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0007] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration example of an elevator system according to an embodiment. [Figure 2] FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a state in which an image captured by a camera in the embodiment is divided into blocks. [Figure 3] FIG. 3 is a diagram specifically illustrating a case where only the supervised person is in the car in this embodiment. [Figure 4] FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a pair registration process performed by the pair registration unit in the embodiment. [Figure 5] FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the elevator system in the embodiment. [Figure 6] FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the elevator system in the embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0008] Hereinafter, an embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings. It should be noted that the disclosure is merely an example, and the invention is not limited to the contents described in the following embodiments. Modifications that can be easily conceived by a person skilled in the art are naturally included in the scope of the disclosure. For clearer explanation, the size, shape, etc. of each part may be changed from the actual embodiment and shown schematically in the drawings. In multiple drawings, corresponding elements may be given the same reference numerals, and detailed explanations may be omitted.

[0009] 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration example of an elevator system according to an embodiment, in which a single elevator car is used as an example.

[0010] The elevator system of this embodiment has a door closing control function that checks whether there is a supervisor or supervised person who has been pre-registered as a pair among the users inside the elevator car and at the landing, and if it is confirmed that a supervisor or supervised person is present, it controls whether or not the elevator car doors are to close based on the relative positions of the supervisor and supervised person.

[0011] In this specification, a supervised person refers to a person who is supervised by a supervisor. One example of a pair of a supervisor and a supervised person is when the supervised person is a child and the supervisor is the child's parent. Another example of a pair of a supervisor and a supervised person is when the supervised person is a pet and the supervisor is the pet's owner. Therefore, in this specification, the term "user" will be described as including not only humans but also animals such as pets. Another example of a pair of a supervisor and a supervised person is when the supervised person is an elderly person and the supervisor is an assistant who assists the elderly person.

[0012] The specific configuration of the elevator system according to this embodiment will be described below. A camera 12 is installed above the entrance of the car 11. Specifically, the camera 12 is installed in a panel 11a that covers the upper part of the entrance of the car 11, with the lens portion facing directly downward, or toward the platform or the car.

[0013] The camera 12 has, for example, a wide-angle lens or a fisheye lens, and continuously captures images at several frames per second (for example, 30 frames / second). The camera 12 is activated, for example, when the elevator car 11 arrives at the landing 15 on each floor, and captures images of a predetermined range L1 including the landing side and the elevator side. Note that the installation location of the camera 12 does not have to be above the entrance / exit of the elevator car 11, as long as it can capture images of the entire interior of the elevator car and the predetermined range on the landing side.

[0014] At the landing 15 on each floor, a landing door 14 is installed at the arrival entrance of the car 11. The landing door 14 engages with the car door 13 to open and close when the car 11 arrives. The power source (door motor) is on the car side, and the landing door 14 simply opens and closes following the car door 13.

[0015] Each image (video) continuously captured by the camera 12 is analyzed in real time by the image processing device 20. For convenience, the image processing device 20 is shown removed from the car 11 in Fig. 1, but in reality, the image processing device 20 is housed in the headboard 11a together with the camera 12.

[0016] The image processing device 20 includes a storage unit 21 and a processing unit 22 . The storage unit 21 is composed of a memory device such as a RAM. The storage unit 21 sequentially stores images captured by the camera 12. The storage unit 21 has a buffer area for temporarily storing data necessary for processing by the processing unit 22. The storage unit 21 may store images that have been subjected to preprocessing such as distortion correction, enlargement / reduction, and partial cropping as preprocessing of the images captured by the camera 12.

[0017] Furthermore, the storage unit 21 stores pair information in which an image (face image) of the supervisor and an image (face image) of the supervised person are linked as information indicating a pair of a supervisor and a supervised person.

[0018] The pair information can be registered in the storage unit 21, for example, by a supervisor taking facial images of himself / herself and the supervisee using his / her own mobile terminal (e.g., a smartphone, etc.) and transmitting these facial images to the image processing device 20. Alternatively, the pair information can be automatically registered in the storage unit 21 when two users who behave in accordance with a behavioral pattern as a pair are detected by the processing unit 22. The process of automatically registering the pair information in the storage unit 21 (pair registration process) will be described in detail later.

[0019] The pair information stored in the storage unit 21 can be deleted based on a request from a supervisor indicated by the pair information. This allows the pair information to be deleted from the storage unit 21 even if unintended pair information is automatically registered in the storage unit 21 by a pair registration process described later.

[0020] Furthermore, one supervisor indicated by the pair information may be associated with multiple supervisees. However, in this case, it is desirable to set an upper limit, such as three, on the number of supervisees that can be associated with one supervisor. This limits the amount of information stored in the memory unit 21, thereby reducing the load on the elevator system. If such an upper limit is set, parents with more than the upper limit of children or owners with more than the upper limit of pets may be able to apply to increase the upper limit.

[0021] In addition to the images captured by the camera 12 and the pair information, the storage unit 21 may further store, for example, information about the contact details of the supervisor indicated by the pair information (for example, a phone number or email address set in the supervisor's mobile terminal) linked to the facial image of the supervisor. Alternatively, the storage unit 21 may further store information about the contact details of a user who has installed an application capable of linking with the elevator system according to this embodiment on his or her mobile terminal and performed initial setup (but has not registered pair information) linked to the facial image of the user (i.e., a facial image of a user who could become a supervisor).

[0022] The processing unit 22 uses images captured by the camera 12 to detect passengers in the car 11 or at the landing 15, checks whether the detected passengers include a supervisor or a supervised person indicated by the pair information stored in the memory unit 21, and if it confirms that a supervisor or a supervised person indicated by the pair information is present, controls whether or not to close the car door 13 based on the relative positions of the supervisor and the supervised person.

[0023] 1, the processing unit 22 includes a user detection unit 23, a first determination processing unit 24, a second determination processing unit 25, a control command unit 26, and a pair registration unit 27. Note that each of the units 23 to 27 included in the processing unit 22 may be realized by a CPU (not shown) provided in the image processing device 20 executing a program (i.e., software), or may be realized by hardware such as an IC (Integrated Circuit), or may be realized by a combination of software and hardware.

[0024] The user detection unit 23 detects users in the car 11 or at the landing 15 using the image captured by the camera 12. Specifically, as shown in Fig. 2, the user detection unit 23 divides the image captured by the camera 12 into a number of blocks, and performs a motion detection process to detect blocks with movement (moving blocks) from among the blocks by focusing on changes in color information of each block (for example, changes in brightness value). According to this motion detection process, users appearing in the image are detected as a collection of moving blocks.

[0025] Note that the user detection unit 23 may detect users not by the above-described motion detection process but by, for example, SSD (Single Shot Multibox Detector), which is one of the image recognition methods using supervised learning. In this case, the user detection unit 23 can efficiently detect users who are in the car 11 or the hall 15, including their positions, from newly captured images by learning images of users who are in the car 11 or the hall 15 in advance as training data.

[0026] The first determination processing unit 24 determines whether or not the users detected by the user detection unit 23 include a supervisor or a supervisee indicated by the pair information stored in the memory unit 21. For example, the first determination processing unit 24 performs a matching process to compare (match) the facial image of the user detected by the user detection unit 23 with the facial images of the supervisor and the supervisee indicated by the pair information and determine whether or not the detected users include a supervisor or a supervisee registered as pair information.

[0027] If the result of the above-mentioned matching process indicates that there is no supervisor or supervised person registered as pair information and the elapsed time since the door opened is less than a predetermined time, the first judgment processing unit 24 performs the above-mentioned matching process again using the new detection result by the user detection unit 23.

[0028] On the other hand, if the result of the above-mentioned matching process indicates that there is a supervisor or supervised person registered as pair information, the second judgment processing unit 25 performs processing to identify the positional relationship between the supervisor and the supervised person.

[0029] Specifically, first, the second determination processing unit 25 determines whether or not the supervisor and the supervised person registered as pair information are both in the car 11. In other words, the second determination processing unit 25 determines whether or not the pairing of a pair including a supervisor or a supervised person whose existence has been confirmed by the above-mentioned matching process (hereinafter referred to as the target pair) is established in the car 11.

[0030] If the second judgment processing unit 25 determines that the pairing of the target pair is established within the elevator 11, it outputs first position information to the control command unit 26 indicating that the supervisor and supervised person included in the target pair are both within the elevator 11.

[0031] On the other hand, if the second determination processing unit 25 determines that the pairing of the target pair has not been established in the car 11, it determines whether or not either the supervisor or the supervised person included in the target pair is in the car 11. If the second determination processing unit 25 determines that neither the supervisor nor the supervised person included in the target pair is in the car 11, it determines that the supervisor or the supervised person whose presence has been confirmed by the above-mentioned matching process is still at the hall 15. In this case, if the elapsed time since the door opened is less than a predetermined time, the second determination processing unit 25 instructs the first determination processing unit 24 to perform the above-mentioned matching process again using the new detection result by the user detection unit 23.

[0032] On the other hand, if the time elapsed since the doors opened is equal to or longer than the predetermined time, the second determination processing unit 25 does not output the above-mentioned instructions or information indicating the positional relationship between the supervisor and the supervised. As a result, a prohibition command, which will be described later, is not sent from the control command unit 26 to the elevator control device 30, and the elevator control device 30 can perform the door closing operation according to the time elapsed since the doors opened and the door closing operation according to the operation of the door closing button provided on the car 11, as usual.

[0033] When the second determination processing unit 25 determines that one of the supervisor and the supervised person included in the target pair is inside the car 11, it determines whether the person inside the car 11 is the supervisor. When the second determination processing unit 25 determines that the person inside the car 11 is not the supervisor, that is, that the person inside the car 11 is the supervised person and that only the supervised person is inside the car 11, it outputs second position information indicating that only the supervised person is inside the car 11 to the control command unit 26.

[0034] More specifically, the second position information is output to the control command unit 26 when, for example, as shown in Figure 3(a), the supervised person is in the car 11 and the supervisor is at the landing 15, or when, as shown in Figure 3(b), the supervised person is in the car 11 and the supervisor is not in the car 11 or at the landing 15 (i.e., the supervisor is not present).

[0035] On the other hand, if the second judgment processing unit 25 determines that the person in the elevator 11 is a supervisor, it determines whether the person being supervised by the supervisor (i.e., the person being supervised who is included in the target pair) is at the platform 15.

[0036] When the second determination processing unit 25 determines that the supervised person is at the landing 15, it outputs third position information to the control command unit 26, which indicates that the supervisor is in the car 11 and the supervised person is at the landing 15. On the other hand, when the second determination processing unit 25 determines that the supervised person is not at the landing 15, it outputs fourth position information to the control command unit 26, which indicates that the supervisor is in the car 11 and the supervised person is not in the car 11 or at the landing 15 (i.e., the supervised person is absent).

[0037] The above-mentioned first position information, second position information, third position information, and fourth position information are output from the second judgment processing unit 25 to the control command unit 26 as information indicating the positional relationship between the supervisor and the supervised person included in the target pair. Note that the various processes executed by the second judgment processing unit 25 are executed based on the image used during the matching process by the first judgment processing unit 24.

[0038] The control command unit 26 controls whether or not the car door 13 is to be closed based on information indicating the positional relationship between the supervisor and the supervised person included in the target pair.

[0039] Specifically, when the control command unit 26 receives the second or third position information as information indicating the positional relationship between the supervisor and the supervised person included in the target pair, it sends a prohibition command to the elevator control device 30 to prohibit the car door 13 from closing.

[0040] When the above-mentioned second location information is input, the control command unit 26 sends to the elevator control device 30, in addition to the above-mentioned prohibition command, a first announcement command to make an announcement to other users other than the supervisor urging them to take action against the supervised person.

[0041] In addition, when the above-mentioned third position information is input, the control command unit 26 sends, in addition to the above-mentioned prohibition command, a second announcement command to the elevator control device 30 to make an announcement to the supervisor in the car 11 urging him or her to respond to the supervised person.

[0042] When the first or fourth position information is input as information indicating the positional relationship between the supervisor and the supervised person, the control command unit 26 does not transmit the prohibition command to the elevator control device 30. Therefore, the elevator control device 30 can perform the door closing operation according to the elapsed time since the door was opened and the door closing operation according to the operation of the door closing button provided on the car 11 as usual.

[0043] The pair registration unit 27 detects two users who have been confirmed to not be a supervisor or a supervisee registered as pair information by the above-mentioned matching process and who behave in accordance with a behavioral pattern as a pair, and executes a pair registration process to automatically register pair information of the two users in the storage unit 21. The pair registration process is executed based on the image used during the matching process by the first determination processing unit 24.

[0044] Examples of behavioral patterns of a pair include, but are not limited to, two users having a conversation, two users holding hands, one of the two users holding the other, one of the two users being connected by a leash, the hands or parts of the clothes of the two users being in contact, and the two users being close to each other in relation to the available space in the elevator 11. Furthermore, the pair registration unit 27 may learn the behavioral patterns of pairs indicated by the pair information stored in the storage unit 21, and gradually increase the number of behavioral patterns that can be recognized as the above-mentioned behavioral patterns of a pair.

[0045] The pair registration unit 27 may execute the pair registration process when it detects two users who behave in accordance with one of the various behavioral patterns described above, or may execute the pair registration process when it detects two users who behave in accordance with multiple behavioral patterns (a predetermined number or more of behavioral patterns) from the various behavioral patterns described above.

[0046] Here, the pair registration process by the pair registration unit 27 will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. As shown in Figures 4(a) and (b), when the pair registration unit 27 detects that two users P1 and P2 who have been confirmed to not be a supervisor or supervised person registered as pair information by the above-mentioned matching process and who behave in accordance with the behavioral pattern of a pair are both inside the elevator 11 or at the platform 15, the pair registration unit 27 automatically registers pair information of the two users P1 and P2 in the memory unit 21.

[0047] In this case, the pair registration unit 27 first identifies which of the two users P1 and P2 who behave in accordance with the behavioral pattern as a pair is the supervisor. For example, the pair registration unit 27 measures the heights of the two users P1 and P2 based on the images used in the above-mentioned matching process, and identifies the taller user (here, user P1) as the supervisor and the other user (here, user P2) as the supervised.

[0048] Next, the pair registration unit 27 extracts face images of the two users P1 and P2 from the images used in the above-mentioned matching process.

[0049] Thereafter, the pair registration unit 27 generates pair information in which the extracted face image of user P1 is the face image of the supervisor and the extracted face image of user P2 is the face image of the supervised person, and registers this in the storage unit 21.

[0050] Note that, although the method of identifying a supervisor from two users who behave in accordance with a behavioral pattern as a pair has been described above as measuring the heights from an image and identifying the taller user as the supervisor, the method of identifying a supervisor is not limited to this. For example, the pair registration unit 27 may identify a supervisor from two users who behave in accordance with a behavioral pattern as a pair by learning a behavioral pattern as a supervisor in advance, separate from the behavioral pattern as a pair.

[0051] When pair information is registered in the storage unit 21 and information about the contact information of the supervisor indicated by the pair information is stored in advance in the storage unit 21 (more specifically, when information about the contact information linked to a face image similar to the face image of the supervisor indicated by the pair information is stored in advance in the storage unit 21), the pair registration unit 27 may send a notification to the contact information of the supervisor that pair information of a pair including the supervisor has been newly registered. This allows the supervisor to know that the pair information has been registered, and, for example, if the pair information automatically registered by the above-mentioned pair registration process is unintended pair information, the supervisor can request that the pair information be deleted.

[0052] It is desirable that the pair registration process by the pair registration unit 27 be executed immediately after the above-mentioned matching process. Furthermore, when pair information is newly registered, it is desirable that the second determination processing unit 25 subsequently executes a process for identifying the positional relationship between the supervisor and the supervised person indicated by the pair information. According to this, for example, even when a supervisor and a supervised person who are not registered as pair information use an elevator of this system for the first time, the pair information is immediately registered as long as the supervisor and the supervised person behave in accordance with the behavior pattern of the pair, and the door closing control function of this system can be applied from the first use.

[0053] The elevator control device 30 is composed of a computer equipped with a CPU, ROM, RAM, etc. The elevator control device 30 controls the raising and lowering operation of the car 11 and the operation of various devices installed in the car 11. The elevator control device 30 includes a door opening / closing control unit 31 and a notification control unit 32.

[0054] The door opening / closing control unit 31 controls the opening and closing of the car door 13 when the car 11 arrives at the landing 15. In detail, the door opening / closing control unit 31 opens the car door 13 when the car 11 arrives at the landing 15, and closes the door after a predetermined time has elapsed, or closes the door in response to pressing of a door close button provided on the car 11.

[0055] However, when the door opening / closing control unit 31 receives a prohibition command from the image processing device 20, it prohibits the car door 13 from closing, and keeps the car door 13 open, for example, even if a predetermined time has passed since the door was opened, or keeps the car door 13 open even if a door closing button provided on the car 11 is pressed.

[0056] The notification control unit 32 broadcasts various announcements inside the car 11 via a speaker (not shown) installed inside the car 11. For example, when the notification control unit 32 receives a first announcement command from the image processing device 20, it plays an announcement that "The doors will remain open, so please assist the passengers in the car to get off," as an announcement to encourage other users other than the supervisor to respond to the supervised person.Furthermore, when the notification control unit 32 receives a second announcement command from the image processing device 20, it plays an announcement that "The doors will remain open, so please have a companion ride with you," as an announcement to encourage the supervisor in the car 11 to respond to the supervised person.

[0057] Next, an example of the operation of the elevator system according to this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowcharts of Figures 5 and 6. Here, the image processing device 20 acquires images taken by the camera 12 in chronological order and stores these acquired images sequentially in the storage unit 21. Here, the operation of controlling whether or not the car door 13 should be closed will be mainly described based on the positional relationship between the supervisor and the supervised person.

[0058] When the car 11 arrives at an arbitrary floor (Yes in step S1), the door opening / closing control unit 31 of the elevator control device 30 opens the car door 13 (step S2).

[0059] When the car door 13 opens, the user detection unit 23 of the image processing device 20 detects the presence or absence of a user in the car 11 and at the landing 15 based on the image captured by the camera 12. Note that here, it is assumed that the user detection unit 23 detects a group of moving blocks (i.e., a user).

[0060] Here, the first judgment processing unit 24 matches the facial image of the user detected by the user detection unit 23 with the facial image of the supervisor and the facial image of the supervised person indicated by the pair information stored in the memory unit 21, and determines whether or not the users detected by the user detection unit 23 include a supervisor or a supervised person registered as pair information in the memory unit 21 (in other words, determines whether or not there are registered pair persons) (step S3).

[0061] In the process of step S3, if it is determined that there is no paired registrant (No in step S3), the process of step S7, which will be described later, is executed.

[0062] On the other hand, if it is determined in the processing of step S3 that there is a registered pair (Yes in step S3), the second judgment processing unit 25 determines whether the pairing of the target pair including the supervisor or supervised person whose existence has been confirmed by the processing of step S3 has been established within the elevator 11 (step S4).

[0063] In the processing of step S4, if it is determined that the pairing of the target pair is established inside the car 11 (Yes in step S4), the second determination processing unit 25 outputs first position information indicating that the supervisor and the supervised are both inside the car 11 to the control command unit 26 as information indicating the positional relationship between the supervisor and the supervised. When the first position information is input, the control command unit 26 decides to operate the car 11 normally (step S5). Thereafter, the processing of step S16 described below is executed according to the elapsed time since the door was opened or according to the operation of a door close button provided on the car 11.

[0064] On the other hand, if it is determined in the processing of step S4 that the pairing of the target pair is not established within the elevator 11 (No in step S4), the second judgment processing unit 25 determines whether either the supervisor or the supervised person included in the target pair is within the elevator 11 (step S6).

[0065] In the processing of step S6, if it is determined that both the supervisor and the supervised person included in the target pair are not inside the car 11 (No in step S6), the elevator system (image processing device 20) determines whether the time elapsed since the door opened is equal to or longer than a predetermined time (step S7). Note that the "predetermined time" here may be set to the same value as the predetermined time set in the elevator control device 30 to perform the door closing operation according to the time elapsed since the door opened, or may be set to a value different from the predetermined time set in the elevator control device 30. The same applies to the "predetermined time" in the processing of step S15 described later.

[0066] If, in the processing of step S7, it is determined that the elapsed time since the door opened is not longer than the predetermined time (No in step S7), the elevator system uses the new detection result from the user detection unit 23 to execute the processing of step S3 described above again.

[0067] On the other hand, if it is determined in the process of step S7 that the time elapsed since the door opened is equal to or longer than the predetermined time (Yes in step S7), the elevator system executes the process of step S22, which will be described later.

[0068] On the other hand, if, in the processing of step S6, it is determined that either the supervisor or the supervised person included in the target pair is inside the elevator 11 (Yes in step S6), the second judgment processing unit 25 determines whether the person inside the elevator 11 is the supervisor (step S8).

[0069] In the processing of step S8, if it is determined that the person in the car 11 is not a supervisor, that is, if it is determined that the person in the car 11 is a supervised person and that only the supervised person is in the car 11 (No in step S8), the second judgment processing unit 25 outputs second position information indicating that only the supervised person is in the car 11 to the control command unit 26 as information indicating the positional relationship between the supervisor and the supervised person (step S9).

[0070] When the second position information is input, the control command unit 26 transmits to the elevator control device 30 a prohibition command to prohibit the car doors 13 from closing and a first announcement command to make an announcement to urge other users other than the supervisor to respond to the supervised person. The elevator control device 30 prohibits the car doors 13 from closing in accordance with the prohibition command received from the image processing device 20, and makes an announcement inside the car 11 to urge other users other than the supervisor to respond to the supervised person in accordance with the first announcement command received from the image processing device 20 (step S10). Thereafter, the elevator system executes the process of step S3 described above again using the new detection result by the user detection unit 23.

[0071] On the other hand, if it is determined in the processing of step S8 that the person in the elevator 11 is a supervisor (Yes in step S8), the second determination processing unit 25 determines whether the supervised person included in the target pair is at the landing 15 (step S11).

[0072] In the processing of step S11, if it is determined that the supervised person included in the target pair is at the platform 15 (Yes in step S11), the second judgment processing unit 25 outputs third position information indicating that the supervisor is in the car 11 and the supervised person is at the platform 15 to the control command unit 26 as information indicating the positional relationship between the supervisor and the supervised person (step S12).

[0073] When the third position information is input, the control command unit 26 transmits to the elevator control device 30 a prohibition command to prohibit the car doors 13 from closing and a second announcement command to make an announcement to urge the supervisor in the car 11 to respond to the person being supervised. The elevator control device 30 prohibits the car doors 13 from closing in accordance with the prohibition command received from the image processing device 20, and makes an announcement in the car 11 to urge the supervisor to respond to the person being supervised in accordance with the second announcement command received from the image processing device 20 (step S13). Thereafter, the elevator system executes the process of step S3 described above again using the new detection result by the user detection unit 23.

[0074] On the other hand, in the processing of step S11, if it is determined that the supervised person included in the target pair is not at the landing 15 (No in step S11), the second determination processing unit 25 outputs fourth position information indicating that the supervisor is in the car 11 and the supervised person is not in the car 11 or at the landing 15 to the control command unit 26 as information indicating the positional relationship between the supervisor and the supervised person. When the fourth position information is input, the control command unit 26 determines that the supervisor is using the elevator alone and decides to operate the car 11 as usual (step S14).

[0075] Thereafter, the elevator system (image processing device 20) determines whether the time elapsed since the door was opened is equal to or longer than a predetermined time (step S15). If it is determined in the process of step S15 that the time elapsed since the door was opened is not equal to or longer than the predetermined time (No in step S15), the elevator system executes the process of step S3 described above again using a new detection result from the user detection unit 23. On the other hand, if it is determined in the process of step S15 that the time elapsed since the door was opened is equal to or longer than the predetermined time (Yes in step S15), the elevator system executes the process of step S22 described below.

[0076] After the processing of step S5 described above, the elevator control device 30 starts the door closing operation of the car door 13 in response to the elapsed time since the door was opened or in response to the operation of the door closing button provided on the car 11 (step S16).

[0077] In order to prevent a situation in which the car door 13 closes while the supervisor and supervised person in the target pair are separated even after the closing operation of the car door 13 has begun (for example, a situation in which the supervised person suddenly gets off the car 11 and the car door 13 closes), the second judgment processing unit 25 of the image processing device 20 judges whether the pairing of the target pair is established within the car 11 (step S17).

[0078] In the processing of step S17, if it is determined that the pairing of the target pair is not established in the car 11 (No in step S17), the control command unit 26 stops the door closing operation of the car door 13 and transmits a door re-open command to the elevator control device 30 to reopen the car door 13. The elevator control device 30 reopens the car door 13 in accordance with the door re-open command received from the image processing device 20 (step S18). Thereafter, the elevator system executes the processing of step S3 described above again using the new detection result by the user detection unit 23.

[0079] On the other hand, in the processing of step S17, if it is determined that the pairing of the target pair is established in the car 11 (Yes in step S17), the door closing operation of the car door 13 continues (step S19), and when the door closing of the car door 13 is completed (Yes in step S20), the elevator control device 30 causes the car 11 to depart toward the destination floor (step S21), and the elevator system ends this series of operations. Note that the processing of step S17 is repeatedly executed until the door closing of the car door 13 is completed.

[0080] If it is determined in the processing of step S7 or step S15 that the time elapsed since the door was opened is equal to or longer than a predetermined time, the elevator control device 30 closes the car door 13 in accordance with the time elapsed since the door was opened or in accordance with the operation of a door close button provided on the car 11 (step S22). In this case, the processing of step S17 is not executed because there is no registered paired person or the supervisor is alone in the car 11. After closing the car door 13, the elevator control device 30 causes the car 11 to depart for the destination floor (step S21), and the elevator system ends this series of operations.

[0081] Furthermore, if it is detected that the supervised person has disembarked from the car 11 after the processing of step S10 described above, the elevator system will operate the car 11 normally unless it detects a supervisor supervising the supervised person, or unless it detects that the supervised person has boarded the car 11 alone again.

[0082] As described above, the elevator system according to this embodiment uses images captured by the camera 12 to detect users in the car 11 or at the landing 15, checks whether the detected users include a supervisor or a supervised person indicated by the pair information stored in the memory unit 21, and, if it is confirmed that a supervisor or a supervised person indicated by the pair information is present, controls whether or not to close the car doors 13 based on the relative positions of the supervisor and the supervised person. Specifically, the elevator system prohibits the closing operation of the car doors 13 when the relative positions of the supervisor and the supervised person are such that only the supervised person is in the car 11, or when the supervisor is in the car 11 and the supervised person is at the landing 15.

[0083] This prevents the car door 13 from closing when the supervisor and the supervised are separated (specifically, when the supervisor is in the car 11 and the supervised is at the landing 15, or when the supervisor is at the landing 15 and the supervised is in the car 11). It also prevents the supervised from using the elevator alone (for example, a child using the elevator without permission).

[0084] For example, a technology is known in which the supervisor and the supervised carry IC tags and control elevator doors based on the relative positions of the supervisor and the supervised obtained from these IC tags. However, this technology has the problem that both the supervisor and the supervised must carry IC tags at all times, which is inconvenient.

[0085] In contrast, in the elevator system of this embodiment, the image processing device 20 can determine the relative positions of the supervisor and the supervised person based on the images captured by the camera 12 and control whether or not the door will close, thereby eliminating the need to carry an IC tag as described above and improving convenience for the supervisor and the supervised person.

[0086] Furthermore, when the supervisor and the supervised carry IC tags, these two IC tags must be linked in advance, but in the elevator system according to this embodiment, even when a supervisor and a supervised person who are not registered as pair information use this system for the first time, as long as the supervisor and the supervised person behave in accordance with the behavioral pattern of the pair, the pair information is automatically registered, and the door closing control function of this system can be applied from the first use, so no advance preparation is required. In other words, the elevator system according to this embodiment can improve the convenience of the supervisor and the supervised person from the perspective of advance preparation as well.

[0087] The door closing control function described above may be able to be switched on and off depending on the day of the week or the time of day, allowing for flexible settings according to the situation, such as turning off the door closing control function when there are many supervised children going to and from school.

[0088] In the present embodiment described above, it is assumed that the elevator system includes one car 11, but if the elevator system includes multiple cars 11 and a group management control device is further provided to group-manage and control the operation of these multiple cars 11, in the processing of the above-mentioned step S9, in addition to sending the above-mentioned prohibition command and first announcement command to the elevator control device 30, the control command unit 26 may further send a hall call to the group management control device to call another car 11 going in the same direction as the car 11 to the current stopping floor of the car 11 in which the supervised person is riding.

[0089] According to this, even if a situation occurs in which the car 11 is unable to depart for the destination floor due to the presence of a supervised person inside the car 11, it is possible to encourage other passengers inside the car 11 to board another car 11 that responds to the above-mentioned hall call.

[0090] As described above, the elevator system of this embodiment can prevent the supervised person from using the elevator alone. However, for example, if the elevator system detects that the supervised person is alone in the car 11, it may send a notification to the supervisor supervising the supervised person that the supervised person is attempting to use the elevator alone, and if the supervisor replies that the supervised person is allowed to use the elevator, the elevator system may exceptionally allow the supervised person to use the elevator alone.

[0091] According to the embodiment described above, an elevator system can be provided that can improve convenience for supervisors and supervised persons by using technology to prevent the elevator doors from closing when the supervisor and supervised person are separated when using the elevator.

[0092] Although several embodiments of the present invention have been described, these embodiments are presented as examples and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. These novel embodiments can be embodied in various other forms, and various omissions, substitutions, and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. These embodiments and their modifications are included within the scope and spirit of the invention, and are also included in the inventions and their equivalents as defined in the claims. [Explanation of symbols]

[0093] 11...car, 11a...headboard, 12...camera, 13...car door, 14...landing door, 15...landing, 20...image processing device, 21...memory unit, 22...processing unit, 23...user detection unit, 24...first determination processing unit, 25...second determination processing unit, 26...control command unit, 27...pair registration unit, 30...elevator control device, 31...door opening / closing control unit, 32...notification control unit, P1, P2...users.

Claims

1. A camera capable of photographing the boarding area and the inside of the car, a storage means for storing pair information indicating a pair of a supervisor and a supervised person supervised by the supervisor, the pair information being linked to an image of the supervisor and an image of the supervised person; A detection means for detecting a user at the platform or in the car based on an image captured by the camera; and a control command means for controlling whether or not to close the car door based on the positional relationship between the supervisor and the supervised person when the supervisor or the supervised person indicated by the pair information is included among the detected users. Elevator system.

2. An elevator control device that controls the door opening and closing operation of the car door is further provided, The control command means When only the supervised person is in the car, or when the supervisor is in the car and the supervised person is at the landing, a prohibition command to prohibit the door closing operation is sent to the elevator control device.

10. The elevator system of claim 1.

3. The control command means If only the supervised person is in the elevator car, in addition to the prohibition command, a first announcement command is sent to the elevator control device to make an announcement to encourage other users other than the supervisor to respond to the supervised person; When the supervisor is in the car and the supervised person is at the landing, in addition to the prohibition command, a second announcement command is sent to the elevator control device to make an announcement urging the supervisor to take action against the supervised person.

3. The elevator system of claim 2.

4. Further provided is a group management control device that performs group management control of the operation of a plurality of cars including the car, The control command means When only the supervised person is in the car, in addition to transmitting the prohibition command and the first announcement command to the elevator control device, transmit a hall call to the group management control device to call another car going in the same direction as the car to the current stop floor of the car.

4. The elevator system of claim 3.

5. The control command means When the supervisor and the supervised person are both in the car, or when the supervisor is in the car and the supervised person is not in the car or at the landing, the prohibition command is not sent to the elevator control device. The elevator system according to any one of claims 2 to 4.

6. The control command means If the positional relationship between the supervisor and the supervised person changes after the door closing operation has started, and the state changes to one in which only the supervised person is in the car, or one in which only the supervisor is in the car and the supervised person is at the landing, the door closing operation is stopped and a door reopening command is transmitted to the elevator control device to reopen the car doors.

6. The elevator system of claim 5.

7. The system further comprises a registration means for registering pair information about the two users in the storage means when the detected users include two users who behave in accordance with a pair behavior pattern and pair information about the two users is not stored in the storage means.

10. The elevator system of claim 1.

8. The behavioral pattern of the pair includes at least one of the following: the two users are talking; the two users are holding hands; one of the two users is holding the other; one of the two users is connected by a lead; the hands or parts of the clothes of the two users are in contact; and the distance between the two users is short relative to the available space in the elevator.

8. The elevator system of claim 7.

9. The registration means When pair information relating to the two users is registered in the storage means, a supervisor identified by the pair information is notified of this fact.

9. An elevator system according to claim 7 or claim 8.

10. The supervisee is a child and the supervisor is the child's parent, or the supervisee is a pet and the supervisor is the pet's owner; 10. The elevator system of claim 1.

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