New App Could Elevate Your Elevator Experience
by Ian Bush
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- If your usual elevator ride is sluggish and crowded, your smartphone could offer relief.
It's part of a system that recently was demonstrated in Philadelphia, and could be destined for buildings new and old.
Don't worry about pressing that up, down, or floor number button. Your phone has already summoned an elevator and it knows where you're going:
"It's all about time, and every time is somebody's lifetime. You don't live longer if you wait in front of the elevator," says Paul Friedli.
He says that's the philosophy behind Schindler Group's myPORT app, but it's all about the algorithms, which adjust the lift schedules every tenth of a second based on who needs to ride and where as they walk through the main door.
Employees and visitors gain access by typing a PIN or using the phone's fingerprint reader. That's checked against the building security system.
And it's not just for office complexes.
"We can open main doors, barriers, garage entries, mailboxes, staircases..." said Friedli.
Friedli says Schindler envisions myPORT technology being used to make mass transit similarly 'smarter.'