Elevator system

Abstract

Provided is an elevator system capable of reliably notifying a user of a scheduled date and time of maintenance work for an elevator.　An elevator system according to the present disclosure automatically registers a call using a mobile terminal on which a specific application is installed. The elevator system comprises: a control device that controls a car; and a server connected to the control device. The mobile terminal receives, from the server, information on a scheduled date and time of maintenance work for an elevator in a building, and notifies a user of the scheduled date and time of maintenance work by means of the application.

Description

elevator system

[0001] The present disclosure relates to elevator systems.

[0002] The following Patent Document 1 discloses an image display device that includes a display control unit that displays images to occupants of an elevator car inside the car, and a power supply unit that receives power to be used to drive the device including the display control unit and supplies the received power to the device, and in the event that an abnormality occurs in the power supply to the power supply unit, the display control unit displays a screen indicating that an abnormality has occurred and including information regarding the date and time the abnormality occurred.

[0003] Japanese Patent Publication No. 2023-014349

[0004] One way to notify people of elevator maintenance work times is to post notices on bulletin boards near the elevator hall, but there is a problem that people may overlook or forget to post them.

[0005] The present disclosure has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present disclosure is to provide an elevator system that can reliably notify users of the scheduled date and time of elevator maintenance work.

[0006] The elevator system according to the present disclosure is an elevator system that automatically registers calls using a mobile terminal on which a specific application is installed, and includes a control device that controls the car and a server connected to the control device. The mobile terminal receives information on the scheduled date and time of maintenance work on the building's elevators from the server, and notifies users of the scheduled date and time of the maintenance work via the application.

[0007] According to the present disclosure, it is possible to provide an elevator system that can reliably notify users of the scheduled date and time of elevator maintenance work.

[0008] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an elevator system according to a first embodiment. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a mobile terminal. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing data on scheduled maintenance work dates and times stored in a center device. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a call registration history stored in the memory of a mobile terminal. FIG. 5 is a list of buildings to be notified of scheduled maintenance work dates and times, stored in the memory of a mobile terminal. FIG. 6 is a list of buildings to be notified of scheduled maintenance work dates and times, stored in the memory of a mobile terminal. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing search results stored in the memory of a mobile terminal. FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an example of operation according to the first embodiment. FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing operations from notification of scheduled maintenance work dates and times to schedule registration. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a configuration for realizing the functions of a control device and a center device in the first embodiment.

[0009] Hereinafter, embodiments will be described with reference to the drawings. Common or corresponding elements in each drawing are designated by the same reference numerals, and descriptions thereof will be simplified or omitted. The configurations shown in the following embodiments are examples of the technical ideas of the present disclosure, and may be combined with other known technologies, or multiple technical ideas described in the present disclosure may be combined. Furthermore, it is also possible to omit or modify part of the configuration without departing from the gist of the present disclosure.

[0010] Embodiment 1. Figure 1 is a diagram showing an elevator system 1 according to embodiment 1. As shown in Figure 1, an elevator 3 is installed in a building 2. The elevator system 1 of this embodiment includes a control device 4 that controls the operation of the elevator 3 car, and a center device 7 that is a server connected to the control device 4. The center device 7 is installed in a monitoring center 6 that is located in a building separate from the building 2. A beacon 5 is installed at the landing where the elevator 3 car stops.

[0011] The control device 4 is communicably connected to a monitoring device 8 that monitors the status of the elevator 3 and to a center device 7 via a communication network.

[0012] A user of the elevator 3 carries a mobile terminal 10. The mobile terminal 10 may be, for example, a smartphone or a wearable terminal. The mobile terminal 10 is connected to the center device 7 via a communication network so as to be able to communicate with the center device 7.

[0013] The elevator system 1 of this embodiment has a function of automatically registering a call using the mobile terminal 10 on which a specific application is installed. The specific application will be referred to as a "call registration app" hereinafter.

[0014] Fig. 2 is a block diagram of the mobile terminal 10. As shown in Fig. 2, the mobile terminal 10 has a CPU 10a, a RAM 10b which is a storage device, a ROM 10c which is also a storage device, a wireless communication unit 10d, a display unit 10e, and an operation unit 10f.

[0015] When a user carrying a mobile terminal 10 approaches a beacon 5, the mobile terminal 10 detects radio waves from the beacon 5. When the mobile terminal 10 detects the radio waves from the beacon 5, the mobile terminal 10 transmits a signal to the center device 7 for automatically registering a call. The signal may include information for identifying the elevator 3. The signal may also include information on the departure floor and the destination floor. Upon receiving the signal, the center device 7 transmits a signal to the control device 4 for automatically registering a call. Upon receiving the signal, the control device 4 registers the call and causes the car to respond to the registered call.

[0016] In the elevator system 1 of this embodiment, the mobile terminal 10 has a function of receiving information on the scheduled date and time of maintenance work on the elevator 3 from the center device 7 and notifying users of the scheduled date and time of maintenance work via the call registration app. This allows users to be reliably informed of the information on the scheduled date and time of maintenance work on the elevator 3, improving user convenience.

[0017] Fig. 3 is a diagram showing data of scheduled maintenance work dates and times stored in the center device 7. As shown in Fig. 3, the center device 7 stores a list of the dates and times of scheduled maintenance work for the elevators 3 in each building.

[0018] 4 is a diagram showing the call registration history stored in the memory of the mobile terminal 10. As shown in Fig. 4, the memory of the mobile terminal 10 stores a list of history including the date of automatic call registration from the call registration app and building information.

[0019] The mobile terminal 10 has a list of buildings for which scheduled maintenance work dates and times are to be notified. FIG. 5 shows a list of buildings for which scheduled maintenance work dates and times are to be notified, stored in the memory of the mobile terminal 10. In the example of FIG. 5, Building A, Building Y, and Building X are included in the list of buildings for which scheduled maintenance work dates and times are to be notified. The user can add new buildings for which they wish to be notified of scheduled maintenance work dates and times to this list. This allows notifications to be made in line with the user's wishes, improving convenience.

[0020] The mobile terminal 10 may automatically add buildings that have a history of automatically registering calls to a list of buildings to which scheduled maintenance work dates and times will be notified. In this case, only buildings whose automatically registered calls were made within a predetermined period of time in the past may be automatically added to the list of buildings to which scheduled maintenance work dates and times will be notified. This allows buildings used by users to be automatically added to the list of buildings to which scheduled maintenance work dates and times will be notified, improving convenience.

[0021] FIG. 6 shows a list of buildings to be notified of the scheduled dates and times of maintenance work, stored in the memory of the mobile terminal 10. In the example of FIG. 4, Building B, Building A, and Building C are stored as buildings with a history of automatically registered calls. Of these, Building B and Building A are the buildings to be added to the list, if we limit the scope to the past two months. In the example of FIG. 5, Building A is already included in the list of buildings to be notified of the scheduled dates and times of maintenance work. Therefore, in the example of FIG. 6, Building B is added to the list of buildings in FIG. 5, and Buildings A, Y, X, and B are included in the list of buildings to be notified of the scheduled dates and times of maintenance work.

[0022] The mobile terminal 10 searches for the scheduled maintenance work date and time of the building to be notified based on the list of buildings to be notified of the scheduled maintenance work date and time (FIG. 6) from the data of scheduled maintenance work date and time stored in the center device 7 (FIG. 3). FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the search results stored in the memory of the mobile terminal 10. In the example of FIG. 7, the date and time of the scheduled maintenance work are listed for Building A, Building Y, Building X, and Building B.

[0023] Fig. 8 is a flowchart showing an example of operation according to the first embodiment. In step S1 of Fig. 8, the mobile terminal 10 determines whether the date has changed, i.e., whether it has passed midnight. If the date has changed, it is determined whether there is a new building for which the user wants to be notified of the scheduled date and time of maintenance work (step S2), and if there is such a building, the new building is added to the search list (step S3).

[0024] Next, automatic call registration is used to determine whether there is a recent history of elevator 3 being used (step S4), and if there is such a history, the building is added to the search list (step S5).

[0025] Next, the mobile terminal 10 searches the search list for the scheduled maintenance work date and time stored in the center device 7 (step S6). Next, the mobile terminal 10 determines whether the search result list is at the end (step S7). If the search result list is not at the end, it creates a schedule file with information about the scheduled maintenance work date and time and notifies the user (step S8). Then, it moves to the next list (step S9) and repeats step S7 and the following steps. If the search result list is at the end in step S7, the process ends.

[0026] When the user taps a file attached to the notification of the scheduled maintenance work date and time on the mobile terminal 10, the scheduled maintenance work date and time may be registered in a schedule application of the mobile terminal 10. The file may be in a format such as iCalendar. This makes it possible to more reliably notify the user of the information on the scheduled maintenance work date and time.

[0027] 9 is a flowchart showing the operation from notification of the scheduled maintenance work date and time to schedule registration. In step S11 of FIG. 9, the mobile terminal 10 determines whether the notification of the scheduled maintenance work date and time has been selected by the user. If the notification has been selected, the mobile terminal 10 determines whether to register the schedule (step S12). For example, if the user taps a file attached to the notification, the mobile terminal 10 registers the scheduled maintenance work date and time in a schedule application (step S13).

[0028] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a configuration for realizing the functions of the control device 4 and the center device 7 in the first embodiment. Each function of the control device 4 and the center device 7 is realized by, for example, a processing circuit. The processing circuit may be dedicated hardware 600. The processing circuit may include a processor 601 and a memory 602. A part of the processing circuit may be formed as the dedicated hardware 600, and the processing circuit may further include the processor 601 and the memory 602. In the example shown in FIG. 10, a part of the processing circuit is formed as the dedicated hardware 600. Furthermore, in the example shown in FIG. 10, the processing circuit further includes the processor 601 and the memory 602 in addition to the dedicated hardware 600.

[0029] The processing circuitry of which at least one portion is dedicated hardware 600 may be, for example, a single circuit, multiple circuits, a programmed processor, parallel programmed processors, an ASIC, an FPGA, or a combination thereof.

[0030] When the processing circuit includes at least one processor 601 and at least one memory 602, the functions of each part of the control device 4 and the center device 7 are realized by software, firmware, or a combination of software and firmware.

[0031] The software and firmware are written as programs and stored in memory 602. The processor 601 realizes the functions of each unit by reading and executing the programs stored in memory 602. The processor 601 is also called a CPU (Central Processing Unit), central processing unit, processing unit, arithmetic unit, microprocessor, microcomputer, or DSP. The memory 602 may be, for example, a non-volatile or volatile semiconductor memory such as RAM, ROM, flash memory, EPROM, or EEPROM, or a magnetic disk, flexible disk, optical disk, compact disk, minidisk, DVD, etc.

[0032] In this way, the processing circuit can realize the functions of the control device 4 and the center device 7 by using hardware, software, firmware, or a combination of these. Note that each function of the control device 4 and the center device 7 may be realized by multiple devices working together, or may be realized by a single device. Furthermore, at least some of the functions of the control device 4 may be implemented in a server or the like on an external network.

[0033] REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 elevator system, 2 building, 3 elevator, 4 control device, 5 beacon, 6 monitoring center, 7 center device, 8 monitoring device, 10 mobile terminal, 10a CPU, 10b RAM, 10c ROM, 10d wireless communication unit, 10e display unit, 10f operation unit, 600 dedicated hardware, 601 processor, 602 memory

Claims

1. An elevator system that automatically registers calls using a mobile terminal with a specific application installed, comprising: a control device that controls the car; and a server connected to the control device, wherein the mobile terminal receives information on the scheduled date and time of elevator maintenance work in a building from the server, and notifies users of the scheduled date and time of the maintenance work via the application.

2. The elevator system according to claim 1, wherein the mobile terminal has a list of buildings for which scheduled maintenance work dates and times are to be notified, and the user can add buildings for which he or she wishes to be notified of scheduled maintenance work dates and times to the list.

3. An elevator system as described in claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the mobile terminal has a list of buildings to which scheduled maintenance work dates and times are to be notified, and is capable of automatically adding buildings that have a history of automatically registering calls to the list.

4. An elevator system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein when a file attached to the notification of the scheduled maintenance work date and time is tapped, the scheduled maintenance work date and time is registered in a schedule application of the mobile terminal.

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