Door zone protection

The present invention relates to monitoring elevator doors and other portals of entry and egress. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus and method for monitoring doors to ensure the safety of those entering and leaving through the doors.

The current method for monitoring elevator doors and the like is to use what is known as a two-dimensional (2D) array of light emitting diode (LED) devices that present a light curtain in the doorway. When a person or object crosses through the light curtain, photodetectors positioned to receive light from the LEDs sense a break in the light curtain, and the device triggers the doors to open. The problem with this method is that it does not give any information about what is about to happen, because it can only determine what is happening in the doorway at any time. U.S. Pat. No. 6,344,642 shows one form of 2D door control.

One solution that has been proposed is to use an additional group of LED devices that are angled outward from the elevator door into the lobby area. The LED devices are arranged so that light is bounced off something and received by a group of photodetectors. If the photodetectors detect a reflection, the system determines that something is on the way to the doorway and opens the doors.

The problem with this solution is that light will reflect off inanimate objects as well as people, generating a false positive or trigger. These false triggers can cause the system to open the doors fully, and then send a new signal when the doors start to close because no one entered through the door. The same inanimate object may cause the false trigger again multiple times. Elevators are programmed to shut down when the doors are reopened more than a predetermined number of times. This requires a service call by a mechanic, and, of course, not only takes the elevator temporarily out of service but increases maintenance costs.

In light of the foregoing, the present invention aims to resolve one or more of the aforementioned issues that can affect conventional elevator doors.

An embodiment of the present invention addresses an apparatus for detecting an object in an area adjacent a doorway. This apparatus includes, among other possible things, a plurality of transducers mounted proximate the doorway and a processor. At least one of the transducers is positioned to repeatedly transmit signals toward an area adjacent the doorway. At least two of the transducers are positioned to repeatedly receive return signals. The processor is operably connected to the plurality of transducers for detecting, in the area adjacent the doorway, an object by determining the object's: position based upon one or more determined distances derived from times between transmission of signals and reception of corresponding return signals; and/or movement based upon transmission of signals and Doppler shift in the reception of corresponding return signals.

Another embodiment of the present invention addresses an apparatus for controlling operation of an elevator door. This apparatus includes, among other possible things, a plurality of transducers, a processor, and a door controller. The plurality of transducers are mounted proximate an elevator doorway for repeatedly transmitting signals toward an area adjacent the elevator doorway and receiving corresponding return signals. The processor is for detecting, in the area adjacent the elevator doorway, an object by determining the object's: position based upon one or more determined distances derived from times between transmission of the signals and reception of corresponding return signals; and/or movement based upon transmission of signals and Doppler shift in the reception of corresponding return signals. The processor is configured to produce an output based on the object's determined position and/or movement. The door controller is for controlling operation of the elevator door as a function of the output of the processor.

Another embodiment of the present invention addresses a method for detecting an object in an area adjacent a doorway. This method includes, among other possible steps, providing a plurality of transducers mounted proximate the doorway; activating at least one of the transducers to transmit a signal toward an area adjacent the doorway; receiving a return signal at the transmitting transducer and/or at one or more of the other of the plurality of transducers; deriving a determined distance for each receiving transducer based upon a time between transmission of the signal by the transmitting transducer and reception of the return signal by that transmitting transducer and/or by the one or more of the other of the plurality of transducers; and detecting an object based upon at least one of the determined distances.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only, and are not restrictive of the invention as claimed.

These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description, appended claims, and the accompanying exemplary embodiments shown in the drawings, which are hereafter briefly described.

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of an embodiment of the present invention, showing a plurality of transducers detecting the approach of an individual toward an elevator door.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating the operation of the embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 1 .

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of another embodiment of the present invention, showing an additional set of transducers for determining a 3D image detection.

Efforts have been made throughout the drawings to use the same or similar reference numerals for the same or like components.

Throughout this application the term ‘transducer’ is typically used to refer to a signal device that includes both a transmitter and a receiver. Of course, however, separate transmitters and receivers can be paired to achieve the same technical result and, therefore, the term ‘transducer’ is to be interpreted to cover both a single device that contains a transmitter and a receiver as well as a separate transmitter and receiver pair.

In FIG. 1 , four transducers US 1 , US 2 , US 3 , and US 4 are positioned around elevator doorway 10 . Transducers US 1 -US 4 , which in the hereafter described embodiment are ultrasonic transducers but could, of course, be other types of signal transducers (such as microwave, infrared, etc.), may be mounted on or adjacent doorframe 12 of doorway 10 , or on doors 14 . Transducers US 1 -US 4 are spaced from one another, and each is oriented to transmit ultrasonic signals (also referred to as pulses) outward from doorway 10 toward the hallway or lobby area in front of doorway 10 . Depending upon the size of the elevator and the area of the adjacent lobby, more transducers or fewer may transmit signals to ensure the entire area of interest is surveyed.

In facilities with large lobbies or areas proximate the door and transducers, a cut-off distance can be incorporated into the processor so that the system does not respond to movement too far to be needed. For example, objects at or beyond a set cut-off distance away may not be of interest. This variable is hardware or software adjustable, depending upon the size of the lobby, the volume of traffic, and other factors. For such objects at or beyond the cut-off distance, signals that are reflected by such objects may be disregarded as irrelevant. The distance of such distant objects would be determined by the elapsed travel time of the signal.

Each ultrasonic transducer US i (where i=1, 2, 3, 4, in the example shown in FIG. 1 ) sends a sound pulse in the form of a conical beam B i at time t i from the measured time until a return pulse is received, the distance (d i , i=1, 2, 3, 4) to the closest object 20 can be determined. Such an object may be, for example, one or more persons, animals, strollers, luggage, or other object. Each ultrasonic transducer US i periodically repeats this procedure in a time period, such as, every p milliseconds. The number p may depend on the door dimension, the size of the lobby, the detection distance capability needed, and also may take into account the speed of the sound. From the distance measurements d i in time periods t i , t i +p, t i +2p, . . . , it is possible to determine how fast, and in what direction, an object is moving in front of elevator doorway 10 .

When a plurality of doorways are fitted with the present invention, such as when a number of elevator doors are next to or across from each other, particular frequencies or groups of frequencies can be used by each doorway to eliminate crosstalk between the multiple doorways. In other words, each doorway will emit and receive a particular frequency or group of frequencies so that if another frequency (or a frequency that is not in a particular doorway's set of frequencies) is received, such frequency can be disregarded as pertaining to a signal emitted by another doorway.

To avoid scenarios when it is impossible to determine the origin of the sound reflected by the object, time division multiplexing can be used. Namely, if several transducers send ultrasonic pulses toward an object at the same time and then these transducers receive the reflected return pulses back from the object, an individual transducer cannot determine whether the return pulse originated from that transducer or another transducer. With time division multiplexing, each transducer sends its ultrasonic pulse during a different time period (also referred to as a time interval) than the other transducers. The intervals are long enough to allow an ultrasonic pulse to be transmitted and a return pulse received before the next transducer in the sequence is activated. Alternatively, transducers US i could transmit at different ultrasonic frequencies (i.e., frequency multiplexing), in which case they could operate simultaneously or in overlapping time periods.

It is also contemplated that each transducer can transmit at its own unique frequency and receive reflected pulses at all frequencies. This would permit use of twice the information per signature frequency, and would enable the system to use two transducers, each of which processes its own unique frequency as well as the unique frequency of the other transducer. This embodiment would operate by sequentially transmitting from each transmitter selected and having some or all of the receivers listening for the signals.

FIG. 1 shows an example in which one person 20 is standing or moving in the lobby area in front of doorway 10 . Beams B 1 and B 2 transmitted by transducers US 1 and US 2 , respectively, are illustrated in FIG. 1 . Beams B 1 and B 2 may be transmitted either sequentially (using time division multiplexing) or simultaneously (using frequency multiplexing), along with beams (not shown) from transducers US 3 and US 4 .

Those parts of person 20 that are in the path of beam B 1 will reflect ultrasonic energy back to transducer US 1 . Because not all portions of the body of person 20 may be the same distance from transducer US 1 , the time of flight may be based upon when the return pulse leading edge reception begins (e.g., by being reflected by the part of the person closest to the transducer), at a later time (e.g., by being reflected by the part of the person farthest from the transducer), or on an average time. Regardless, the distance determined by the time of flight can, for example through software, be used to construct a 2D image of a person 20 .

In FIG. 1 , a detected distance d 1 from US 1 to person 20 is illustrated. Based upon the detected distance d 1 , a spherical surface S 1 can be derived, with the location of US 1 as the center of the sphere and d 1 as its radius.

FIG. 1 also shows beam B 2 from US 2 , and the corresponding detected distance d 2 and spherical surface S 2 . Similar detected distances and spherical surfaces are produced based upon time of flight of ultrasonic pulse beams from transducers US 3 and US 4 .

Based upon the detected distances and knowledge of the normal layout of the lobby or hallway, the presence of an object, such as person 20 , can be detected. If the lobby normally does not have objects located at the distance d i produced by one or more of transducers US i , the presence of an object in front of doorway 10 can be assumed.

By using the detected distance d i collected over a sequence of ultrasonic pulses from the same transducer US i , motion of person 20 can be detected. For example, if distances d i from several transducers US i are decreasing over time, this indicates that person 20 is moving toward doorway 10 . Conversely, if several of distances d i are increasing over time, it indicates person 20 is moving away from doorway 10 . It is also possible to determine that person 20 is passing doorway 10 based upon some detected distances increasing while others are decreasing.

Using the spherical surfaces S i , it is possible to determine a location and movement of person 20 . If some or all of the spherical surfaces intersect, the coordinates of the intersections provide a location of person 20 in three-dimensional space. Changes in that location over time can be used to determine motion and to predict whether person 20 intends to enter the elevator. If the spherical surfaces do not intersect, but multiple distances d i indicate a detected presence, this may be interpreted as having more than one person in the hallway or lobby.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of control system 20 , which uses ultrasonic detection to control operation of elevator doors 14 of FIG. 1 . Control system 30 includes ultrasonic transducers US i -US 4 , transmitter circuits T 1 -T 4 , receiver circuits R 1 -R 4 , processor 40 , and door controller 50 . As shown in FIG. 2 , each ultrasonic transducer US 1 -US 4 has an associated transmitter circuit T 1 -T 4 and an associated receiver circuit R 1 -R 4 , respectively.

Processor 40 controls when the ultrasonic pulses from transducers US 1 , US 2 , US 3 , and US 4 are generated by controlling transmitters T 1 -T 4 , respectively. When a transmitter (e.g., transmitter T 1 ) receives a command from processor 40 , it generates an electrical drive signal at a frequency that will cause the transducer (e.g., US 1 ) to generate an ultrasonic pulse. When the reflected pulse is received by the associated receiver R 1 -R 4 (e.g., receiver R 1 ), a received signal is then sent to the processor 40 . Processor 40 measures the time of flight from when the ultrasonic signal is initially emitted by the transmitter T 1 -T 4 (e.g., transmitter T 1 ) until the reflected ultrasonic pulse is received by the associated receiver R 1 -R 4 (e.g., receiver R 1 ). Based upon the time of flight from transmission to receipt processor 40 calculates distance d i . From the detected distances, processor 40 can use triangulation to determine whether an object is present, and where the object is located. Further, by detecting changes in an object's position over time, the processor 40 can determine whether the object is moving toward or away from the doors or is stationary.

In combination with the time of flight of the received pulses, the same signal can be processed by the processor for Doppler shift. This Doppler processing, which can occur before, after, or simultaneously with the time of flight triangulation, provides direction to or from the doorway, and the speed of the object, but does not provide the position of the object (which is determined using the time of flight triangulation). As a result of the combination of the Doppler shift processing and the time of flight triangulation processing, all of the location, speed, and direction of an object can be determined.

The output of the processor 40 is an input to door controller 50 which operates doors 14 of the elevator. For example, if the output of the processor 40 indicates that an object is moving toward the doors 14 , the door controller 50 can instruct the doors 14 to open (or to remain open). Similarly, if a detected object is moving away from the doors 14 , the output from the processor 40 can instruct the door controller 50 to continue closing the doors 14 .

FIG. 3 illustrates the addition of transducers US 5 and US 6 that are similar to the transducers of FIG. 1 , but have been placed in a different plane and transmit beams B 5 and B 6 to determine the depth or third dimension of the object of interest. These transducers US 5 and US 6 can be mounted on the wall, the ceiling, or other parts of the lobby. The processor would add their data to give the 3D information.

The aforementioned discussion is intended to be merely illustrative of the present invention and should not be construed as limiting the appended claims to any particular embodiment or group of embodiments. Thus, while the present invention has been described in particular detail with reference to a specific exemplary embodiment thereof, it should also be appreciated that numerous modifications and changes may be made thereto without departing from the broader and intended scope of the invention as set forth in the claims that follow.

The specification and drawings are accordingly to be regarded in an illustrative manner and are not intended to limit the scope of the appended claims. In light of the foregoing disclosure of the present invention, one versed in the art would appreciate that there may be other embodiments and modifications within the scope of the present invention. Accordingly, all modifications attainable by one versed in the art from the present disclosure within the scope of the present invention are to be included as further embodiments of the present invention. The scope of the present invention is to be defined as set forth in the following claims.