Volume 11 | April 4, 2025
This Weeks Featured Articles & Media
Angie Barnes | Chocolate Codes and the Golden Tickets: A Sweet Spin on Security
Could there be similarities between “Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” and ISC West? Let’s find out!
Ronen Isaac | I Taught My Security Camera to Roast People
Learn all about The Boring Labs’ RoastGuard technology that will give everyone a good laugh.
The Access Control Collective | Behind the Scenes at ISC West
Memorable moments and behind-the-scenes shots from this past week at ISC West in Las Vegas.
Find them all below!
Well 3 am came way too early this morning as I prepared to grab a coffee and head out the door for my 5 am flight to Las Vegas. I was fortunate enough to spend the last few days at the RLPSA in Nashville, so now I am off to the granddaddy of shows, ISC West, where I will pickup my badge and wait with the other crowds of people, waiting for the magic doors to open. I am the one nudging nicely and making my way as close to the door as I can waiting for the gatekeepers to say “Alright you can come on through!”All of this chaos makes me think about the movie “Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” I think most people have seen it but there are some that might not have and been living on the moon. Laughing! It’s my son’s all-time favorite movie, even at 26 over the holidays, we might grab some popcorn and enjoy it all again! Could there be some similarities to “The Chocolate Factory,” and ISC? Hmmm, am I stretching a bit here? Well, stay with me. 2 hours of sleep might bring something…Similar to Charlie, Angie Barnes and friends are there waiving the ISC golden ticket and standing on their tiptoes for those ISC doors to open. Once they open, we all scurry around the hall, being greeted by the security Oompa Loompas, maybe some in orange, laughing, encouraging me to come and see the new technology? Now, not as tasty as the marshmallow mushroom or the chocolate river, but it’s something guys! We all will be anxiously looking to see the latest AI phenom or cutting edge camera and learn about something that will change all of our worlds, from products, to services, to education in areas we might have not known. Now, I love me some Don Erickson, the President of ISC, and much better looking then ole Willie Wonka now! (You’re welcome Don!) but he still is leading us to all the goodies of technology we will find over this week at the scrumpdeleiscious (Yeah no idea how to spell it so sound it out!) Sands Expo! The AXIS booth (my favorite), the Hanwha booth and DMP, March Networks, etc. waiting to see what our customers have been asking us for.So, get your shoes shined up, and enjoy a week of getting through the land of ISC West and coming out on Friday with your Golden Ticket in hand. You will have your new technology muscles to brag after finding the next best thing, and hopefully you will end up with the everlasting gobstopper. Hooray! Let’s us all work to help make this world a more safe and secure place where our customer’s profits soar by all the shrink savings and proactive crime reductions! Onward to ISC West and if you see me, I might just have some chocolates to share.
As someone who spends a lot of time thinking about surveillance cameras and compliance reports, I occasionally need a creative outlet. So one day, my favorite Axis rep inspired me:
What if the security camera could talk back?
Specifically—what if it could roast people AND tell them to scram?
I wasn’t thinking “scalable product.” I was thinking “this will make my kids laugh.” And it did. But it also did something I didn’t expect.
Here’s how it works: I used Node-Red and Axis as the foundation, then tied in an AI model that analyzes an image captured from the camera for people—pulling visual traits like clothing, posture, accessories, and general vibe. From there, the model generates a one-liner, sends it to another model that gives voice to the roast, which is then played through a speaker.
For example, instead of setting off a flashing light or an alarm when I walked by, I was dragged for my bald head:
“Hey, grey hoodie. You look like a thumb that escaped from a puppet show. Move along.”
It’s funny. It’s weird. And it works.
When someone hears a voice describing them out loud—specifically calling out what they’re wearing or how they look—they freeze. Some laugh. Some bail. It turns passive surveillance into something that feels active. Personalized. Unsettling in just the right way.
We call it RoastGuard, and yes, I built it for fun—but I’m starting to believe it might be a better deterrent than most off-the-shelf motion detection systems.
At The Boring Lab, our mission has always been to make security less boring. If you geek out on security system tutorials and weird stuff like this, subscribe to my Not Boring Newsletter. It's a monthly dose of Milestone tips, security hot takes, and unapologetically nerdy commentary on everything in between. Join the community at https://theboringlab.com/newsletter-sign-up/.
Follow Ronen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronenisaac/
This week at ISC West in Las Vegas, we got the opportunity to record podcasts and create content that showcases much of the conversations and ideas that were discussed at the conference this year. Here are some behind-the-scenes images.
Stay tuned for an in-depth rundown from The Access Control Executive Brief and hear all about ISC West.
