Rare Otis Pop-Out Elevators (2016) [video] | Hacker News Reader

Rare Otis Pop-Out Elevators (2016) [video]

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I was waiting for the carriage itself to pop out of the shaft or something, but no, just the buttons.

I was disappointed at first, but then I scrolled through the comments (I know, I know), and found a whole little community of people who found it similarly thrilling. And I dunno, I guess it's nice that we can have entire little communities of people devoted to little things like elevator design and mechanics! To them, a video (and elevator) like this truly IS Epic, as stated in the video!

I was doing a 4-month internship a few years ago and was looking to remotely rent an apartment, which is the ideal opportunity to be scammed. As I was searching info about a possible unit, I found a YouTube video of someone showing the building's elevator. The video even had a dedication in the description. I was also surprised about this, so I entered this guy's ytb channel and it was filled with videos of other buildings' elevators in that and neighboring cities.

That's how I discovered this community. It's always amusing to find out new niches some group of people care about, you can find the most amazing (and unexpected) things.

In one video, he reveals that his grandmother accompanies him on his visits to various buildings. It’s nice to know that his family supports his endeavours, and not freaking out over how weird it is.

If you’re looking for an exciting elevator, then you want Paternoster doorless elevators. https://youtu.be/Rvvbn7O1nus?si=kwZsCp4OtkRfhE9A

I’m waiting for a real world implementation of an elevator that moves horizontally and vertically. There are a number of promo videos for it, but nothing actualized.

The Schmid Peoplemover exists, and looks to be a one of a kind, it feels like these end up being more complex than it’s worth Tom Scott video here: https://youtu.be/A2g4u9F9i90

While watching that video, my first thought was about safeguards. Will it stop if obstructed? How often has someone gotten injured or killed by such a device?

There are plenty of videos of people dying in regular elevators that lack the inner safety door.

Typical is the someone wheels a large object like a trash bin or stacked boxes and then the edge catches on a landing and crushes an occupant against the top rear corner.

Search for "klamrisk" to see an interesting warning sign about that.

I get anxiety just watching these elevators. I'll take the stairs thanks.

I really want these to be a thing again. So many buildings have a pair of elevators that simply can't handle the various rushes during the day. Leave one traditional elevator for the edge cases, and replace the other with 2 or 4 paternoster cars.

> and replace the other with 2 or 4 paternoster cars.

Why 2 or 4? The whole idea of a paternoster is that there always is a car at every floor (see the animation and videos at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paternoster_lift)

If there wasn’t, they would be really dangerous, as you could step into the elevator shaft while the nearest car was ten floors down.

What I mean is that the paternoster is usually smaller than an elevator. So in the vertical footprint of a typical elevator, I think you could fit 1 or 2 paternosters (2 to 4 cars, since each paternoster has 1 car in each direction looking vertically).

I loved it's hackier relative, the Belt Manlift, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belt_manlift

https://youtu.be/hI0klJJNLHA gives a view.

I was too scared to try it while in the czech republic (brno).

Too bad Americans can’t be trusted with these. (Source: am American.)

There's a recent Tom Scott video about an office inside an elevator. It has a desk and chairs, the whole thing. It's on the corner of the building too. It seems, from his video, that nobody is really sure why it was built and what it was used for.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yfX84RMQ3M

Well it is clear from the video what is was used for: nothing. The boss who had it built because of complex WWII history never actually got to use it. What the vision for it was though is unclear.

I think the vision was just that it was baller

Costanza?

Typical elevator buttons are very commonly of a design where you can press the button lightly, and the button lights up as if selected, and then if you stop pressing it, it sometimes unselects, the light going out. Those are the most annoying kinds of buttons in any product as a class.

I wonder why this UX hasn't remained more common --- it seems very physically intuitive and accessible.

All the mechanicals are expensive and unreliable.

Did you ever check the price tag such switches come with? There is a reason why every product ever replaces good mechanical switch assemblies (maybe 10 € per piece) with simple momentary switches (0.02 € per piece) and it has nothing to do with UX

Now momentary switches are good, since they're to replace them with touchscreens, I shit you not, In a fancy new "business corporates building", I've see an elevator which only had a iPad like touchscreen to input your desired floor.

I haven't asked how are blind people supposed to use it.

The ones in my office building have a physical accessibility intercom button that connects to the doorman downstairs, who can call/control an elevator.

The touchscreen systems are nice in buildings with banks of multiple elevators - they let the system optimize which floors each car will stop at for maximum throughput. I can’t see the point of one in a building with just a single elevator.

A thing that doesn't usually change (although it is not unheard of) is the number of floors in a building.

If I were to design a modern elevator interface I'd probably go with backlit physical push buttons and small screens next to it.

This way you can communicate disabled floors, what you find on each floor, etc. The push button light (brightness and color) can be used to indicate the current floor.

The push buttons still need braille for the floor number tho.

>The touchscreen systems are nice in buildings with banks of multiple elevators - they let the system optimize which floors each car will stop at for maximum throughput.

This has nothing to do with "the touchscreen". Elevator control systems have done load planning for decades, pretty much since the first moment someone realized you could control the elevator's relays with a microcontroller.

Yeah, but before screens were commonplace and cheap, you didn't see as many of this style - where you request a floor, and it tells you which elevator to take to get there.

Not that you see a lot even now.

One feature I really liked was one I encountered at a Mexican resort (on an Otis elevator, so they do have the technology). You could deselect a floor by pressing the button again. So if some little kid hit every button and got off on the second (of 20) floors, you could at least avoid having it stop at every floor on the way up. Or you could correct a mistaken press easily.

Something about how he brought his grandmother along and felt comfortable in his full enthusiasm was just so endearing.

Aren’t all buttons touch sensitive? You touch with sufficient force for it to sense and thus trigger them.

My college had “touch sensitive” buttons in each elevavator. It used to drive people nuts because they were so easy to trigger by lightly brushing them. An even slightly full car inevitably stopped at every floor when someone shifted near the panel and triggered every button.

Hm, "rare elevator" made me assume that it must be about paternoster, but its not! The pop-out seems to refer to the buttons.

Every so often, very late at night, I used to browse Google Images (before it became unusable for this task) for toys and games of my childhood. The sensation of nostalgia, and then sharing the finds with my brothers, was pretty intense and joyful.

I'm guessing those who love elevators or similar hobbies are experiencing the same kinds of emotions.

My favorite, rare, elevator feature: one where you can “unpress” a button. Make a mistake on floor selection? Just tap it again.

Some (many?) elevators allow to deselect with a long press on the button.

Some elevators also have a cheat code that bypasses any selected floor by pressing the button of the floor you want at the same time as the close door button.

Many elevators let you unselect with a quick double tap.

I lived in an apartment building in Richmond, VA that had an old elevator with pop out buttons. The elevator broke down constantly and it wasn't uncommon to have to force the door open to get out

I remember an elevator in an old hotel ( pre WW2 ) in LA which had a sign In case of an emergency : don't panic!

Well, uhhh, ok. We'll just sit here an accept our fate.

It's quite profound how panic can be the biggest source of danger in many emergencies.

I guess the era had sign technology but not intercom technology for elevators. Perhaps a loud bell would ring or something else like that.

That's SOP for elevator emergencies. The only safe place in an elevator shaft is inside the safe metal box. That box almost never drops uncontrollably, because there are at least three independent systems to prevent such a thing. Just wait for the local firefighters or repairman to come open the doors for you.

Hmm, although I haven't seen one in a while, these were not that uncommon in the Netherlands, say, 20 years ago?

This is further proof of Internet Rule 44

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