Elevator Assistance Modes for Personalized Disability Access
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing elevator, escalator, and moving walkway systems pose challenges for passengers with disabilities, particularly blind, deaf, and mobility-challenged individuals, as they may struggle to locate and navigate these systems, and existing disability features often activate unnecessary assistance modes, causing inconvenience to others.
Innovation Solution
A personnel movement system with customizable assistance modes, allowing passengers to select specific features based on their disabilities, such as audio announcements, increased-volume chimes, extended door timings, and glass or non-transparent elevators, controlled by a controller that recognizes passengers automatically or via credentials.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a single general assistance feature is activated to help passengers with disabilities, then accessibility is improved, but unnecessary assistance features are activated causing inconvenience to other passengers
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the general assistance feature into multiple independent special assistance features, each corresponding to a specific disability type (blindness, deafness, mobility challenges). This allows passengers to activate only the specific assistance mode they need, rather than all assistance features simultaneously, thereby improving accessibility without causing inconvenience to other passengers through unnecessary feature activation.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple special assistance features are provided for different disabilities, then personalized assistance is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal controller that can handle multiple types of assistance requests through a standardized interface. The controller is designed to manage various special assistance features (audio announcements, increased-volume chimes, extended door timings) using a unified control architecture, which reduces the overall system complexity despite providing personalized assistance for different disability types.
3Ease of operation
If automatic recognition is implemented to initiate special assistance modes, then ease of operation is improved, but loss of information increases due to automatic activation without user input
Solution Approach 1:
The patent incorporates feedback mechanisms where the system automatically recognizes passenger needs (through sensors or credentials) and provides assistance, but also allows passengers to confirm, modify, or deactivate the automatic assistance through user input. This feedback loop ensures that automatic activation does not permanently override user preferences, and the system can adapt to actual user needs while respecting user autonomy.
Data Source
AI summary
A personnel movement system is provided and includes a personnel movement element to transport passengers from one location to another and a controller configured to control operations of the personnel movement element. The controller is configured to be instructed to operate in one or more special assistance modes in which, for each of the one or more special assistance modes, a customizable subset of the operations of the personnel movement element are adjusted.