He changed our lives more than any politician ever has. Robert Adler, co-inventor of the TV remote, has died at the age of 93 in a Boise nursing home, clicking right up until the end, I hope.
More on Adler here.
Zenith produced the first TV remote in 1950, dubbed "Lazy Bones." It performed on/off and channel-changing functions fairly well, but was cumbersome to use, and was attached to the TV by a cord that soon proved a safety hazard to Zenith's less nimble customers. In 1955, Zenith produced the "Flashmatic," a wireless remote that was basically a flashlight pointed at photo cells located at the corners of the TV cabinet: unfortunately, the photo cells reacted to sunlight as well as the remote.
Robert Adler's solution was for the remote to "communicate" with the TV by sound, not light --- specifically, by ultrasound, that is, at frequencies higher than the human ear can hear. Adler's remote control unit itself was very simple: it did not even require batteries. The buttons struck one of four lightweight aluminum rods inside the unit, like a piano's keys strike its strings. The receiver in the TV interpreted these high-frequency tones as signaling channel-up, channel-down, sound on/off, or power on/off. The necessary 30% increase in cost was imposing to consumers at first, but there was no doubt about the popularity of the system.
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