Photo: Hitachi
tech

Hitachi develops touchless operating panel for elevators

9 Comments

Hitachi Ltd and Hitachi Building Systems Co Ltd have developed a touchless operating panel establishing an elevator without physical floor buttons that allows users to experience a completely new sensation.

This newly developed touchless operating panel replaces the floor buttons normally found in an elevator car and enables elevator users to register a destination floor just by passing a finger over the floor displayed on the panel (LCD monitor), enabling the touchless use of the elevator.

This newly developed touchless operating panels have been installed in elevators in Tokyo Midtown Yaesu.

Features of the operating panel

An elevator user can register the destination floor just by passing their finger over the floor displayed on the touchless operating panel's monitor in an elevator car. An infrared sensor detects the finger's position and registers the floor, enabling the touchless use of the elevator.

While conventional operating panels must have as many floor buttons as the building has floors, the touchless operating panel enables the operating panel to be simplified and miniaturized, making unprecedented futuristic elevator designs possible as since it displays floors on an LCD monitor.

The panel has a direct registration screen including the frequently used floors, such as the lobby, that can display a set of up to six floors and information about them, and a keypad registration screen that allows users to enter their destination floor using the numerical pad. The direct registration screen is the initial screen to increase user convenience.

Additionally, the installation of a card reader in an elevator car linked to the panel enables the display of special floors that only people with registered card have access to on the screen to improve security and convenience at the same time.

It is also possible to flexibly change the floors or floor information that is being displayed based on changes in the building's tenants.

Note: Emergency buttons will be physical buttons.

© JCN Newswire

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

9 Comments
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How did we live this long without this technology

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Mankind survived for millennia without elevators, now they are struggling with buttons? The mind boggles....

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Hey Siri, penthouse suit, pronto. Probably end up in the basement.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

I thought it would be a voice activated panel when I read the title.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I thought it would be a voice activated panel when I read the title.

The clip below shows how that might work out in some places.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMS2VnDveP8

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Hitachi Ltd and Hitachi Building Systems Co Ltd have developed a touchless operating panel establishing an elevator without physical floor buttons that allows users to experience a completely new sensation.

It really is just a combination of existing technologies though, isn't it? Bars that use infrared and enable touchless interaction with systems have been around for at least about 5 years by now. Unlike Hitachi those systems don't come coupled with a display (they can be combined for the same effect with one though), so I guess this is somewhat new?

Does this work with gloves on? One building I work in has electrostatic buttons but you need bare skin for them to work

You're probably thinking of capacitive touchscreens when you ask this question. For those, you need an electrical conductor (like your finger) touching the screen to work, since the system only reacts to such. Here they are using infrared, so you don't have to touch the screen. You should therefore absolutely be able to use such panels while wearing gloves.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Those buttons are clustered close together. I suspect you're going to get a lot of mis-hits unless you concentrate hard.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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