Patent ID: 7322446

Claim:
An elevator system having a plurality of hoistways serving a plurality of floors in a building, each hoistway having a plurality of elevator cars moveable within a corresponding hoistway to serve passengers, comprising: a call entry panel on each floor, said call entry panel having a plurality of buttons with which passengers can enter requests for service to desired destination floors, each said call entry panel having a display to present a unique one of a plurality of indicia to the passenger indicative of the car which has been assigned to service the passenger's call, said indicia selected from color, letters and symbols other than letters; a controller for assigning each request for service to one of said cars; and a plurality of illuminatable signs, there being at least one of said illuminatable signs adjacent each of said hoistways, each of said illuminatable signs capable of displaying any indicium presented by said display on said call entry panel; characterized by: said controller causing, as a car assigned to respond to a request for service approaches the floor on which said request for service was entered, said unique indicium to be displayed in one of said signs adjacent to the one of said hoistways in which said assigned car is moving, said controller not causing illumination of signs on any floor when a car approaches that is not assigned to respond to a request for service on said any floor.