Abstract: Instantaneous car assignment is combined with sectoring for providing an elevator dispatching scheme in which, in response to a hall call registered at the lobby, a car not assigned to a sector and having the lowest remaining response time of all such cars is assigned to the next available sector and the sector assignment is displayed to passengers immediately on a screen in the lobby.

Abstract: Elevator car call buttons and hall call buttons are illuminated in a first fashion (such as a first color or intermittent flashing) to indicate that the service corresponding to that call button is available to passengers (while buttons corresponding to unavailable service would have either no illumination or different illumination); the buttons then become illuminated in a distinctly different way when a service call corresponding to that button has been registered. The illumination may be thin rings surrounding the call button switch or the call button switch itself; many variations of color, position, and flashing vs. steady are disclosed.

Abstract: A latching mechanism for latching the front plate of a circuit board module to the circuit board module rack effected by merely inserting the module in the rack. The mechanism includes a resilient tab having a prong with a tapered head. The prong mates with an aperture of a mount on the rack such that at full insertion of the module the head engages the mount through the aperture thus precluding withdrawal of the module from the rack. Depressing the resilient tab allows withdrawal of the prong from the mount through the aperture to unlatch the mechanism and permit withdrawal of the module from the rack.