Communications: electrical – Tactual indication
Reexamination Certificate
2002-02-28
2004-02-24
Hofsass, Jeffery (Department: 2632)
Communications: electrical
Tactual indication
C340S692000, C340S540000, C340S686100, C340S454000, C187S901000, C187S391000, C187S396000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06696926
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention pertains to a method for recording an audible floor call for any floor in an elevator and a Braille information notification device by which guiding information on any floor is notified by means of Braille.
BACKGROUND
In the past, when a visually handicapped person used an elevator, he/she either read Braille notices located near the floor buttons on the elevator car operating panel in the elevator or the elevator hall in order to actuate the button for the target floor, or utilized an audio information guide. In addition, a system for issuing an audible floor announcement as the elevator car arrived at each floor has been adopted.
FIG. 7
is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of said audible floor announcement system. In said system, recording means
53
is provided on control board
52
placed on the back of the operating panel (not illustrated) in elevator car
51
, and a signal
54
, triggered by the arrival of the elevator car at a given floor is delivered to said recording means
53
, and the floor at which elevator car
51
has arrived is announced by a voice from speaker
55
.
In the case of the typical floor call sound notification system shown in
FIG. 7
, because Braille plates
58
are merely attached near floor buttons
57
on operating panel
56
(shown in
FIG. 8
) of elevator car
51
, the Braille information is limited only to the areas of Braille plates
58
, so that the amount of information to be conveyed is limited. Furthermore, in
FIG. 8
, door OPEN/CLOSE buttons
59
and speaker
60
are provided on operating panel
56
.
It is known in the prior art to provide a system wherein to operating panel
56
in a handicapped person presses elevator STOP button and remains in touch with a reconfigureable Braille display provided near said button with his finger, as the elevator car passes the floors. As said car passes the floors, said passing floors are indicated by means of Braille, so that the handicapped person can find the traveling status of the car. Thus, the handicapped person can remain at ease while waiting to arrive at his/her destination floor.
However, the invention described in said patent is intended to convey Braille information, only regarding floor number to handicapped people, and the space for the Braille display part needs to be increased if a larger amount of information is to be provided. In addition, because audible floor calls are limited to messages preset by the manufacturer, it is inconvenient in that audible calls cannot be changed as desired.
The present invention was achieved in light of the aforementioned situation, and its objective is to present an audible floor call registration method and a Braille information notification device by which not only the individual floor messages can be changed easily, but the amount of Braille information to be conveyed can also be increased significantly.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
In order to achieve the aforementioned objective, in the present invention, a first embodiment is characterized as being provided with an elevator car position sensing process in which an elevator car is moved to a floor where an original voice is to be input, and whether the elevator car has arrived at said floor or not is sensed;
a continuous button holding-down judging process in which, after the arrival of the elevator car at the aforementioned floor is sensed through said position sensing process, whether a first button preset on an operating panel provided in the elevator car has been held down for a fixed duration of time or not is judged;
a voice input enabling process in which when the first button, through said continuation judging process, is judged to have been held down, a voice input is enabled;
a recording starting process in which when a second button on the aforementioned operating panel is actuated, a recording of a given message is started; and
a voice input setting ending process in which when a third button on the aforementioned operating panel is actuated, the aforementioned message is recorded, and the aforementioned operation is ended.
A second embodiment of the present invention is characterized as being a panel presenting information in Braille, wherein said Braille information panel is equipped with a slender rectangular Braille character panel provided in the center and buttons provided on the left and the right of said Braille character panel in order to move the Braille information presented on the Braille character panel backward or forward.
The second is embodiment is further characterized in that the aforementioned Braille character panel is configured with an upper and a lower panel layer, a fixed space is provided between the layers, the layers are pierced with multiple probes used to form Braille characters, said probes are provided with upper limit stops and lower limit stops, each probe is configured such that it can be moved vertically, actuators are controlled by means of output processed by an information processing part according to input information from an information input part, and the probes move up and down to create Braille characters in accordance with said control.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4400787 (1983-08-01), Mandel et al.
patent: 4683989 (1987-08-01), Pillage et al.
patent: 6021870 (2000-02-01), Kim
Takahashi Toshirou
Tanigawa Joji
Tsukamoto Yohsinobu
Hofsass Jeffery
Nguyen Hung
Otis Elevator Company
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