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Ever get tired of waiting for an elevator? A universal remote elevator call button would speed things up. It would work like the remotes used to lock and unlock cars from a distance, only in this case it would press the call button if you clicked it when you were within 50 feet of an elevator (on the
same floor). That way when you reached the elevator and pressed the call button the elevator would usually be right there waiting. Some sort of timer would have to be in place though so anyone waiting on the other floors wouldn't have to wait forever if you changed your mind and didn't take the elevator. About 20-30 seconds should do it.
A lot of public buildings would benefit from installing these to speed up the flow of the foot traffic passing through them (which would encourage public financing for the devices).
There would also be two other versions of these remote call buttons.
One would be for emergency personnel. When they clicked it every elevator within 50 feet would head towards the floor they were on, saving them precious seconds, because the one closest to their floor would open first. This remote would override every other call, whether they were manual or remote.
The other would be for the private sector. It would be a priority remote given only to a company's top officers. This would override the generic remotes giving them first call on the elevators, but only for those in their own building. In other buildings they would revert to generic mode. Even this model would have less priority than the emergency model though. If you're wondering why the executives should be given a priority remote, it's simply a matter of motivation. If they can get first call on the elevators with the system then they're much more likely to put a line item in the budget to install it in their building.
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And the elevator door should open upwards like on a garage. |
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Brau - It's true that the possibility of a black market developing is a real one. Emergency services here have a device that changes traffic signals to green as they approach, clearing a path for them, and a black market has sprung up for duplicate devices in the private sector. That hasn't stopped the emergency services from using them though. Unauthorized users just have to face serious consequences to keep the problem under control. |
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For the standard button, it better detect how far away the person is when they hit their button (or assume that they are x seconds away). Otherwise, an elevator will often open up for them when they are still 50 feet away and the people in the elevator will have to wait for the caller to walk the rest of the way to the elevator. |
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Here's another thought. What if each remote control has a unique ID and the system remembers the floor that each peson normally goes to. Then, the closest elevator might skip picking up the person if there is another one coming soon that has less stops before the person's floor or is already scheduled to stop at that floor. |
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For busy buildings it wouldn't make much of a difference where the button was located, especially if it were this way on every floor. |
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oniony - Sounds like the kind of solution typically designed by committees (or programmers who have too much time on their hands). And since I'm a programmer I guess that gives me permission to insult my own kind. |
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