Configurable Elevator Panel with Dynamic LED Indicators
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
The existing 10 digits-keypad car operating panels for elevators are not user-friendly, require complex customization, and lack esthetic appeal, while also being expensive and difficult to produce using standard components, leading to confusion in buildings with few floors and inability to recognize non-existent floors.
Innovation Solution
A car operating panel with freely configurable touch-sensitive buttons that are lit in a specific color when active and dark when inactive, allowing for customization during installation without additional components, using a symmetric matrix of buttons and LED lighting to indicate active and inactive buttons, and supporting Braille signs for accessibility.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If a 10 digits-keypad system is used for the car operating panel, then cost and logistic advantages are achieved, but user-friendliness and esthetic appeal are lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamics by making the button configuration changeable and adaptable. The operating panel allows dynamic reconfiguration of buttons to match different building floor configurations, transforming a static keypad into a dynamic interface that adapts to specific operational requirements while maintaining the same physical hardware.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements parameter changes by allowing the functional assignment of buttons to be modified. The system can change which floors correspond to which buttons based on the building's specific floor configuration, enabling the same physical panel to serve different buildings with different numbers and arrangements of floors.
2Ease of manufacture
If a 10 digits-keypad system is used for the car operating panel, then a unique factory-produced panel is achieved, but customization to specific building configurations becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the panel adaptable through dynamic configuration capabilities. The same factory-produced hardware can be dynamically reconfigured to match different building floor configurations, eliminating the need for custom manufactured panels for each building while maintaining full customization capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent achieves universality by designing a single panel configuration that can serve multiple building types and floor configurations. The panel's buttons can be universally assigned to different floor numbers based on the specific building's requirements, making one panel design applicable to many different scenarios.
3Ease of manufacture
If buttons serve multiple functions in a 10 digits-keypad system, then the panel can be produced with standard components, but optical acknowledgment becomes equivocal
Solution Approach 1:
The patent resolves the optical acknowledgment ambiguity by using color changes to indicate different states. Different colors are used to show whether a button is active, inactive, or has been pressed, providing clear visual feedback to users regardless of which button is pressed and what its current functional assignment is.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements feedback mechanisms to clearly indicate button states and press actions. Visual feedback through lighting and display elements provides unambiguous information about which buttons are available and which have been activated, preventing user confusion about the panel's current state.
4Adaptability or versatility
If all 10 digits are displayed on the car operating panel, then the panel provides complete floor options, but customers in buildings with few floors get confused by non-existent floors
Solution Approach 1:
The patent dynamically adjusts the visible button configuration to match the building's actual floor count. In buildings with fewer floors, the panel can hide or disable buttons corresponding to non-existent floors, preventing user confusion while maintaining the ability to access all floors when they exist.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies different visibility qualities to different buttons based on their relevance to the specific building configuration. Buttons corresponding to existing floors are visible and active, while buttons for non-existent floors are hidden or inactive, providing localized quality differentiation that reduces user confusion.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution provides a user-friendly, cost-effective, and esthetically appealing panel that can be easily configured to match building floor configurations, improving user recognition and maintaining logistic advantages by using standard components and minimizing mechanical complexity.
Implementation Method 1
The buttons are configured to be lighted with light of a first color, when active in the specified configuration
Data Source
AI summary
An elevator car operating panel for registering elevator calls has a plurality of touch sensitive buttons freely configurable to correspond to floors of a building according to a specified configuration. The buttons are configured to be lighted with light of a first color when active in the specified configuration so as to be visible, and are configured to not be lighted when inactive in the specified configuration so as to be invisible.