Patent ID: 7131522

Claim:
A stairs lift system capable of converting a stair climbing, or descending, movement into a walking movement along a horizontal plane, the system comprising: An existing substrate flight of stairs; and a series of lifting elements, each supported on one of the substrate stairs, thus forming together a second, overlying layer of stairs, each lifting element comprises: an open top container fitting the length, width and height of a substrate stair; a top panel forming a cover for the container; means for lifting the top panel up to the height of the next-in-line overlying stair; means for activating the lifting means upon a control command; means for sensing the presence of a subject having stepped on the first-in-line lifting element top panel; means for issuing the control command to the next-in-line lifting element after the subject stepped thereover; and means for lowering the top panel of the first-in-line lifting element to the initial position once the control command has been issued; wherein each lifting element operates sequentially to change the subjects movement.