Elevators are a daily necessity in modern buildings, yet their interfaces often lead to frustration when users accidentally press buttons multiple times. This creates unnecessary stops, confuses passengers about whether their selection registered, increases wear on physical buttons, and potentially slows down elevator service. These inefficiencies are particularly noticeable in high-traffic areas like offices and hospitals, where they accumulate into measurable impacts on energy use, maintenance costs, and user satisfaction.

A Smarter Way to Handle Button Presses

One approach to solve this could involve modifying elevator control software to interpret rapid successive presses differently. When someone presses a floor button:

• The first press registers the floor selection normally
• If the same button is pressed again within a short, predefined window (like 500 milliseconds), this could be interpreted as a cancellation request
• The system would then remove that floor from the stop queue (unless other passengers also requested it) and provide clear visual feedback

This system would need to maintain responsiveness to legitimate single presses while clearly communicating button states. It could potentially include audible confirmation for accessibility. The double-click-to-cancel interaction is intuitive for most users familiar with digital interfaces, requiring no special training.

Benefits Across the Ecosystem

Such a feature could create value for multiple stakeholders:

• Passengers would experience fewer unnecessary stops and less frustration with accidental presses
• Building managers might see reduced button wear and more efficient elevator operation
• Elevator manufacturers could offer this as a differentiating feature with relatively low implementation cost for software-controlled systems

The incentives align well across all parties, as the improvement benefits everyone without creating obvious downsides or conflicts.

Implementation Pathways

For modern elevator systems, this could begin as a software update. A minimum viable product might involve:

1. Developing and testing the double-click detection algorithm
2. Determining the optimal timing window through user studies
3. Implementing clear visual feedback mechanisms

Full implementation would require testing across different elevator models and potentially adding configuration options. For older systems, a hardware intermediary could be developed, though the most practical applications would be in software-controlled elevators where this can be a firmware update.

This approach maintains the simplicity of physical buttons while adding an intuitive way to correct mistakes, differing from more complex solutions like touchscreen interfaces that require confirmation dialogs. It builds on existing button debouncing technology but adds a user control layer rather than just preventing multiple registrations.