The present invention refers to a transportation/guide system having at least one transportation device as e.g. elevator, escalator moving sidewalk and/or moving ramp. The transportation/guide system comprises a control of the transportation/guide system being able to communicate with mobile devices held by passengers of the transportation/guide system. In this connection, it is known to issue elevator calls via mobile phones which communicate with the control of a transportation/guide system.

These systems are quite satisfactory regarding the individual use comfort of the transportation/guide system. However, the fields of application of such a communication system are quite limited.

It is object of the present invention to provide a transportation/guide system which is able to inform and guide passengers through the facilities of an environment including its transportation devices.

The object is solved with a transportation/guide system according to claim 1. Preferred embodiments of the invention are subject-matter of the dependent claims. Some inventive embodiments are also presented in the description and in the drawings of the present application. The inventive content may also consist of several separate inventions, especially if the invention is considered in the light of expressions or implicit sub- tasks or from the point of a view of advantages or categories of advantages achieved. In this case, some of the attributes contained in the claims below may be superfluous from the point of view of separate inventive concepts. The features of the various embodiments can be applied within the scope of the basic inventive concept in conjunction with other embodiments.

According to the present invention, the transportation/guide system comprises at least one sender for emitting an acoustic signal beyond the frequency band of human sensing. Preferably, a frequency of the acoustic signal in the ultrasound range is used, i.e. a frequency between 18 kHz and 1 GHz, preferably between 19 kHz and 500 kHz. The advantage of the use of ultrasound is that this frequency range does not interfere essentially with any broadcast frequencies or with commonly used technical frequency ranges as e.g. the frequency range which is used by Bluetooth®.

A preferred frequency range for the acoustic signal is between 19 kHz and 22 kHz. The advantage of this frequency range is that the microphone of a common mobile phone may be used a receiver for the acoustic signal. Typical mobile microphones of today cannot receive any frequencies above 22 kHz without distortion and mobile phone internal filtering starts at above 23 kHz. Accordingly an available ultrasound range in mobile phones is -19-22 kHz.19kHz is a kind of limit frequency for the human ears. Only very few people are able to hear frequencies above 19kHz. Thus the invention allows the use of common mobile phones without requiring the functionality of the phone's broadcasting system which is often liable to charges. Further the mobile phones do not need any additional broadcasting device as Bluetooth® etc. The invention is therefore adapted to work with any common mobile phone.

The acoustic signal is configured to initiate an automatic start or action of a program launched on the mobile devices and communicating with the transportation/guide system. The acoustic signal comprises system data of the transportation/guide system and/or of the environment in which the transportation/guide system is located. This data or any data derived from this information is shown on a display of the mobile device for guiding purposes.

Via the invention, the transportation/guide system is able to provide the user of an environment or of the transportation/guide system with information about the environment as well as with information about the transportation facilities in the environment. The transportation/guide system of the invention also enables the issuing of calls via the mobile devices whereby in this case the zone information comprised in the acoustic signal can be used to determine the departure floor of an elevator call given by the mobile device. The call may be either given as an acoustic signal issued by the mobile device or by any broadcasting method used by the mobile device, e.g. Bluetooth or WLAN, UMTS, LTE.

If a bidirectional data transfer should happen between the transportation/guide system and the mobile devices, the data transfer from the mobile devices to the transportation/guide system can either be realized by using identical or similar acoustic signals as used by the senders of the transportation/guide system, in which case the transportation/guide system also necessitates receivers for said signals. If the bidirectional data transfer should happen separately for different zones, it is preferable that the receivers are located at the same position as the senders, in which case transceivers can be used by the transportation/guide system which are able to send as well as to receive acoustic signals in a same or adjacent frequency band.

The inventive transportation/guide system can be based on the control of the transportation system but may also be embodied as a guide system independent of the control of a transportation system, i.e. of an elevator group control.

The program launched on the mobile device can be uploaded beforehand via common application stores used by the providers of the corresponding operating systems of the mobile devices, e.g. iTunes store® or Play Store® of Android®. It is one option that the program is automatically started after the mobile device receives said acoustic signals issued by the transportation/guide system. Of course, in another embodiment of the invention use of the mobile devices is only possible if the program is started before being used in connection with the transportation/guide system in a certain location.

Preferably each sender is self -contained and has no connection to the control of the transportation/guide system. Thus, the inventive transportation guiding system can be easily installed during modernization of a building. The acoustic signal preferably comprises information about the transportation devices as e.g. elevators, escalators, moving ramps or moving slopes and their location in an environment as well as information about the environment itself. If for example the transportation/guide system is implemented in a mall, the information issued by the acoustic signal can for example comprise information about points of interest in the corresponding zone of the mall where the mobile device is currently located. On this behalf, preferably senders are located in different zones of the environment. These different senders comprise different zone related information which may either be used as an information source or even used as source information for generating requests for transportation services. In this connection, the zone information comprised in the acoustic signal can for example be used to define the destination floor of an elevator call. It is then possible to push an up down button shown on the display of the mobile device or input destination floor so that the mobile device can be used as a call device for different kinds of elevators.

The environments for using the invention may comprise residential or office buildings, malls, railway stations and airports, fairgrounds etc.

Furthermore, the zone information may for example show different points of interest as e.g. shops, medical facilities and so on.

Preferably the mobile device is able to receive from the acoustic signal distance information to the sender, e.g. via the amplitude of the received signal or via other means (phase comparison between different senders etc.), it is possible to give information about the distance to certain points of interest as well as about the direction of the points of interest.

Via this technology, it is for example possible to inform the user of the transportation/guide system about the distance to the next elevator group as well as to the direc- tion with respect to the current position of the user. This technology therefore provides a high sophisticated tool for an effective use of an environment and its transportation services. The mobile device further acts as a guide for the user of the transportation/guide system.

If the mobile device is used during the travel in a transportation device as e.g. an elevator, it is possible to provide a sender in the elevator car which informs the passenger about the current floor and about the destination floor and the possible departure time and elevator to the destination floor.

Preferably, the senders which are located in different zones of an environment only have a limited range which only covers a zone surrounding the location where the sender is arranged. This ensures that the user of the mobile device is not overloaded with lots of zone information about the zones in which he is not currently travelling. On the other hand, the limitation of a sender to a certain zone ensures that the user of the transportation/guide system only obtains information about the zone in which he is currently travelling.

Preferably, a zone of an environment is a floor of a building in which case the zone information of the building can be used in connection with transportation services to define a departure floor for giving an elevator call.

If for example a sender is located in the lobby of an elevator group, this sender can be used to comprise data in the acoustic signal which automatically initiates the mobile device to issue a call in a desired travelling direction or to issue a destination call for the elevator. Alternately, it is possible that the acoustic signal of an elevator lobby sender initiates the prompting of an elevator call which has to be confirmed by the user of the mobile device and which can be amended according to individual wishes of the user of the mobile device. Preferably, the sender emits acoustic signals in short bursts of pulsed data which is effective with respect to energy use and which has a better range so that this type of acoustic signal is better received by the mobile devices than a continuous signal of lower intensity.

To ensure that the information in the acoustic signal is continuously receivable by the mobile devices, the sender preferably emits the acoustic signals in regular intervals. These intervals can be for example between 10 times per second to every 10 seconds.

The period ratio of the burst length of pulsed data with respect to the interval may be 1:100 to 1: 10,000. Also other ratios may be preferable according to the desired applications.

Preferably, the sender of the transportation/guide system only emits acoustic signals in a small frequency band to which also the mobile device is responsive. The ratio of the bandwidth with respect to the carrier frequency should not exceed 1: 100. Via this measure, it is ensured that the acoustic signal is only emitted in a bandwidth which co-acts with the receivers of the corresponding transportation/guide system. Therefore, a propagation of unnecessary noise in the environment is minimized.

Preferably, the mobile device comprises a sensor which is configured to sense the distance from a sender and or its location with respect to the actual position of the user. The mobile device is thus able to display guide information for a passenger using the environment. The sensor may of course be a circuit which compares amplitudes of received acoustic signals.

Preferably, the mobile devices are smartphones or guide pads which are issued especially for certain environments. An advantage of the present invention is that the senders do not need any connection to the transportation/guide system as they are only provided to regularly send the identical information into the environment. It is therefore easy to modernize buildings with such systems. The ultrasound sender provided in connection with an elevator group preferably also includes elevator group related data for example which of the elevators will arrive next and its travelling direction. Furthermore, the information may comprise registered calls which means in which floor certain elevators are already obliged to stop. In this case, the mobile device could decode the data and will react or inform the user if an arriving elevator stops at the passenger's destination floor if he has given such destination call beforehand. Ultrasound senders may be located in the elevator lobbies as well as in the elevator cars.

The information system provided by the transportation/guide system may also be combined with other guide information provided by the mobile device, e.g. via a GPS system or via a compass or inertia mass system or whatever.

The coding and decoding of data in the ultrasound signals is per se known and not described here for the sake of clarity. The invention provides several benefits as follows:

- better and user-experience through

- easier operating logic, e.g. predefined source floor in a mobile call giving device,

- enabling indoor navigation or guidance based on strength distance and other measurements measured from the acoustic signals,

- enabling the use of only one program for different environments in different countries,

- the invention enables the possibility to create a simple meshing to meshing communication in a cost-efficient manner for different features and applications.

The different embodiments of the invention mentioned above can be combined arbitrarily as far as the corresponding technical features are not contradicting each other. The invention is now described in an embodiment in connection with the appended drawings. In these drawings,

Fig. 1 shows a top view on a floor of a building using the inventive transportation/guide system, and

Fig. 2 shows a mobile device displaying a guide information as well as information about transportation devices provided in the building according to Fig. 1.

Fig. 1 shows a top view of a floor of a building 10 comprising an elevator group 12 with for example 6 or 8 elevators as well as an escalator group 14 with two escalators and with administrative offices 16. The floor may be a floor of a shopping mall. Located on the floor are different senders 18-28 with a different purpose which senders are related facilities, general information and and transportation devices of the building 10. The most important sender is the floor sender 18 which issues an acoustic signal, e.g. between 50 and 300 kHz which acoustic signal comprises information about the building, the location of the building and the floor of the building. Further, senders 20-28 are provided which inform the user of the building 10 about certain points of interest in the floor of the building. Accordingly, the second sender 20 may comprise information about a shop, e.g. child clothing. The third sender 22 is provided in front of the lobby of the elevator group 12 and comprises information about the elevator group as e.g. number of elevators, eventually information about the destinations. This third elevator 22 may also prompt a mobile device 30 which is located at said floor or in the vicinity of the third sender 22 to allow the issue of an elevator call as it is described later on in greater detail with respect to Fig. 2. The fourth sender 23 is located above an escalator group 14 which sends in the emitted acoustic signals information about said escalator group, e.g. about the location and destinations of said escalators.

A fifth sender 24 is located in front of the administrative offices 16 which may comprise information about the administration. The sixth sender 26 may inform the user about a sport shop and the seventh sender 28 may issue acoustic signals informing about a facility for female clothing.

The seven senders 18-28 provided in said floor of the building 10 may emit acoustic signals within the same frequency band or in adjacent frequency bands. In case of the use of an identical frequency band, it is possible to modulate the information in the carrier frequency in the ultrasonic range by different modulating techniques so that a mobile device 30 on said floor is able to differentiate the information from the different senders. It is also possible that the range of the second to seventh sender 20-28 has such a short range that these senders do not overlap in the emitted transmission range. Anyway, the floor sender 18 has a transmission range which covers the whole floor of the building.

With such a system, it is possible for a user of the mobile device 30 to obtain information about the different points of interest on said floor, e.g. about the different shop facilities there as well as about the transportation devices available, in the present case an elevator group 12 as well as an escalator group 14.

Fig. 2 shows how the information could be provided on said mobile device 30. The mobile device 30 is in this case a smartphone comprising a home button 32, a loudspeaker 34, a display 36 as well as broadcasting facilities to be able to receive the acoustic signals emitted by the different senders 18-28 of the building 10. The display 36 is a display which pops up when the program is started which co-acts with the senders 18-28 of the transportation/guide system of the invention. The program might be started by receiving the signals form the senders or manually by the user before entering the building. A display 36 comprises an upper screen 38 which informs the user about points of interest 40, referring to Fig. 1 to the different shopping facilities for sports, children, women and administration whereby the upper screen 38 shows the distance 42 as well as the direction 44 to the corresponding points of interest 40. This information is obtained by a sensor of the mobile device which is not shown for clarity purposes. The sensor may be realized by two receivers which are spaced apart so that the direction to a sender may be obtained by the delay in receiving the acoustic signal between both receivers and the distance is obtained by a comparison of the actual amplitude with a reference amplitude whereby the actual amplitude of the received signals may be integrated over a certain time to avoid current changes if for example obstacles appear in the area between the sender and the mobile device.

Furthermore, the display 36 comprises a lower screen 46 informing the user about the existence of an escalator 48 and a lift 50. Also the hint 48, 50 to these transportation devices may be combined with distance information 42 as well as with direction information 44 to the corresponding transport device. The field 50 indicating the location of an elevator group also comprises an input field 52 for inputting a destination floor in which case the mobile device may issue an elevator call for the elevator group 12 with the current floor as departure floor and with the input destination floor as destination floor. The issue of the call can be given also by an acoustic signal in the same or similar frequency range as the ultrasound of the acoustic signals emitted by the senders 18-28 or by other well-known broadcast signals used by the mobile device. In this case, the third sender 22 in front of the elevator group can be embodied as a transceiver which is also able to receive the call information of the mobile device. It is also possible that the mobile device issues the call via the use of other broadcasting systems as e.g. the mobile phone broadcasting system or via Bluetooth®, in which case the transportation/guide system has to provide the corresponding interfaces and connections to receive said broadcasted signals.

The invention may deviate from the above mentioned embodiments within the scope of the appended patent claims.