ELEVATOR DEVICE

• US 20140374196A1
• Filed: 03/02/2012
• Published: 12/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/02/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Inventors: Nagata, Ayako
• Granted Patent: US 9,598,263 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 187/388
• CPC Class Codes: B66B 1/2408 where the allocation of a call to an elevator car is of importance, i.e. by means of a supervisory or group controller
• CPC Class Codes: B66B 1/468 Call registering systems
• CPC Class Codes: B66B 2201/4646 using voice recognition
• CPC Class Codes: B66B 3/002 Indicators
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/00 Speech recognition G10L17/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/22 Interactive procedures; Man-machine interfaces

Abstract

An elevator device includes a voice input device, a voice recognition device, a call registration device, and an announcement control device. Upon receipt of an announcement request for a second announcement having higher priority than a first announcement while the announcement control device is causing the announcement output device to output the first announcement, the announcement control device stops the first announcement and causes the announcement output device to output the second announcement. The announcement control device also determines whether the re-output of the first announcement is necessary. In the case where the announcement control device determines that the re-output of the first announcement is necessary, upon finish of the second announcement, the announcement control device causes the announcement output device to re-output the first announcement.

Claims

1. An elevator device comprising:

a voice input device;

a voice recognition device which performs prescribed voice recognition processing of voice data inputted from the voice input device and determines whether the voice data is in agreement with pre-registered data under prescribed conditions;

a call registration device which, in the case where the voice recognition device determines that the voice data is in agreement with the pre-registered data, sends a call registration request corresponding to the pre-registered data;

a control device which performs car response control on the basis of the call registration request received from the call registration device; and

an announcement control device which controls an announcement output device on the basis of an announcement request from the voice recognition device and an announcement request from the control device, wherein

the announcement control device, upon receipt of an announcement request for a second announcement having higher priority than a first announcement while the announcement control device is causing the announcement output device to output the first announcement, stops the first announcement and causes the announcement output device to output the second announcement,

the announcement control device determines whether re-output of the first announcement is necessary, and

in the case where the announcement control device determines that the re-output of the first announcement is necessary, upon finish of the second announcement, the announcement control device causes the announcement output device to re-output the first announcement.

2. The elevator device according to claim 1, wherein in the case where the announcement control device determines that the re-output of the first announcement is unnecessary, upon finish of the second announcement, the announcement control device does not cause the announcement output device to re-output the first announcement.

3. The elevator device according to claim 1, wherein

the control device outputs information showing a prescribed condition of an elevator as condition information, and

the announcement control device determines whether the re-output of the first announcement is necessary on the basis of the condition information received from the control device.

4. The elevator device according to claim 3, wherein the announcement control device determines whether the re-output of the first announcement is necessary on the basis of whether a control operation is being performed when the re-output of the first announcement becomes possible.

5. The elevator device according to claim 3, wherein the announcement control device determines whether the re-output of the first announcement is necessary on the basis of a car position at the point of time when the first announcement is stopped and a car position at the point of time when the re-output of the first announcement becomes possible.

6. The elevator device according to claim 3, wherein the announcement control device determines whether the re-output of the first announcement is necessary on the basis of whether there is a user in a car when the re-output of the first announcement becomes possible.

7. The elevator device according to claim 1, wherein the announcement control device determines whether the re-output of the first announcement is necessary on the basis of a time which elapses after the first announcement is stopped.

8. The elevator device according to claim 1, wherein the announcement control device determines whether the re-output of the first announcement is necessary on the basis of an amount of the first announcement outputted before the stop.

9. The elevator device according to claim 1, wherein

the control device outputs information concerning a registered call as condition information,

the voice recognition device limits voice recognition processing to a given period and outputs a prescribed announcement request at the start of voice recognition processing, and

the announcement control device, upon receipt of the prescribed announcement request from the voice recognition device, causes the announcement output device to output an announcement concerning a call registration condition on the basis of the condition information received from the control device.

10. The elevator device according to claim 9, wherein

the announcement control device determines whether the output of the announcement concerning the call registration condition is necessary on the basis of the condition information received from the control device, and

in the case where the announcement control device determines that the output of the announcement concerning the call registration condition is necessary, the announcement control device causes the announcement output device to output the announcement concerning the call registration condition.

11. The elevator device according to claim 10, wherein the announcement control device, in the case where the announcement control device determines that the output of the announcement concerning the call registration condition is unnecessary, the announcement control device does not cause the announcement output device to output the announcement concerning the call registration condition.