One of the quietest times during my entire day is when I am in the elevator.
Elevator People Classification:
People looking at the ceiling of the elevator. These are generally standing in the middle.
People looking at the floor of the elevator. Generally these are people at the back side of the elevator, they know they have a long way to go so why bother.
People looking straight at the *closed* slide doors of the elevator.
Well enough of stupid classifications.
This is the time, where you don’t have anything to do, I mean you have nothing to do (physically), besides looking up, looking down or just a blank stare at the sliding door.
If by chance you are in one of those intelligent elevators, probably a good voice will keep you entertained while the sliding doors open and close on floors. (Something to learn from Hitch Hikers Guide To Galaxy)
Then there are people like me, When I am in a lift/elevator I spend my time looking around for something to read, hmm probably the instruction list of the elevator or some scratched graffiti, if you are in India. (“Raju loves basanti” kind of messages).
I can read the instruction list again and over again every time, I just don’t know why?
I know that this elevator cannot carry more than 600 kilos but I still want to read it again.
I know in case of emergency hit the RED button but I still want to read it again.
I guess I am reading it just for the sake of improving my score. The score of how many instructions can i read completely before my floor arrives.
This scoring system will not make sense for people who are from New York or like cities where you have a zillion stories to go, then probably you can try scoring for number of times you can read the entire instruction list :) .
What else one can do in an elevator
1. Talk on your cell phone.
2. Try to be friendly with your neighbor.
3. Try to read graffiti. (Jai Hind)
4. Try to make graffiti. (Jai Hind)
5. Poke your nose.
6. Try to learn voice over acting by mimicking the intelligent voice.
7. Read instruction list, maximize score and try to get you name in Guinness Book.
8. Solo Brainstorm about another point to add to this list.
Enough of wasting your time, reading this.
But before I end.
Don’t you think that intelligent elevators should add another piece of code to its fuzzy logic.
How many times have you seen a person repeatedly pressing the elevator button, he is trying to think that his tap..tap..tap..tap..tap..tapping the button will make the elevator understand….”Some one really wants me fast, and override everything and reach his floor” That would make an intelligent elevator really intelligent.
If you are a hardcore gamer read on otherwise this is the end of post.
Recently I have played lot of games which uses repeated button tapping as a form of game play.
God of war’s repeated tapping to make your killing move
King Kong’s repeated tapping to make the T-Rex not eat your neck.
Prince of persia’s repeated tapping to over power sword battles.
How about an elevator game ? Multiplayer real life elevator game.
One guy on the 10th floor, elevator on the 5th and the opponent on the ground. Ready, steady go..tap..tap..tap..tappp.ttapp..tapp.
Happy tapping and Cheers till next time.
If the world is a game then god is one heck of a programmer.
About Me
- Sumit
- Casual...easy going...i believe everything in this world follows patterns...
8 comments:
I remember a game I played very early on, something like 1992. It was an EGA game based on athletic events in the olympics. One of the events was cycling, and it was simulated by alternate tapping of two keys. Depending on the uniformity of the time intervals between the two keys, and how fast you alternate between them, the bicycle would go faster :). Games have come a long way haven't the :D.
Game Play remains *mostly* the same, just the immesibility with improvement of graphics changed.
In core Game Mechanics, the true underlying pattern of fun still remains the same. (Well mostly)
ohhhh hello sir ur blog after so many days...it was nice to read on n on...real time multiplayer elevator game...lol....thts how crazy gamer n good developer always thinks!!!
I like to think about elevator design. And for that matter, marketing. And construction. And maintenance...
Who built this elevator? Why did the builder choose this company over another? Why did they pick this design over what was probably a catalog of options? Was it strictly capacity? Aesthetics? Technical Features?
Oh boy, how I love to think about the design side. Many pet peeves here. Algorithms: Is each elevator autonomous, or do they know "elevator number 2 is stopping at floor 5, so I don't need to" or do they work independantly? How could it be made more efficient and convenient? If it's a really tall building, do they factor in acceleration and velocity into the algorithm, or just on/off?
Design Peeve: In North America, if someone accidentally presses a button for the wrong floor, then everyone must stop at that floor and wait akwardly while doors open & close. In Japan, if you hit the wrong button, you can PRESS IT AGAIN TO SWITCH IT OFF!! What a simple design improvement!! Why has that not been adopted world-wide? Is it patented or something? :-)
I guess in short, I think about how this elevator got here, and how, if I were to build one, how would I build it cheaper, better, lower-maintenance, etc. How would I improve the world around me given the chance.
Plenty of stuff to do in elevators beside stare at the floor...
Yes ! I Played that "winter olympic" game when i was a kid and had it on Apply IIe ! it was something like 1982, and not 1992. I learned the national anthem of alot of countries by playing that game !
And Kim, For your elevator algorithm design questions ?
When i was 14, they decided to improve the VERY SLOW elevator at my parent's house, which is a 16 story high building, and imptoving it's speed by replacing the motor was very expensive, so instead, they installed an elevator controlling computer to replace the old relay and cathode tubes control boards that were in place. I was lucky to hear the sales person and elevator technitino explain in a tenant's meeting why this new elevator computer makes the elevator faster, without making it faster.
They do use smart algorithms to know where the other elevator stops so they won't need to stop there too, they smartly use idle elevator time to set one elevator at the ground floot, and another at a 1/3 of the hieght of the building, since you have a better chance for someone from the ground floor to call it. They decreased both the door opening time and decelaration times since those apparantly are the two things that makes you wait the most when calling the elevator.
And Yes, i've seen the "double click to cancel" elevators here in Israel too. Don't know why it didn't catch on.
I also saw elevators with VERY POOR QA work at the building where i workded before where it was obvious that when an elevator is stuck in an endless loop of going from floor 1 to 2 and back, and the only way to stop it is get the othee elevator to the top floor, there's somehting wrong with it's software.
As Kim mentioned, elevators with the functionality of on/off - press twice to switch off incase call activated accidentally -> this does solve if the problem/accident happened inside of the lift.
There are times when there are multiple elevators next to each other. People generally tend to press buttons for both while outside (A Lift Call - operation).
Lift 1 comes before -> the person moves in -> Now Lift 2 comes and performs a worthless open-close.
There are sliding doors (super malls, hotels) where there are sensors and the door performs open-close on the basis of light-sensors. Same functionality is used in toilets for automatic flushing.
I guess this added feature in an elevator can solve the out-side problem......but will it be cost effective, will it really help?
Wow Kim, I recently met an engineer who designed traffic ligths. Now elevators. In a building I recently worked, they had a pair of elevators on opposing walls, with a single panel for each pair. So people would press the buttons on both sides to increase their chances. They tried to fix this by reprogramming the elevators to stop on odd floors on one end and even floors on the other. What they didn't figure was that people would still do what they always did and walk down one floor using the stairs :).
Okay Kim, so you're not an elevator engineer :").
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