🦋 Ben West - 🐒🌻
Hey @deviantollam you are the only person I could think of who might be able to explain this. A friend took this picture, in Quebec or Ontario I think. She said she pressed both of them and they did nothing. I wondered if the buttons were rigged to interact with the screen somehow, which would been extra interesting. Is this just a weird joke or some "legitimate use? I kinda love it i must admit. Someone suggested there should have also been an" and" button so you could push "yes, and" 🙃 and get an easter egg suprise or something. Anyways, thanks for being you and doing what you do.
Oct 17, 2025 at 8:33pmWeb
Show threadAlex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UKOct 17, 2025

@monkeyflower @deviantollam I was curious about this (as its not a thing in UK/Europe), but apparently it is common in parts of USA as well.

The alarm button is supposed to connect to a human operator and activate the loudspeaking telephone in the lift and in newer ones a screen. If the person with the emergency is hearing impaired they can use the screen messages and the yes/no button to communicate with the emergency operator.

Show thread🦋 Ben West - 🐒🌻Oct 17, 2025
@vfrmedia @deviantollam oh wow, I'm somewhat hearing impaired so it's weird that I didn't know that. Haha, thanks for telling me. I'm now wondering how people have hacked those to do other things interacting with the screen. Play doom for example, or trivia games? In a safe testing environment of course.
Show threadDeviant OllamOct 18, 2025

@vfrmedia @monkeyflower One tiny iota of clarification: the emergency call button (out of frame in that photograph) would have the functionality you describe.

The alarm button (visible in that photograph) is often merely a local alarm that makes noise in the hoist way.

Show threadAlex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UKOct 18, 2025

@deviantollam @monkeyflower

Ah, this is slightly different to what I've encountered in UK (I worked on the maintenance team in a senior home and had to wire up the telephone circuit end of these things) - over here pressing the alarm button (there is only one) both makes the noise *and* activates the autodialler in the lift telephone, which either goes to a control centre or (in the case of the site I worked on where it had 24/7 staffing) dials an emergency extension on site (I had it going to a ring group which alerted all on duty staff)

Incidentally modern lifts (in common with the rest of Europe) now often just have 1, 0, -1 rather than 1, G, LG etc..

Show threadDeviant OllamOct 17, 2025

@monkeyflower I love the idea of "yes, and" 😁👍

But you're on the right track... https://defcon.social/@deviantollam/115324312643100538

Deviant Ollam (@[email protected])

Attached: 2 images Time to see who's been taking notes in class, kids. (I did a video about this same thing last year) 😏 Who can tell me why this elevator might be asking you "Yes" and "No" questions that you could answer using the buttons seen here? UPDATE: OK, It's been quite some time since I posted so I'll share the link to the answer here for anyone who happens across this toot in the future... https://youtu.be/jHnSRkau9yY

DEF CON Social