Patent Publication Number: US-2006011419-A1

Title: Non-contact optical sensor switch assembly of elevators

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
      1. Field of the Invention  
      The present invention relates to a switch assembly, more particularly to a non-contact optical sensor switch assembly of elevators.  
      2. Description of the Related Art  
      An elevator is a tool used by the general public, which can transport people or goods to different floors of a building quickly and thus is a very convenient tool. There is a plurality of switches on the panel of an elevator and each switch is a press button designated for the functions of going to a particular floor, opening the door or closing the door, etc., so that a user can press one of these buttons to select and execute an operation (such as selecting a switch to go to a particular floor).  
      However, there may be many passengers taking an elevator at the same time, and each passenger must select one of the press buttons for executing an operation (such as selecting a floor) before taking the lift. Therefore, the surface of these press buttons are touched by many people; if any of them is a carrier such as a severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) carrier or a tuberculosis carrier, etc) who has touched these buttons, then the next passenger may be infected by touching the same buttons. Thus, it is necessary to design and develop an elevator switch that can prevent infections.  
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
      In view of the shortcomings of the aforementioned prior art that elevator passengers may be infected easily by touching the switches of an elevator, the inventor of the present invention based on years of experience on the technology and manufacture of electronic devices to conduct extensive researches and experiments to find a solution to the deficiency of the prior art and finally developed a non-contact optical sensor switch assembly to overcome the shortcoming derived from the aforementioned prior art.  
      Therefore, it is a primary objective of the present invention to provide a non-contact optical sensor switch assembly of elevator as to prevent elevator passengers from being infected by germs or bacteria by touching the switches of the elevator.  
      Since there is a plurality of switches equidistantly disposed on a panel of the elevator and each of these switches is for selecting a function of going to a particular floor, opening the door or closing the door, therefore an optical sensor is built into each of these switches to achieve the objective of the present invention. Before a user touches these switches by a finger, the optical sensors will detect the approaching finger. Since these switches are electrically connected to one of the signal detect circuits and each signal detect circuit is electrically connected to one of the control circuits of the elevator, therefore when the optical sensor of one of the switches detects the approaching finger, the optical sensor will send out a detect signal to the signal detect circuit and drive the signal detect circuit to send such detect signal to the control circuit, and then the control circuit will execute the operation according to the instruction given by the pressed button (such as an instruction for opening the door). Such arrangement does not require users to touch the switches on the panel of the elevator to select their desired operation (such as selecting a particular floor or selecting to open the door), and thus the present invention can avoid the possibility of being infected by touching the switches.  
      To make it easier for our examiner to understand the objective of the invention, its structure, innovative features, and performance, we use a preferred embodiment including but not limited to the attached drawings for the detailed description of the invention. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       FIG. 1  is an illustrative view of the elevator according to the present invention.  
       FIG. 2  is a circuit block diagram of the present invention.  
       FIG. 3  is a circuit block diagram according to another preferred embodiment of the present invention.  
       FIG. 4  is a circuit block diagram according to another further preferred embodiment of the present invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
      The present invention relates to a non-contact optical sensor switch assembly for preventing elevator passengers from being infected by germs or bacteria by touching the switches of the elevator.  
      Please refer to  FIGS. 1 and 2 . The non-contact optical sensor switch assembly comprises a plurality of switches  13  equidistantly disposed on a panel  12  of an elevator  11  and each of these switches  13  is a press button for a user to select a particular floor, open the door, or close the door; an optical sensor  14  built into each of these switches  13 , such that before a user touches these switches  13  by a finger  21 , the optical sensors  14  will detect the approaching of the finger  21 . Since these switches  13  are electrically connected to one of the signal detect circuits  15  of the elevator and the signal detect circuit  15  is electrically connected to one of the control circuits  16  of the elevator  11 .  
      Please refer to  FIGS. 1 and 2  again. With the assembly of the foregoing components, when the optical sensor  14  of one of the switches  13  detects the approaching of a finger  21 , the optical sensor  14  will send out a detect signal to the signal detect circuit  15  as to drive the signal detect circuit  15  to send such detect signal to the control circuit  16 , and then the control circuit  16  will execute the operation according to the instruction given by the pressed switch (such as an instruction for opening the door). Such arrangement does not require users to touch the switches  13  on the panel  12  of the elevator  11  to select the desired operation (such as selecting a particular floor or selecting to open the door), and thus the present invention can avoid the possibility of being infected by touching the switches  13 .  
      Please refer to  FIG. 2  again. Each switch  13  comprises a press section  131  and a bottom  133 , wherein the press section  131  is movably coupled onto the bottom  133 , such that when the press section  131  is pressed, the press section  131  will generate a back and forth linear movement sideway, and the press section  131  at its bottom has a press rod  135  extended towards the bottom  133 , and the bottom  133  has an electric contact point  136  disposed therein at a position corresponding to the press rod  135 , and the press rod  135  comes with a resilient device  137  such as a spring, such that when the press section  131  is pressed, the bottom of the press rod  135  presses on the electric contact point  136  to generate an electric connection. After the press section  131  is pressed, the press section  131  will resume its original position through the resilience of the resilient component  137 .  
      Please refer to  FIGS. 1 and 2  again. The control circuit  16  comprises an interface circuit  161 , a microprocessor  163 , a random access memory  165  and a read only memory  166 , wherein the microprocessor  163  is electrically connected with the interface circuit  161 , the random access memory  165  and a read only memory  166  and the interface circuit  161  is electrically connected with a signal detect circuit  15 , and different operation programs of the elevator  11  are stored in the read only memory  166 , such that the microprocessor  163  will execute the instructions of the corresponding operation program in the read only memory  166  according to the instructions given by the pressed switch  13 .  
      Please refer to  FIGS. 1 and 2 . If the control circuit  16  receives many instructions from a plurality of different pressed switches  13  at a time, the control circuit will cancel all these instructions to prevent sensing any unintended instruction wrongly detected by the optical sensors  14  of these switches.  
      Please refer to  FIGS. 1 and 3  for another preferred embodiment of the present invention. The panel  12  of the elevator  11  comprises a plurality of equidistantly aligned hollow shells  31 , and each shell  31  has an optical sensor  14 , so that before a user touches the shell  31  by a finger  21 , the optical sensor  14  can detect the approaching finger  21 . The optical sensors  14  are electrically connected to a signal detect circuit  15  of the elevator  11  and then the signal detect circuit  15  will send this detect signal to the control circuit  16 , so that the control circuit  16  can execute the related operation according to the instruction of the detect signal (such as the instruction for opening the door).  
      Please refer to  FIGS. 1 and 3 . The control circuit  16  comprises an interface circuit  161 , a microprocessor  163 , a random access memory  165  and a read only memory  166 , wherein the microprocessor  163  is electrically connected to the interface circuit  161 , the random access memory  165  and the read only memory  166 , and the interface circuit  161  is electrically connected to signal detect circuit  15 , and the read only memory  166  stores different operation programs of the elevation  11  in the read only memory  166 , such that the microprocessor  163  can execute the corresponding instructions of the operation program to proceed with the related operation according to the instruction of the detect signal of each optical sensor  14 .  
      Please refer to  FIGS. 1 and 4  for another preferred embodiment of the present invention. A plurality of recesses  41  equidistantly is disposed on the panel  12  of the elevator  11 , and each recess has a light emitting device  42  such as a light emitting diode (LED) and a receiver  43  corresponding to the light emitting device  42 , such that when a finger  21  is placed into the recess  41 , the light emitted from the light emitting device  42  will be reflected to and received by the receiver  43 . The receiver  43  is electrically connected to a signal detect circuit  15  of the elevator  11 , and the signal detect circuit  15  is electrically connected to a control circuit  16  of the elevation  11 .  
      If one of the receivers  43  receives the light emitted from the light emitting device  42 , the receiver  43  will send out a detect signal to the signal detect circuit  15 , so that the signal detect circuit  15  will send the detect signal to the control circuit  16  and the control circuit  16  will execute the corresponding operation according to the instruction of the detect signal (such as the instruction for opening the door).  
      Please refer to  FIGS. 1 and 4 . The control circuit  16  comprises an interface circuit  161 , a microprocessor  163 , a random access memory  165  and a read only memory  166 ; wherein the microprocessor  163  is electrically connected to the interface circuit  161 , the random access memory  165  and the read only memory  166 , and the interface circuit  161  is electrically connected to the signal detect circuit  15 , and the read only memory  166  stores various operation programs of the elevator  11 , such that the microprocessor  163  executes the corresponding instruction of the operation program in the read only memory  166  to proceed the related operation according to the detect signal of each receiver  43 .  
      In summation of the description above, the non-contact optical sensor switch assembly of the present invention allows elevator passengers to select the desired operation (such as selecting a particular floor or selecting to open the door) without touching the switches  13  on the panel  12  of the elevator  11 , and thus the present invention can avoid the possibility of being infected by germs or bacteria caused by touching the switches  13 .  
      While the invention has been described by way of example and in terms of a preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited thereto. To the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements and procedures, and the scope of the appended claims therefore should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements.