Chairlift Timing Gate Height Detection for Unaccompanied Child Safety
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Solution Overview
Problem
Chairlifts face challenges in ensuring the safety and efficient loading of children, particularly in ensuring they are accompanied by an adult, while maintaining optimal user flow and compliance with safety regulations.
Innovation Solution
A chairlift loading apparatus with adjacent timing gates and a detection system that uses sensors to identify the presence of persons taller or shorter than a predetermined height, preventing unaccompanied children from loading by synchronizing gate movements and activating a warning system when a high-risk situation is detected.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If manual monitoring of children's accompaniment is used, then safety can be maintained with simple infrastructure, but user flow is restricted and loading time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual mechanical monitoring with an automated detection system using sensors (optical, acoustic, or radar) to detect the presence and height of persons at timing gates. This substitution eliminates the need for manual supervision while maintaining safety, thereby increasing user flow and reducing loading time without proportionally increasing system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The detection system automatically monitors and evaluates the accompaniment status of children without requiring human intervention. The system self-regulates the loading process by detecting heights and controlling timing gates autonomously, improving productivity while keeping the added complexity manageable through automation rather than manual operations.
2Reliability
If height-based detection is implemented, then child safety can be ensured, but false alarms may occur and system reliability decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary detection of person height using sensors before allowing access through timing gates. By pre-evaluating the height of persons attempting to access the loading area, the system can proactively identify unaccompanied children and prevent them from loading, ensuring safety while minimizing false alarms through advance detection rather than reactive monitoring.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses detectable parameters such as height, weight, or other physical characteristics to distinguish between children and adults. By changing the detection parameter to height-based criteria, the system achieves reliable identification of children requiring accompaniment, reducing false alarms through objective physical measurement rather than subjective judgment.
3Productivity
If timing gates are synchronized to control flow, then loading efficiency improves, but the system becomes more complex and harder to control
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple timing gates into a synchronized control system where all gates operate simultaneously or in coordinated sequences. By combining the control functions of individual gates into a unified system managed by a single controller, the patent achieves improved loading efficiency through synchronized access while avoiding the complexity of independent control systems for each gate.
Solution Approach 2:
The timing gate system is designed with multi-functionality, serving both as a flow control mechanism and a detection trigger. The same timing gates that regulate user flow also serve as detection points for height-based safety monitoring, eliminating the need for separate control mechanisms and reducing overall system complexity while maintaining high loading efficiency.
Data Source
AI summary
The invention refers to a chairlift loading apparatus comprising at least two adjacent timing gates for regulating a flow of persons passing through said timing gates, the loading apparatus comprising a high-risk situation detection system comprising: a detection device capable of determining the presence of a potential person passing through each of the timing gates and determining whether the potential person is taller than a predetermined height; and a data processing unit configured to determine, from the data from the detection device, the existence of a high-risk situation when a person who is shorter than the predetermined height is detected in front of a given gate of the adjacent gates, and no person who is taller than the predetermined height is detected in front of one of the adjacent gates.