JP2008100782A - Elevator and its safety device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a safety device capable of being additionally and simply attached to an existing elevator and to provide the elevator provided with the safety device. <P>SOLUTION: The safety devices 36, 56 installed in an elevator car or in a landing place have an imaging device 66 arranged above a door, an image processing part 82 allowing a user to confirm an object (a person, etc.) existent in a region near the door by processing images imaged by the imaging device, and a power supply circuit 84 feeding electric power to the imaging device and the image processing part, respectively. Outputs from the image processing part are transmitted to an elevator control part 80 through a signal cable 86. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an elevator and its safety device.

A concave part is provided on the door facing surface of the vertical frame that forms the entrance of the elevator car or the landing, and a projector and a light receiver are arranged at the upper and lower ends of the concave part, respectively, and objects such as clothes are placed in the gap between the vertical column and the door. There has been proposed an entrance / exit safety device that prevents the air from being pulled in. However, this entrance / exit safety device must form a recess in the vertical frame of the cab or the landing. Therefore, in order to install this entrance / exit safety device in an existing elevator, the vertical frame of the car room or the landing area must be removed and a dedicated vertical frame must be attached instead, which causes a problem that the repair work becomes large. .

In addition, a projector and a reflecting mirror are attached to the lower part of the front of the left and right walls that form the entrance / exit. Patent Document 2 discloses an entrance / exit safety device that detects an output using an output. However, since the entrance / exit safety device is located in a location where the projector and the light receiver are separated from each other, their electrical wiring is complicated. Another problem is that the projector and mirror installed at a low position near the foot have a risk of being damaged by the cargo hitting it.
Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 7-106867 U.S. Pat. No. 4,621,452

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a safety device that can be easily added to an existing elevator and an elevator equipped with the safety device.

  In order to achieve this object, an elevator safety device according to the present invention is present in a region near the door device by processing a photographing device disposed above the door of the elevator and an image photographed by the photographing device. An image processing unit for confirming an object, and a power supply unit for supplying power to the photographing apparatus and the image processing unit are provided. Moreover, the elevator which concerns on this invention is equipped with this elevator safety device, It is characterized by the above-mentioned.

  The elevator safety device of the present invention can be easily attached to an elevator by slightly modifying an existing elevator.

  DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description, the terms “up”, “down”, “left”, “right” and other terms including specific terms are used as necessary to indicate a specific direction. These terms are intended to facilitate understanding of the referenced invention and do not limit the technical scope of the invention.

  In the following description, the term “object” is used. The term “object” as used in the description of the patent application includes a device that is fixedly installed in a car or at a landing. Rather, it means an elevator occupant and its accessories (e.g., occupant's belongings, clothes) and goods (e.g., cargo) carried by the elevator.

Embodiment 1

[A. elevator〕
1 and 2 show a part of an elevator 10 according to the present invention. Although not shown, the elevator 10 is a hoistway constructed in a building where the elevator 10 is installed, as in a normal elevator, and one or a plurality of elevators 10 arranged in the hoistway so as to be able to move up and down along the hoistway. It includes a car, a lifting equipment including electrical equipment necessary for raising and lowering the car, and a controller for controlling the lifting equipment. Detailed description of these facilities will be omitted.

[B. (Cage)
FIG. 1 is a view of an elevator doorway (hereinafter referred to as “car doorway”) viewed from the inside of the elevator car 12. As is well known, the car 12 includes a front wall 16 that forms a square car doorway 14, side walls 18 on both the left and right sides, upper and lower ceiling boards 20 and floor boards 22, and a rear wall on the opposite side of the front wall 16 (not shown). And a door device 24 for opening and closing the car doorway 14. The door device 24 may be a double door consisting of two doors 26 and 28 that move symmetrically in the left and right directions as indicated by solid arrows, or a high-speed door that moves in the left and right directions as indicated by dotted lines (in the figure). Either a single door with two doors 26 and 28, a left door) and a low speed door (right door in the figure), or a single door with a single door that moves in the left-right direction (not shown) It may be. The front wall 16 has a left and right vertical frame 30 that forms a car doorway 14 that is opened and closed by a door device 24 and an upper frame 31 that connects the upper portions of the vertical frame 30. The bottom end of the car doorway 14 is formed by a floor plate 22. On the inner surface of the front wall 16 facing the rear wall, there are provided an operation unit 32 having a plurality of buttons (switches) for designating a destination floor (alighting floor) and a sound generation unit (speaker) 34. In the illustrated embodiment, the operation unit 32 is provided on both the left and right sides of the car doorway 14 but may be provided only on one side. The ceiling plate 20 is provided with a car safety device 36, which will be described in detail later, in the vicinity of the car entrance 14.

[C. (Platform)
FIG. 2 is a view of the entrance / exit to the elevator car (hereinafter referred to as “entrance / exit entrance”) of the building where the elevator 10 is installed. The entrance / exit 40 is formed by opening a part of a wall (for example, a concrete wall) 42 constituting an elevator hoistway (not shown), and has the same dimensions as the above-described car entrance 14 ( Vertical and horizontal dimensions). Here, the portion of the wall that forms the boarding / exit gate 40 includes components corresponding to the vertical frame 30 and the upper frame 31 of the car 12. On the left and right wall portions of the vertical frame entrance / exit 40, there are provided an operation unit 44 and a sound generation unit (speaker) 46 having buttons (switches) for designating up and down. The door device 48 of the boarding area 38 is a door having two doors 50 and 52 like the car door device 24. For example, if the car door device 24 is a double door, the landing door device 48 is also a double door. When the car door device 24 is a single door having a high speed door and a low speed door, the landing door device 48 is a similar single door. However, in this case, unlike the car device door 24, the door 50 on the right side in the figure is a high speed door, and the door 52 on the left side in the figure is a low speed door. On the ceiling board 54 of the boarding area 38, a boarding area safety device 56, which will be described in detail later, is provided in the vicinity of the boarding area entrance 40.

[D. Safety device〕
The car safety device 36 and the boarding area safety device 56 have substantially the same configuration. Therefore, the car safety device 36 will be described. Specifically, referring to FIG. 3, the safety device 36 has a container or housing 60 that houses various devices described later. The housing 60 has a substrate 62 to which various devices described later are fixed, and a translucent dome-shaped cover 64 fixed to the substrate 62. As shown in the drawing, the substrate 62 faces upward and the cover 64 is It is fixed to the ceiling board 20 via the board | substrate 62 or the cover 64 toward the bottom.

  An imaging device 66 is accommodated in the housing 60. The photographing device 66 uses a digital camera equipped with a charge imaging device (CCD), and is arranged facing downward so that the entrance / exit 14 can be photographed from above. The photographing device 66 does not use a pan / tilt mechanism, and has a wide range (view field 68 indicated by a dotted line) from the top of one (left or right) vertical frame 30 to the top of the other (right or left) vertical frame 30. ) Is preferably used.

  As the photographing device 66, a stereo camera having two photographing lenses arranged at a predetermined interval may be used. In this case, the distance from the two images photographed through the two photographing lenses to the object can be detected.

  In the preferred embodiment shown, the housing 60 contains two auxiliary lighting parts or lighting devices 70, 72. Usually, lighting devices or illumination lamps for illuminating the inside of the car 12 and the landing 38 are respectively installed on the ceilings of the car 12 and the landing 38, and the lighting devices 70 and 72 newly added here are photographing devices 66. The image capturing region, particularly the object detection region 100 (see FIG. 5) is supplementarily illuminated. Therefore, one illumination device 70 can illuminate the illumination region 74 from the vicinity of the upper end of the left vertical frame 30 to the vicinity of the lower end, and the other illumination device 72 can illuminate from the vicinity of the upper end of the right vertical frame 30 to the vicinity of the lower end. Region 76 can be illuminated. The use of the two lighting devices 70 and 72 is not essential, and a single lighting device may be used as long as both lighting regions 74 and 76 can be illuminated with a light amount necessary for image processing described later. It is preferable that the light sources of the illumination devices 70 and 72 emit light in a wavelength region in which the imaging element of the imaging device 66 has sensitivity. Specifically, although visible light can be used, invisible light, for example, near infrared light having a wavelength of about 900 nm to about 1200 nm is used so that the light emitted from the illumination devices 70 and 72 is not visible to the passenger. It is preferable to use it.

  FIG. 4 shows the electrical connection between the safety devices 36 and 56 and the existing elevator control unit 80. As shown in the figure, the safety devices 36 and 56 reconstruct the image data output from the imaging device 66 into plane image data, and generate and output a signal (for example, a warning signal) based on the plane image data. The image processing unit 82, the photographing device 66, the illumination devices 70 and 72, and the power supply unit 84 that supplies power to the image processing unit 82 are included. The power supply circuit 84 may be an electrical wiring that electrically connects a power supply unit of an elevator control unit, which will be described later, and the imaging device 66 and the image processing unit 82. The image processing unit 82 and the power supply circuit 84 are provided on the substrate 62, and the output unit of the image processing unit 82 is connected to the signal input unit 88 of the elevator control unit 80 via a signal cable (wiring) 86. The input unit is connected to a power supply unit 92 of the elevator control unit 80 via a power cable (wiring) 90.

[E: Operation]
The operation of the safety devices 36 and 56 will be described. In the following description, only the car safety device 36 will be described, but the safety device 56 operates in the same manner. During the operation of the safety device 36, predetermined power is supplied to the photographing device 66 and the lighting devices 70 and 72 from the power supply unit 92 of the elevator control unit 80 through the power cable 90 and the power circuit 84. The illumination devices 70 and 72 to which power is supplied illuminate the illumination areas 74 and 76. The photographing device 66 photographs the entrances and exits 40 and 40 and the vicinity thereof. As shown in the figure, it is preferable that all or most of the imaging region 68 of the imaging device 66 is included in the imaging region 68. An image photographed by the photographing device 66 is transmitted to the image processing unit 82. The image processing unit 82 converts the input image data into plane image data. In order to facilitate understanding of the invention, FIG. 5 shows an example in which planar image data created by the car safety device 36 is developed on a two-dimensional plane, for example. As shown in the figure, the planar image data is obtained from an image photographed by the photographing device 66. The image processing unit 82 uses a known object detection image processing technique to detect an object (for example, an occupant) in the detection region 100 in the vicinity of the doors 26 and 28 or in the vicinity of the gap 94 between the vertical frame 30 and the doors 26 and 28. , The occupant's clothes). The detection area 100 is previously defined on the image. As a result of the determination, when an object indicated by a circle in FIG. 5 is confirmed in the detection region 100, the image processing unit 82 outputs a signal (detection signal) to the elevator control unit 80 via the signal cable 86. The elevator control unit 80 outputs a warning sound or an appropriate warning sound through the sound generation unit 34 of the car 12 based on the input signal, and from the vicinity of the entrance 14 to the passengers in the car 12 or the landing 38. Tell them to evacuate.

  In the image photographed by the photographing device 66, in order to provide sufficient contrast between the object image and the background image, the surface of the vertical frame 30 in the vicinity of the gap 94 is provided along the gap 94 as shown in FIG. It is preferable to provide a reflector 96 extending in the vertical direction. By using such a reflector 96, an object that absorbs light, such as a black object, can be easily distinguished from the background image and detected. In addition, since the reflector 96 does not need to be supplied with electric power and may simply be attached, the cost of additional equipment can be minimized.

  As the reflecting material 96, a retroreflecting material or a reflective sheet or reflecting plate that sends back incident light in a direction opposite to the incident direction (a direction different from the incident direction by 180 °) can be preferably used. Further, the reflector 96 is located at a place other than the vertical frame 30, for example, in the case of a double door, the surface (the inside of the car, the landing area) near the ends of the left and right doors 26 and 28 (the end facing the other door). In the case of a single door, it may be arranged along the vertical direction on the surface near the ends of the high-speed door and the low-speed door. Although not shown in the drawings, it is preferable to attach a similar reflector to a vertical frame or the like at the landing 38.

  As described above, in the safety devices 36 and 56, the photographing device 66 and the image processing unit 82 are integrally configured. The integrally configured safety devices 36 and 56 are fixed to the ceiling plates 20 and 54 so that the photographing conditions and illumination conditions shown in FIG. 3 can be obtained, and holes or openings formed in the ceiling plates 20 and 54. The signal cable 86 and the power cable 92 are led out behind (not shown) and are electrically connected to the existing elevator control unit 80. Therefore, the modification of the existing equipment can be minimized. Therefore, it can be easily attached to an already installed elevator.

Embodiment 2

  As an object detection image processing technique, a method of extracting an object by performing threshold processing only on the luminance of an object included in an image and a background (for example, a door, a vertical frame) has been proposed. Multiple objects with a rate cannot be easily extracted from the background. Therefore, it is preferable to employ the background difference method as the object detection image processing technique.

  In the background difference method, a background, that is, an image without an object is stored as a background image (background model), and the background image and a captured image sequentially output from the imaging device 66 are output in pixel units or portions. This is a method of detecting the presence of an object by taking a difference in image units and comparing the difference with a reference value.

  Specifically, image processing using the background difference method will be described with reference to FIG. 6. The image input unit 1000 of the image processing unit 82 receives an image from the imaging device 66. The background image learning unit 1002 acquires a captured image and transmits this image as a background image to the background model storage unit 1004. The background model storage unit 1004 stores a background image. The image output from the image input unit 1000 is transmitted from the background image learning unit 1002 to the background image difference unit 1006. The background image difference unit 1006 compares the brightness of the captured image from the background image learning unit 1002 and the latest background image detection area 100 stored in the background model storage unit 1004 in pixel units or partial image units. If the difference is equal to or greater than a predetermined reference value, it is determined that an object exists in the pixel or partial image area. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, the detection region 100 is a trapezoidal region obtained by photographing the vicinity of the doors 26 and 28 including an image of the gap 94 between the left and right vertical frames 30 and the doors 26, 28, 50 and 52. . When the background image difference unit 1006 recognizes the presence of an object, the external output unit 1010 outputs a signal to the elevator control unit 80. When the elevator control unit 80 receives a signal from the external output unit 1010, the elevator control unit 80 outputs a predetermined sound from the sound generation unit 34. When the background image difference unit 1006 recognizes the absence of an object, the above-described processing is repeated. When the photographing device 66 is a stereo camera, the distance from the photographing device 66 to the object is calculated, and further, the distance between the object and the gap is calculated based on the calculation result, and the calculated object and gap are calculated here. It is also possible to determine whether or not the object is close to the gap or the doors 26, 28, 50, 52 based on the distance of.

  Each block (1000 to 1010) shown in FIG. 6 can be configured as a part of an electric circuit or can be configured as a part of a control program.

  As described above, according to the background difference method, even if the object is a black object that absorbs light, if the background has a sufficient luminance distribution, the object can be detected by capturing a change from the background image.

Embodiment 3

  As shown in FIG. 7, in the case of a single door (door device 24 ') composed of two doors 26' and 28 ', a high speed door and a low speed door, an object is placed in the gap between the high speed door 26' and the low speed door 28 '. May be drawn in. Moreover, an object may be pinched | interposed between the edge part of a door and the site | part (for example, the edge part of an opposing door, a vertical frame) which opposes this irrespective of the form of a door. Therefore, in order to prevent such pull-in or pinching, it is preferable to update (move) the image detection area in accordance with the opening / closing operation of the door. In this case, an area including the end of the low speed door 28 '(the left end in the drawing adjacent to the high speed door 26') is set as the detection area 102, and the detection area 102 is moved in accordance with the movement of the low speed door 28 '. For this purpose, for example, as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8A, one or a plurality of detection marks 104 are formed on the door 28 'to track the movement of the detection mark image in the photographed image. FIG. 8B shows the movement state of the detection mark 104 provided on the door 28 ′ and the movement state of the corresponding mark image appearing in the image. The detection mark 104 can be formed by attaching a retroreflective sheet or a sheet having a special shape and color. On the other hand, camera parameters such as the installation position of the photographing device 66, the angle of view of the lens, and the height of the detection mark 104 are known, and the relationship between these camera parameters and the mark position is stored in the storage unit of the image processing unit 82. deep. Then, the image processing unit 82 detects the actual positions of the doors 26 ′ and 28 ′ from the position of the mark image on the captured image using the stored mark position and camera parameters.

  The processing of the image processing unit 82 will be specifically described with reference to FIG. 9. The image input unit 1100 receives an image from the imaging device 66. The door movement detection unit 1102 detects the position of the mark 104 that appears in the captured image. The detection area update unit 1104 updates and moves the detection area 102 set on the image using the detected door position and the camera parameters stored in the camera parameter storage unit 1106 (FIG. 8B). )reference). Then, the image processing unit (background difference) 82 determines whether an object exists in the detection area 102 based on the background difference method described above based on the updated detection area, and determines that an object exists. In this case, a signal is output to the elevator control unit 80. When the elevator control unit 80 receives a signal from the external output unit, the elevator control unit 80 outputs predetermined sound from the sound generation units 34 and 46.

  In this way, by dynamically updating the detection area in accordance with the movement of the door, the object is not pulled or pinched between the door and the door or between the door.

Embodiment 4

  In order to improve the safety of the elevator, it is preferable to record and analyze the abnormality related to the elevator. From this point of view, as shown in FIG. 10, another imaging device 110 is attached to the car 12 or the ceiling of the landing 38, and signals output from the image processing unit 82 of the safety devices 36 and 56 to the elevator control unit 80. (A signal indicating that an object has been detected) is transmitted to the image recording device 112, and, for example, the photographing density of the photographing device 66 is increased based on the detection signal to record the abnormal situation in detail or the occurrence of the abnormal situation. Time may be recorded.

  In this way, the abnormal situation can be examined in detail later, and the safety of the elevator can be further enhanced based on the examination result.

Other forms

  In the above embodiment, the photographing device 66 is disposed above the central portion of the entrances 14 and 40, but may be disposed on either the left or right as long as the entrances 14 and 40 can be photographed. As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the safety devices 36 and 56 are provided so as to protrude from the ceiling plates 20 and 54, but can be embedded in the lower surfaces of the ceiling plates 20 and 54 or the upper frame 31. In this case, the opening formed in the ceiling plates 20 and 54 or the upper frame 31 is covered with a translucent plate, and an imaging device and an illumination device are arranged behind the translucent plate. In this way, there is no portion protruding from the lower surface of the ceiling plates 20, 54 or the upper frame, and the appearance of the safety device is improved.

It is the figure which showed a part of elevator apparatus which concerns on this invention, and looked at the car entrance from the inside of a car. It is the figure which showed a part of elevator apparatus which concerns on this invention, and looked at the boarding / entrance entrance / exit from the boarding / alighting hall. It is a figure which shows the structure of an elevator safety device. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of an elevator safety device. It is a figure which shows the image in the cage image | photographed with the imaging device. It is a figure which shows the flow of the image processing by a background difference system. It is a figure which shows the image in the cage image | photographed with the imaging device. FIG. 8A is a front view of a door provided with a mark [FIG. 8A], and FIG. 8B is a diagram illustrating a situation in which the mark and the detection area move on a captured image. It is a figure which shows the flow of the process which updates a detection area. It is a figure which shows the elevator apparatus provided with another imaging device.

Explanation of symbols

10: Elevator, 12: Car, 14: Car doorway, 16: Front wall, 18: Side wall, 20: Ceiling board, 22: Floor board, 24: Door device, 26, 28: Door, 30: Vertical frame, 31: Top Frame: 32: Operation unit 32: Sound generation unit, 36: Car safety device, 38: Boarding / exit hall, 40: Entrance / exit gate, 42: Wall (vertical frame), 44: Operation unit, 46: Sound generation unit, 48: Door device, 50, 52: Door, 54: Ceiling board, 56: Boarding area safety device, 60: Housing, 62: Substrate, 64: Cover, 66: Imaging device, 68: Field of view, 70, 72: Illumination device, 74 , 76: illumination area, 80: elevator control unit, 82: image processing unit, 84: power supply circuit (power supply unit), 86: signal cable, 88: signal input unit, 90: power cable, 92: power supply unit, 94 : Gap, 96: Reflective material, 100: Detection region, 102: Detection Regions, 104: detection mark.

Claims (8)

A photographing device disposed above an elevator door; an image processing unit that processes an image photographed by the photographing device to check an object existing in a region near the door; and the photographing device and the image processing unit. An elevator safety device comprising a power supply for supplying electric power. An elevator safety device, comprising: an illumination unit that illuminates an imaging region of the camera, wherein the illumination unit is electrically connected to the power supply unit. 3. The elevator safety apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the illumination unit is a light source that emits near infrared light. The elevator safety device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the photographing device, the illumination unit, the image processing unit, and the power source unit are accommodated in one housing. The image processing unit includes an image acquisition unit that acquires an image captured by the imaging device, an image storage unit that stores an image acquired by the image acquisition unit, and an image and the image stored in the image storage unit. An image difference unit that acquires a difference between new images acquired by the image acquisition unit after being acquired, and a determination unit that determines the presence or absence of the object based on the difference acquired by the image difference unit The elevator safety device according to any one of claims 1 to 4. The image processing unit includes a detection unit that detects movement of a door, and a detection region update unit that updates a detection region set in an image captured by the photographing apparatus with the movement of the door. The elevator safety device according to claim 5. The elevator provided with the elevator safety device in any one of Claims 1-6. A second photographing device for photographing the interior of the elevator car, and the second photographing device is activated based on a signal output when the image processing unit confirms the presence of an object; The elevator according to claim 7.

Images