When Would an Elevator ask you Yes/No Questions?

Have you ever seen an elevator like this? You might soon. Enjoy!
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[@AlonAltman]

Stealing an anti-theft microchipped towel just to get the microchip is quite the ironic twist.

[@Eins7einV2]

Technically it is not stealing since you pay for it.... If you are willing to pay the price a person/business charges for an object, and you do so, then you BOUGHT IT!!!

[@MacCalder86]

Usually it's not anti-theft. It is usually laundry tracking and billing. Had the joy of installing one at a hotel about 5 years ago. Rfid reader on the loading dock would report how many towels went in and out to the laundromat (it could give speed and direction of travel) and rfid readers were also strategically placed on certain egress points, as well as the bottom of the laundry chute. They were tracked to the floor level but not the room level by rfid. Staff uniforms were also similarly tracked and would be loaded to a carousel and vended as required. That data was also linked to the laundromat we used - and that was how we were billed for both lost towels and laundry charges. We could technically use it to track staff to the floor level as well - but it was easier to do that by their WiFi radios... their ble ID let us get to within about 30cm accuracy.

[@MrHack4never]

@@MacCalder86 I'm curious, was that an US or an EU install?

[@hedgehog3180]

It's funny how these things have negative returns the moment it gets interesting enough that nerds start paying attention.

[@MrHack4never]

@@hedgehog3180 I'm just following the wise words of Douglas Adams

[@pvandewyngaerde]

I remember your quote: "This is an elevator emergency line test. What is MY location ?"

[@DeviantOllam]

100%

[@Mandatoryuser]

The elevators just ring the front desk at my hotel

[@Hebdomad7]

​@@Mandatoryuser that's a good follow up question! This is an elevator emergency line test. What is my location? What is your location?

[@lostboytnt1]

I've said that

[@compu85]

When I worked at a school I took a lot of pride in doing that test.

[@CognitiveHeatsink]

I got stuck on an elevator once and when I pushed the call button it went to an auto attendant. "Press 1 for sales, press 2 for administration..." Another time the receptionist answered but couldn't hear me so she hung up. If you work on elevators then please test this regularly.

[@jonathanklinglesmith8168]

As someone who used to service elevators, trust me, we say something about it and check them frequently. The owners are just too fucking lazy or too cheap to actually go about fixing it.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

@@jonathanklinglesmith8168 Yes and having that not working is a very big deal. I remember from my days working security in a building with literally 48 elevators that it was vital to keep on the line with anybody stuck in the elevator even as you're contacting the appropriate company to get them out. People forget that if you're stuck in an elevator it's highly unlikely that any fatalities will come of that. However, prying the door out can lead to falling down the shaft if the elevator isn't positioned to prevent it. And there's no way of knowing if that's the case from the inside without opening the door.

[@TheFrantic5]

Yea, if you pressed 2 on the elevator keypad and it didn't connect you to administration that needs to be fixed.

[@CognitiveHeatsink]

@@TheFrantic5 unfortunately I needed to press 0 for the operator and there's no floor 0 button to press. 🤣

[@geekswithfeet9137]

@@jonathanklinglesmith8168if they don’t comply then shut them down, simple

[@dougfraser77]

Back in the day when all phones were POTS on copper wire, my company was reviewing all our external phone lines and found some mysterious ones that were "never" used. We were on the verge of having them disconnected when someone realised they were the emergency phones for our elevators.

[@CognitiveHeatsink]

At my former employer nobody realized that and the elevator lines were rerouted through the PBX. As I mentioned in another comment, I got stuck in that elevator and the elevator phone dialed an auto attendant. Then it automatically disconnected because I couldn't press 0 for the operator.

[@nathansmith3608]

How were those old phone lines connected to the elevator? Is there an actual wire that spools out from the top or the bottom, or a sliding carbon brush that maintains electrical contact, or something wireless, or some other way I haven't thought of?

[@CognitiveHeatsink]

@@nathansmith3608 it's called an elevator traveling cable. It hangs under the car in a loop. There is a KZbin video with the title "Perfect elevator traveling cable" which shows one in action.

[@dougfraser77]

@@nathansmith3608 Good question! For an old elevator, I would expect it is something hard-wired. I don't know the exact method but imagine some kind of spooling cable would be used (not only for phone, but electrical power, control interface, etc)

[@CognitiveHeatsink]

@@nathansmith3608 I typed a response earlier but I guess it didn't post. Anyway it's called an elevator traveling cable. It hangs under the elevator car in a U shape. I don't know how to describe it better than that so try Google it if you're interested.

[@nero3700]

I was stuck in the elevator in my apartment building a couple of months ago. The alarm button made a faint buzzing sound, and the call button did absolutely nothing. Luckily I had my cellphone and me, and I was on a floor with reception. To the elevator company's credit, it only took about 20 minutes for someone to show up and the guy was out of breath from running up the stairs as fast as he could while shouting "I'M COMING" all the way up.

[@dumbuz]

That man needs a pay raise

[@smileyp4535]

Damn all that comming left him out of breath huh

[@tin2001]

​@@smileyp4535 Plot twist... It wasn't the repair guy yelling. It was the neighbours on the floor he was stuck at.

[@RoseRodent]

What scares me is how often i now see "alarm will only function if the doors won't open" and I feel like if there's a fault there could easily be a fault in the system which decides if there's been a fault. I want the alarm to be functional at all times, not just when it thinks you could have an emergency. How reliable is this system? It scares me.

[@ghost307]

I wonder what happens if the doors start to open and jam an inch or so apart.

[@aysnov]

Pretty sure that's not up to code. They might have just put up a fake sign to stop people misusing it.

[@HonestAuntyElle]

I hope it's a ploy to stop false calls and that it actually always functions

[@petergerdes1094]

@@HonestAuntyElleI'd like that, but surely they can't be that dumb. I mean my first impulse when I see that sign is to press it while the doors are open.

[@ericwilner1403]

Interesting! I thought maybe the elevator, on a whim, would offer to play a game of Twenty Questions to communicate your desired floor.

[@DeviantOllam]

This would be an excellent additional implementation for those buttons. Build a little game into the panel. ☺️

[@cheeseparis1]

By dichotomy, you can guess floors from one to 32 in only 5 yes/no questions, but this would be boring;)

[@ericwilner1403]

@@cheeseparis1 Yes; the elevator would need to get creative with the questions to avoid the binary-search approach with its all-too quick result. Maybe questions relating to what department or company is on a given floor?

[@peter_smyth]

The buses and U-Bahn in Hamburg play slideshows of adverts on some of the screens on board, but the ads are broken up by multiple choice quizzes with answers on the next slide. Maybe an interactive version of this would make your journey to the other floor more interesting.

[@tin2001]

​@@ericwilner1403 So like a "Guess Who" game but for companies.... "Does the CEO wear glasses?" "Yes" "Is the receptionist blonde?" "No" "Do you want to visit Initech corporation on the 4th floor?" "Yes, and if you'd just let me press 4 in the first place, we'd have been there by now."

[@runaway2548]

On the topic of elevator alarms, I'm still pissed at the operator who told me I needed to ring the alarm every few minutes while I waited for the technician to show up and free me. Luckily she passed my cell number to the tech. He called me maybe 15 minutes later to get my exact location and had a good laugh when I asked why I needed to do that for the next hour until he got there.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

It's laziness, or a lack of staffing. When I worked security in a buildling with dozens of elevators I was specifically told to remain on the line with the elevator until such a time as the technicians were done getting things unstuck.

[@MarkkuS]

I called the elevator alarm, and after they hung up i tested if I could open the door by hand. And I could. Maybe they wamted to make sure you didn't run off.

[@flyingmoose]

The elevators in my condo building have a bell that’s not especially loud, but also when you push the button it calls the guard on the intercom. I’ve used it a couple of times, once to ask them to send someone for a child who got separated from a parent (got on and then the doors closed), and once to report that the entire floor of the elevator was covered with spilled coffee. I’ve also seen one guard press it to talk to the other guard.

[@DeviantOllam]

Using emergency systems for non-emergency purposes is a time-honored tradition among those who are responsible during emergencies

[@flyingmoose]

@@DeviantOllam The way I see it, at least they’d discover if something was wrong with the intercom.

[@andyhawley6465]

My three year old pressed the call button in an elevator last week, and it rang straight to 911. I considered saying "this is an elevator test, can you identify my location?" I went with "sorry accidental dial" instead. The 911 operator just said "ok, thank you" and disconnected.

[@SenorBolsa]

As someone who can really struggle with verbal communication when experiencing anxiety this is also useful, good accessibility is good for everyone. Heading out to play with some expensive telescopes soon! Anyone traveling to Vermont stay safe and stay off the dirt roads!

[@Cowloverdude]

Are the dirt roads an issue because of weather/season creating mud and potholes or because of something more mystic like where they lead or who drives on them lol

[@hedgehog3180]

@@Cowloverdude I think they're just private property that isn't clearly marked, so the mystic danger is rednecks with guns.

[@Arachnoid_of_the_underverse]

This is an automated lift emergency call centre. Press floor 1 for help, floor 2 if you dont understand English, floor 3 if you are blind................

[@RoseRodent]

Press nothing if you're deaf and don't know there's a message playing right now

[@chaotus]

@@RoseRodentThis leaves button 4 for being unconscious 😂

[@Yugophoto]

I used to work in a massive hospital with a pretty good system. Our dispatcher could see the car number of any incoming call from the elevator phone, and from our main office we could call the cars and force the line to stay open. Elevators also had CCTV, and (assuming the problem was not an elevator malfunction) we had a recall key (different from the fire key) that could clear all the floor requests and bring that elevator directly to our floor. It was really useful for medical emergencies, cause if someone had a medical emergency in an elevator we'd just bring them to whichever floor the code team was on rather than having to grab another elevator to get to them. Inside the elevator we could also use a id prox system to swipe our ID card and hold the elevator - which was also intended to be used for medical emergencies.

[@heatherryan9820]

😮😮😮😮 OMG, Finally someone metioned people that cannot speak. I mean, obviously this is for more than my crowd, but it was nice yo be mentioned for once. Everyone always mentions prople who are deaf and HoH, but they never mention people that are mute. So thank you for that.

[@DeviantOllam]

You're most welcome and I'm so happy to know folk feel a little more seen in this code revision. 💚👍

[@Daddo22]

Note for non native English speakers: HoH = Hard of Hearing ...yes, I had to find that out for myself

[@heatherryan9820]

Sorry about that. You are correct.

[@carpespasm]

My GF has spasmodic disphonia, which can leave her perfectly normal some days and wholly or nearly unable to speak others, and it worsens during stressful situations oftentimes. Trying to answer questions to someone on the phone while worrying if your voice might poop out before they get a good bead on where you are during an elevator entrapment definitely counts.

[@heatherryan9820]

@@carpespasm that has to be stressful. And I'm sure the wrist part is, like you said, the now started your gf gets, the worse it gets. So it's just a never-ending perpetual cycle. At least this is one less thing that we have to worry about. 😁😃😃😁

[@sharkinahat]

I'm a simple man, I see an elevator (video), I push all the (like) buttons.

[@warrensteel9954]

Same.

[@lightningdemolition1964]

I push all the buttons to make it look like a tree.

[@SimonTschuor]

Here in Switzerland, the e-phone is usually tied in to the alarm button. When you press it just for a second or so, you'll only scare the people close to the elevator. If you ring the bell for more than 2 seconds, the e-phone activates and calls the preprogrammed numbers like front desk, security, elevator company... Fun thing I've encountered: If eg. the front desk answers the call and doesn't acknowledge it at the end with DTMF 0 (if i remember correctly), the e-phone assumes the call has failed and will continue with dialing the next number :)

[@sixtninecat]

Ok Shuffle button you've piqued my interest

[@ICountFrom0]

replying to this so that the reply will ping me too.

[@_j5155_]

Me too

[@efeyzee]

.

[@JohnDlugosz]

me too.

[@andypire6278]

Same

[@SustainedFuture]

I got stuck on an elevator in the early 90s. I picked up the handset, which dialed a pre-programmed number. After a few rings, it was answered by... the phone company's operator. It took quite a bit of convincing to have her connect me to the hotel (I had no keypad).

[@Gunbudder]

now i want an elevator that only moves if you answer its riddles

[@Crazy_Borg]

Then lets hope its not the Riddler or Jigsaw on the other end of the line.

[@stevep7346]

"What is your name?"... "what is your quest?"... "what is your favorite color?"..."Pink, no, blue" *Elevator plummets to bottom of shaft*

[@georgeblair7129]

Had a security guard job where the elevator emergency phone would get spam calls from the outside world

[@swizzler]

So our library recently got refit up to standards, KONE installed a camera as it's standard now, it's a raspberry pi. It broke right after it passed inspection, I called and put in a service ticket, the KONE tech said "yeah they don't last very long, but as long as it passed inspection you're good." I'm so pissed at KONE for that one. EDIT: To clarify some things, how we know it broke is it has a web interface that lets you phone the elevator and view the camera with or without someone pressing the button. We were training security on how it works, and it didn't work.

[@lightningdemolition1964]

I remember phone phreaking an elevator phone once when i was much younger. It involved clicking the hang up switch to be able to dial 9 for an outside line dial tone then clicking the right number of times to call my friend a fellow phreak. There was no tone pad.

[@MarvinCZ]

It seems weird that you have buttons with braille, but the display screen won't be readable for someone without sight. But I don't know how doable a braille display in addition to the regular screen would be. I'm sighted so I'm just guessing here... Still, a neat addition.

[@flyingmoose]

I guess if someone was blind and couldn’t talk but could hear, it would be useful.

[@easygroove]

can guess that the Elevator will telll you which Order he received

[@russellhltn1396]

Perhaps it's so the blind know they're not missing anything? An unlabeled button would be frustrating to them.

[@MarvinCZ]

@@russellhltn1396 Definitely, the braille on the buttons is surely helpful by itself.

[@Relkond]

Multiple disabilities will be less common - and more prone to travel with able chaperones. Not impossible, but if someone can neither see nor hear, just walking down the street alone is going to be difficult -- you won't see OR hear traffic when you go to cross the street.

[@princesswalt4010]

In a “high security” high rise data center in downtown Los Angeles, the elevator has a “seismic” button. Would love to know what that does and if you can bypass anything when it’s pressed.

[@BusMaster99]

Seismic is actually a lamp, that lights up in the event of an earthquake.

[@ICountFrom0]

I remember it does an "auto go" but I don't remember if it was UP or DOWN. Course if you could oceans 11 yourself into the system to the point where you can fake an earthquake, maybe there's other ways to get in?

[@mwiz100]

@@ICountFrom0 Seismic trigger sends the car to the top of the hoistway. Main reason is you don't want to be BELOW the counterweight if any of it breaks free.

[@ICountFrom0]

Thank you. Well, that answers that. If you can trick the sensor, you get a ride UP.

[@Cowloverdude]

@@ICountFrom0 I was curious so I googled “seismic trigger elevators” and the first result was a pdf of what appears to be an Elevator Seismic Trigger which is an actual device I guess that when detecting seismic activity above a programmable g level automatically closes a circuit which triggers the elevator to continue to its next floor and open its doors and then shut itself down to allow occupants to leave but prevent any further use of it until reset. Apparently the issue with earthquakes isn’t so much safety of occupants usually it’s the shifting of important big heavy mechanics like the pulley system etc that goes into an elevator continuing to operate after shifting during the earthquake causing expensive damage. Neat. I’m guessing the other guy was right that it must be a warning light rather than a button that lights up when the seismic device triggers and the elevator goes into that mode.

[@rossbulcock552]

In college, we would use the elevator phone to order pizza. Domino's pizza even had the phone number on file and a note to deliver to the college front foyer.

[@GaviLazan]

I guess I'm early enough to be the one to ask in the comments - Why is there a "shuffle" button?

[@TheDarklingWolf]

Commenting to catch the (hopeful) answer, because I'm also curious.

[@danjlurie]

Thirding curiosity.

[@xirenzhang9126]

Yes

[@DeviantOllam]

Well given your comment (and others like it) plus the replies with the same interest... It would seem that I might have to do a follow-up about this. 😁

[@kdawson020279]

Has to do with a very specific type of car and how one who needs the function to not die while working can make that happen. I can't explain it with the same flair, so I won't spoil it. But, you already knew it wasn't a button used by regular passengers, or you'd have probably heard about it.

[@Codex_of_Wisdom]

Oh hey. At my company's remote office last year I saw there were screens in the elevator. They were cycling adverts, so my cynical mind went straight to "oh yay, they found somewhere else to advertise to us" and didn't even think of accessibility. I mean, in this case I'm sure it's both, but good to know there's some good to it too.

[@GashimahironChl]

Weirdest elevator i ever found was in a short commercial building with i think 8 floors. Was a regular ole elevator from i'm guessing the 80's, but it had a thin internal door you had to slide to the side, an automated one that split in half and opened up vertically when you were in the correct floor, and then a super heavy external door with a little glass window reinforced by what looked like wavy fence wire. I mean i seen the ones with the sliding auto-door and self-closing heavy door before, but that 3 door combo was new, never seen that one again anywhere else, despite wandering a lot over the years.

[@rollercoastersrule]

The Linq hotel resort in Las Vegas has two elevators to their parking structure that have “Earthquake” button that if pressed take you to the nearest floor and let you out

[@stevep7346]

Great, now I need a Farraday bag sized for beach towels.

[@sketchyAnalogies]

YESSSS GO LIFE SAFETY CODE!! I'm an engineer who wants to design safety critical control systems. I know I'm a huge nerd, but your talk sounds anything but boring. Really looking forward to it!

[@DDiodes]

or, most difficult of all, call an elevator with him in it

[@pws3rd170]

Sicing your followers to steal RFID towels makes me think of Despicable Me and the petty passive crimes 🤣

[@knghtbrd]

Last time I was at the Oregon Historical Society in Portland (pre-panini) we had an entrapment event. The e-phone was not answered and the alarm was reasonably useless. Wonder if they ever fixed sny of that? We managed to get the elevstor to trick itself into going back to the floor we were on and let us out, but report it to the staff who probably did nothing eith that info was the best we could do.

[@ethane333]

Looking forward to exploiting life safety code talk! I had an internship at a place that does fire code consulting and planning and I did some neat stuff, saw some neat stuff, and was at some neat places. I also did some forensic work and it reminded me of you. In fact, your elevator talk from years ago is part of what got me interested enough to learn about it and that helped me land the internship.

[@SOOKIE42069]

weirdest elevator i’ve seen was one in SF in a private office building where there were no buttons and the security guard entered the floor you were going to remotely from his desk

[@tjp740]

Did you look around for secret panels? According to code there are probably physical buttons somewhere for fire operation.

[@SOOKIE42069]

@@tjp740 i didn’t have time unfortunately. it was a very fast elevator and if you don’t get off right away it starts angrily buzzing at you

[@MAlanThomasII]

I remember a family reunion way back in the 1990s where we got stuck in an elevator and the alarm button did nothing useful. The building I work in now was renovated in the 2010s and has a single elevator that runs between two public spaces-and which we ensure is cleared as part of clearing the building at the end of the night-so we don't really worry about security. Its emergency call button automatically dials the fire department, and they will immediately call us because they are required to respond if they can't get an all-clear from one of us who has gone and physically checked the elevator ourselves. I wonder if the rescue call buttons in the stairwells work the same way. . . .

[@liamhurlburt9794]

oh my god Dev's shirt at the beginning is such an inside joke and I freaking love it

[@creamysbrianna]

@deviantOlam those buttons should be required to be reachable from the floor. I know you dont have much control over it. Just saying.

[@DeviantOllam]

There are elevators that have floor controls specifically for people in wheelchairs.

[@bubbleentity]

I have been an operator on a lift emergency line. I can tell you categorically that most of those " self reporting location" systems, don't. You still have to ask the caller where they are,and that caller will likely not know what to tell you at the best of times

[@HeroOfHyla]

I've got an unrelated elevator question: I use an elevator system where you have to punch in your floor number in the lobby before the elevator is summoned. on more than one occasion, I've keyed in a floor, someone else in the lobby has also keyed in a floor, but then that other person has wandered off to take a phone call or something instead of getting on the elevator. Then, when the elevator comes and I get on, the elevator somehow knows the other guy hasn't gotten on and cancels the other floor stop request. I assume it can count the number of people in the elevator through some combination of cameras and weight sensors, but how does it know *which* floor to cancel? Is an automated system watching the cameras in the lobby and tracking who actually gets on? Is a security guard doing it?

[@ucitymetalhead]

I occasionally hit that alarm and you ain't kidding about that volume.

[@cfhay]

The "no" sticker is almost the exact distance from the "yes" and the "no" button. Nice that they added braille text on it, but they could've tought the UX through for a blind person...

[@cakearmy_maxgaming6346]

Did you see the news about the vault break-in in LA? Idiots had an unmanned facility storing 30M$.

[@JohnDlugosz]

You mean $30M. The dollar sign goes to the left of the number.

[@bite-sizedshorts9635]

I've never seen any of those "modern" elevator features, such as an "e-phone." There are buttons for each floor, a stop button, an alarm button, and sometimes buttons to open and close the door. And the newer elevators I've been in have Braille notes next to each button.

[@J_CtheEngineer]

I had a client with an elevator in their house. Their power went out and their house keeper was stuck in there for about 4 hours and the client did screw all for the HK. I had to basically yell at them get the fire department out to get the doors open after 3 hours of them basically shrugging the situation off. It was one of those “battery back ups don’t work, no override, no elevator service company, etc” situations

[@empoleonmaster6709]

Hey, Ollam, I once read a story of a scammer somehow dialing the number to an elevator's phone. It went something like this... Scammer: "Hello, can I talk to the head of the household." Person: "I think you have the wrong number." Scammer: "I got the right one, get me in contact with the head of the house hold." Person: "No, I think you REALLY got the wrong number, this is for an elevator's phone." Scammer: "What?" Person: "Well...this is my floor, bye." Scammer: Pure silence If a scammer REALLY messes up, is it possible for this to happen, and how the hell DID it happen? lol

[@satibel]

scam calls now use random dial, or some sort of pinging, hence why you get those calls with nobody on the end, if you say hello (or anything that's not silence or modem sounds) you might be recorded as a potential valid phone. and elevators might have their own phone number for emergency lines, so you can dial them back

[@IIVQ]

Our university's library had an "Upper LOCK" button (with a key). The upper floor had a server cabinet, and apparently the building was engineered to let the heaviest server equipment be hoisted in or out through the elevator shaft, for which the elevator key needed to be locked one "floor" (which had no doors) higher. I witnessed this procedure once (they had to disable the fire alarm, so they requited students to be fire watch, we got the literal 10mn training). I have no clue why such a rare occurrence had it's own button like the main buttons, instead of in a hidden panel somewhere. One of our subway stations has an elevator with levels 0, -1, -4 and -5 - where -1 and -4 are only meant for people cleaning some artwork, it is very confusing, especially since the announcement for the blind calls out "level minus one" when you arrive at the floor after pushing -5 and the label outside the elevator says -5.

[@ojtheaviator1795]

Seeing the title: when it has a genuine people personality!

[@NithinJune]

What’s up with those phone numbers you can call to just talk and listen to an elevator

[@compu85]

I'm looking forward to your life safety presentation! After a lot of reading about tragic incidents where building or system design was a major factor life safety systems are always at the back of my mind.

[@user-kw2rl8df2s]

Yeeeaahh, if you have health issues or mental issues MAYBE you shouldn't willingly step into a locking inescapable Death Trap.

[@ColtonRMagby]

The total eclipse was awesome to see from my back yard. There are no words to describe it. I love your videos. They help me understand how things work and why they are that way.

[@LaurentMaitreK]

4:09 “who you gonna call?” G…..

[@UnlikelyToRemember]

Seems like elevators are excessively failure prone compared to other modern technology. I probably use an elevator a few dozen times a year (live in a house, office on 1st floor of a 3 floor building), yet I've been trapped in an elevator twice (and these were elevators < 20 years old, because the buildings were < 20 years old).

[@DeviantOllam]

I think it depends a great deal on the elevator. While entrapments do happen, I bet the data would show that they are pretty rare if expressed as a percentage across all elevator trips that take place across all installations.

[@UnlikelyToRemember]

@@DeviantOllam I could just be unreasonably unlucky. One of my times was in a parking garage across the street from a concert venue. It was deep winter but several people had gone without coats (because of the hassle I assume). Luckily the elevator was packed and we just moved the uncoated to the interior (like penguins, I guess) of us. Could have been a really very uncomfortable two hours for them had they been alone in the elevator.

[@peter_smyth]

At work I have a basement 15 m below ground level, I'd hate to be stuck part the way down to there.

[@phyphor]

Never phreaked from an elevator because (a) lifts over here generally don't have phones, (b) when I'm visiting the US I'm on my best behaviour. Different phone systems, too, which means some of the tricks I know don't work on one side of the Atlantic, or the other, and many have been patched out as things shift to back end VOIP (BT 21CN broke a lot of what was possible back in the day).

[@phillyphakename1255]

I'm kinda sad I never got to phone phreak. Born too late. Nowadays the tricks don't work, VOIP etc, but also, the economics don't encourage it anymore. I can do long distance calling for free. Heck, I can do all calling for free. Don't need to phreak in order to call your friend across the country anymore.

[@phyphor]

@@phillyphakename1255 for me it was always about playing with the system more than exploiting it

[@unwin42]

Saw Yes/No in the elevators at the Bellagio in Vegas

[@Tom_Losh]

It looks like those controls MAY be a bit too high to meet ADA requirements. I've only been "trapped" in a elevator once in my 77 years. When I spent just over a month in hospital, I had the opportunity to test out the elevator emergency comm system when it ended up stopped between the third and fourth floor on my way back from physical therapy. I hit the call button and was quickly answered (intercom) by security, they knew which elevator the call was from, but not where it was stuck. I gave 'em the info and the connection stayed live until the elevator doors were opened manually with two security, two nurses, and a maintenance guy outside. They had some sort of manual control over the car and told me to stay at the back of the elevator while they moved it up to floor four. Whole thing took maybe 15 minutes, everyone seemed competent, and I was not at all worried. In fact when they first opened the doors I was sitting in my wheelchair, sipping on some bottled water, and reading the paperback I had with me.

[@mollthecoder]

Just curious, around when did you have this experience?

[@Tom_Losh]

@@mollthecoder, that was October, 2000.

[@shanedk]

When it's "Another Fine Product of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation"?

[@DeviousMalcontent2]

I clicked on the Elevator video because of a connection to facilities management in my day-to-day role, but your username is also very cool! 🙂 lol.

[@carstorm85]

Ooh, can't wait for your talk this spring? What conference will that one be add on safety systems?

[@canadafree2087]

"Yes"

[@allenshepard7992]

Learning, enjoying, I am so biased to my own situation and life style. Hard to think like someone else and their life. Think outside the body !!

[@CityLifeinAmerica]

Some elevators just actually let you use the floor buttons or the Door Open Door Close buttons as Yes No buttons!

[@jonathanmellqvist2]

3:10 " it's painfully loud" yeah, just like your video clip seconds before.... 😑

[@DIYTAO]

Yeah.. Really nice watching this at 2AM ..

[@mifffalden9225]

I saw an elevator a few months ago with yes/no buttons. Oddly enough it was a rickety little one in a public parking garage that seemed a lot older than 2019. I have never seen them elsewhere.

[@thelojay]

Well now I’m mad cuz I got stuck in an elevator recently and all there was was a little bell that no one would hear, lol. Took me forever to get a signal to call the fire department. I was stuck in there with my dog and it got real hot, so I felt more bad for her than for myself. Took probably 2hrs to get out

[@MichaelGatti]

I've only been stuck in an elevator once. It was in pre-cellphone times. Pressed the phone button and got "front desk, please hold" and then waited a long while. 😂

[@j2simpso]

The notion of having the elevator ask you floor by floor if this is the floor you want to go to and you having to respond with the Yes/No panel is wild. While that may not be a big deal for a small building, I could imagine it taking quite some time for someone entering a 100 storey building. And no doubt the riders in the elevator won't be too excited each time the elevator must stop at a new floor to pick up riders.

[@phillyphakename1255]

My mind immediately goes to binary search algorithms to speed things up. Are you on floors 1-50? Are you on floors 50-75? Are you on floors 50-62.5? Are you on floors 62.5-68.75? Etc.

[@mollthecoder]

@@phillyphakename1255 Yes, I am indeed on floor 62.5.

[@jerrym995]

the one we have at work still has a phone with a dial

[@Mada_1337]

Shout out Mesa Commerce Center. It is South of the US 60, so it's in "Good" Mesa.

[@yelowpunk]

someone's ringing that top-mounted bell *right now* I think the people in the building use it AS an intercom, perhaps with morse.

[@HenryLoenwind]

Isn't it weird that elevators are virtually the only places that need to provide medical emergency reporting functions? If that weren't the case, the call button could simply alert a technician; no communication needed aside from some way of signalling that the request has gone through and has been acknowledged. Also, if I were to write those codes, I would require a monitoring system to be installed that automatically calls a technician when the elevator is stuck or fails to open the door on a floor. We're well past the age of electromechanical controls that couldn't do that.

[@pineappleroad]

I have known someone to accidently activate the emergency telephone by just leaning against the panel, and suddenly a recorded voice started playing saying to remain calm, and that it would dial a telephone number (ive forgotten exactly what it said), and a yellow light had illuminated below the floor indicator After that it started making telephone dialling noises (i do remember what it dialled was longer than a normal telephone number, and it even paused and resumed dialling once or twice), and when the call was answered (a green light illuminated below the floor indicator to indicate the call had been answered, and the yellow light went out), the other people in the elevator were talking about what just happened (and they said about the person on the other end of the phone being able to hear them), and after a few seconds the call was hung up

[@matt92hun]

Someone should set up an elevator with only yes or no questions and random floors. Do you want to go to floor 7? Do you want to go to floor 2? Do you want to go to floor 4? Do you want to go to floor 7?

[@jamesbilger]

Can't wait to see someone port Doom over to being playable on the elevator emergency screen.

[@MrHack4never]

I find it odd that they didn't use a ❌ (red X) and ✔ (green tickmark) or 👎(thumbs down) and 👍(thumbs up) system instead, the language barrier is removed and the symbols should be recognisable from their outline by blind/visually impaired people (albeit, I don't know if blind people would recognise the symbols)

[@sketchyAnalogies]

This ☝️

[@fermitupoupon1754]

There's braille next to the buttons, though there's a language barrier in that I suppose.

[@phillyphakename1255]

The one thing I will give credit for, is that Yes and No are some of the first words learned in a new language. Plus, with good user interface, the language barrier could be further reduced. Do you need medical assistance? Si (Yes) or No (No)?

[@eduardog3000]

X and check aren’t universal either. In Japan they both mean no, and yes is a circle ⭕

[@trioptimum9027]

I suspect that it's an issue of multiple meanings. "Are you in medical distress?" Do you answer CHECK to mean "yes, I am in distress" and X for "No, I'm fine" or do you answer CHECK to mean "I am okay" and X for "No, not okay?" Same problem with thumbs-up/down. And of course the first thing I'd assume if I saw a red X on an elevator button was that it was a cancel button, not that it meant "no" when communicating with an emergency service.

[@closeyour3y3s]

Compression. Please use it. Ow.

[@falcon80th]

Hey Siri / Google / Otis / HAL, I'm stuck in the elevator.

[@Alex_Vir]

I'm sorry Dave but I cannot open that door.

[@laptop006]

You really need a smoking jacket for that background

[@dominateeye]

An EFF smoking jacket

[@TimeWisely]

There is a trend that use to float around, where people would activate the alarm bell, one time, a video of a guy surfaced showing him pressing the alarm bell, literally stepped into the elevator, tapped the alarm bell, and left... suddenly, the phone started ringing. so he had to embarrassingly sit there and wait for someone to answer the phone, a panel like this might prevent stuff like that from happening, lol. Video was called Elevator alarm button test GONE WRONG if you're curious.

[@bikeny]

I clicked expecting to hear about how someone put the wrong braille values on the panel. Glad I was wrong about the reason. Good to know things are improving. Elevator scenes in movies. SPEED comes to mind.

[@denischen8196]

Why don't elevators do this: "Press OPEN for Yes, or press CLOSE for No."

[@NatesRandomVideo]

Me: “You want the truth?” Elevator: “I think I deserve it.” Me: “You can’t handle the truth!” 😂😂😂

[@sebastiannielsen]

When I saw the title of the video, I forst tought of destination dispatch elevators confirming your destination so wouldn't accidentially step into someone elses elevator.

[@NatesRandomVideo]

P.S. Elevator: “This is for accessibility!” Me: “Why is it only reachable by someone able to stand?” Elevator: “It’s for accessibility!” 😂😂😂

[@BillyONeal]

Are you a firefighter, yes no? Seems to be in every one according to your talks :)

[@gordslater]

7:09 YES YES YES NO YES NO NO YES YES NO NO YES NO YES NO YES YES YES NO NO NO. NO YES NO NO YES. YES. NO NO YES

[@tylersheehy3918]

elevator on first floor no garage/basement asks Going up ? makes me laff

[@Wyld1one]

Wow screen with two buttons that have Braille on them. does anybody see the irony in this one? It's about as good as the cell phone activation of a call button for people who are deaf.

[@4crafters597]

988 wanting someone shot? What is going on over there?

[@Giftedbryan]

Jesus I was not prepared haha

[@yeetyeet7070]

nice t-shirt

[@matt92hun]

How unlucky would you have to be to both be stuck in an elevator and not have your phone on you?

[@iggymac3473]

glad to hear bro stay safe

[@spinba11]

I find it odd that in America the bell and the phone are different buttons in America, in the uk they are the same but the phone only rings after 3 seconds of the button being pressed.

[@TequilaDave]

988.... thanks for that as I didn't know that number for Canada/US ❤

[@cameronrich2536]

You sure its all there still. Just weird i haven't won anything yet ;)

[@DeviantOllam]

☺️ I'll try to do my best for your luck on the next give-away drawing. I'll cross my fingers for you and all.

[@cameronrich2536]

@@DeviantOllam haha thats all i ask dude

[@Ralesk]

Seeing the title I thought this was a Lateral episode, but then I noticed that thumbnail was kinda weird for that :D

[@pa0letti]

How Should We Then Live? by Francis Schaeffer. nice!