[pajtai]

My least favorite elevator control panel is the one that is not in the elevator and is a touch screen.

If the control panel is outside the elevator, you can't change your mind, you can't push a button for someone else, and sometimes you can't even verify what floor you're being sent to.

[dbcurtis]

Call panel not in the cab -- so you must be talking about a "destination dispatch" system. With DD, you go to a call kiosk, and enter your desired destination floor, and the kiosk tells you which car to take. DD systems are done because it allows for much more sophisticated scheduling, and larger elevator lobbies with longer walk times, the net result being much better capacity, especially at peak traffic times.

In the cab you will typically have a button to take you back to the lobby in case you didn't get off on your desired floor and can't enter another call.

Modern destination dispatch systems are integrated with RF badge readers so that the elevator system can be programmed with your office floor, and so you don't need to go to the kiosk at all, just walk past it, and it will schedule your to a car to take you to your office floor.

The scheduler can group passengers together to get fewer stops, and longer express zones. Also, it makes double-deck elevators practical. Consider the elevators in the Willis Tower in Chicago. These are double-deck cabs, and it takes about three floors for the cab to accelerate to or decellerate from express speed and make a stop. Considering the number of people that system moves daily, it would be impossible to do without DD.

[winrid]

Not only that, but if it's a capacitive screen you can't use it with gloves.

[0ct4via]

* you can't use it with some gloves.

FTFY.

You can get gloves which feature elements in the tips that allow you to operate capacitive screens while wearing them. They're not a new thing either.

[winrid]

Yeah, some gloves will work fine with capacitive screens. But that's not a good excuse for replacing buttons.

[867-5309]

those are annoyingly temperamental gimmicks at best

source: received at least one pair every xmas since old time