Elevator usage in venues

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2020002124-A1
Application number	US-201816023655-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 29, 2018
Priority date	Jun 29, 2018
Publication date	Jan 2, 2020
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method, apparatus, computer program product and system are provided that are configured to obtain a plurality of pieces of movement information that is at least indicative of an origin location and a destination location in a venue; obtain indoor map data of the venue that is indicative of one or more connections one or more users can utilize for transferring between floors of the venue and that comprises or is associated with pre-determined route information; and determine one or more pieces of control information for one or more elevators of the venue based at least partially on the plurality of pieces of movement information and the indoor map data. The control information enables a controlling of a respective elevator of the one or more elevators. The one or more pieces of control information influence an overall elevator usage of the one or more elevators of the venue.

First claim

1 . An apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to at least perform:
obtaining a plurality of pieces of movement information, wherein a respective movement information of the plurality of pieces of movement information is at least indicative of an origin location and a destination location in a venue; obtaining indoor map data of the venue in case the indoor map data is not available, wherein the indoor map data is indicative of at least one or more connections one or more users can utilize for transferring between floors of the venue, wherein the indoor map data comprises or is associated with one or more pre-determined route information indicative of a pre-determined route within the venue; and determining one or more pieces of control information for one or more elevators of the venue based at least partially on the plurality of pieces of movement information and the indoor map data, wherein a respective control information of the one or more pieces of control information enables a controlling of a respective elevator of the one or more elevators, and wherein the one or more pieces of control information together enable to influence an overall elevator usage of the one or more elevators of the venue.

2 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of pieces of movement information are obtained based at least partially on one or more pieces of calendar information, wherein each of the one or more pieces of calendar information is indicative of a destination location and a time at which a respective user of the one or more users wishes to reach the destination location of the calendar information, wherein a respective movement information of the plurality of pieces of movement information is deduced from a current location of a respective electronic device of the respective user and the destination location of the calendar information.

3 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein at least one respective movement information of the one or more pieces of movement information comprises or is associated with a trajectory information indicative of a current direction of movement of a respective electronic device of a respective user, wherein the one or more pieces of control information are determined further based on the trajectory information.

4 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus further to perform:
outputting the control information for usage in controlling the one or more elevators of the venue, and/or for usage in a navigation service within the venue, wherein the navigation service enables a respective electronic device of a respective user to navigate from an origin location to a destination location of the venue.

5 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus further to perform:
determining navigation information based at least partially on a respective movement information of the plurality of pieces of movement information and the one or more pieces of control information, wherein the navigation information is indicative of a certain route enabling a respective user to get from the origin location to the destination location of the respective movement information.

6 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more pieces of control information are determined further based on a plurality of pieces of time information indicative of a time a user wishes to reach a destination location in the venue, wherein each of the plurality of pieces of movement information is associated with such a time information, wherein the one or more pieces of control information are determined by aggregating the plurality of pieces of movement information associated with the plurality of pieces of time information.

7 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein at least a part of the plurality of pieces of movement information are gathered by one or more sensors.

8 . The apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the navigation information is determined based on a probability information indicative of a likelihood that the user utilizes a certain connection to transfer from one floor of the venue to another.

9 . The apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein a respective control information of the one or more pieces of control information for a respective elevator of the one or more elevators of the venue is determined further based on one or more of the following parameters i) to iii), which are deducable from the plurality of pieces of movement information:
i) number of users requiring an elevator in an origin floor of the respective elevator; ii) number of users requiring an elevator in a destination floor of the respective elevator; and iii) number of users requiring an elevator in one or more floors in between the origin floor and the destination floor of the respective elevator.

10 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the indoor map data is indicative of one or more of the following:
i) a model of the venue; ii) one or more points-of-interest of the venue; and iii) one or more graph models of the venue.

11 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus further to perform:
obtaining historical movement information indicative of one or more routes a respective user has used in the past, wherein the one or more pieces of control information are determined further based on the historical movement information.

12 . The apparatus according to claim 11 , the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus further to perform:
generating one or more weight indexes based at least partially on the historical movement information for determining potential routes which are usable by the user; and associating the one or more weight indexes with the respective user; wherein the one or more pieces of control information are determined further based on the one or more weight indexes.

13 . An apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to at least perform:
gathering a movement information indicative of an origin location and a destination location in a venue; outputting the movement information; receiving one or more pieces of control information that enable a controlling of one or more elevators of the venue; and determining navigation information based on the movement information and the one or more pieces of control information, wherein the navigation information enables to navigate a user in the venue from the origin location to the destination location.

14 . The apparatus according to claim 13 , wherein the apparatus is a mobile device or a tag device.

15 . The apparatus according to claim 13 , wherein at least the origin location of movement information is gathered by one or more sensors enabling a current location in the venue to be determined.

16 . The apparatus according to claim 13 , the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one pr

Assignees

• Here Global Bv

Inventors

• Wirola Lauri Aarne Johannes
• Kamarainen Jouni

Classifications

• B66B1/3492 Primary

  Position or motion detectors or driving means for the detector (B66B1/40, B66B1/50 take precedence; length measuring G01B; speed measuring G01P) · CPC title

• B66B2201/402

  by historical, statistical or predicted traffic data, e.g. by learning · CPC title

• B66B3/00

  Applications of devices for indicating or signalling operating conditions of elevators · CPC title

• B66B5/027

  to permit passengers to leave an elevator car in case of failure, e.g. moving the car to a reference floor or unlocking the door · CPC title

• G01C21/206

  specially adapted for indoor navigation · CPC title