FukDatShhh.CoM

Dear Yahoo!:
Who invented the remote control?
Couch Potato

Dear Couch:
Our younger readers may not realize this, but there was once a time when you had to actually get up in order to change the channel. This pointless exertion is no longer necessary, thanks to one of the greatest inventions ever (move over polio vaccine) — the remote control.

So who do we have to thank? According to the Great Idea Finder, the remote control was invented in the 1950s at Zenith Corporation. The first iteration, dubbed “Lazy Bones,” used a cable that ran from the television set to the controller. In 1955, Eugene Polley, another Zenith employee, came up with the Flashmatic, the industry’s first wireless remote. While it worked reasonably well, it did have limitations that kept it from being practical enough for everyday use.

The next year, Dr. Robert Adler unveiled the Space Command remote control. Instead of the photo cells used in the Flashmatic, the Space Command used ultrasound. This added 30% to the price of the TV, but it was considered a success and later adopted by other manufacturers.”

Today, most remote controls are infrared, and according to Zenith, “more than 99 percent of all TV sets…are equipped with remote control.” To that we say, “Hallelujah!”

Robert Adler, 93, Co-inventor of the television remote control, which encouraged the proliferation of couch potatoes, shorten the attention span of viewers and prompted innumerable household disputes over who would control the television, died Feb. 15th of a heart ailments in a nursing home in Boise, Idaho.

Adler received more than 180 patents during his six-decade career with Zenith Electronics Corp., but he is best known for his 1956 Space Command remote control, which used high-frequency sounds to allow consumers to flip from Ozzie and Harriet to Queen for a Day.

Despite a tendency to change the channels at the sound of key jingling, dog tags rattling or coins spilling, the cigarette-pack-sized Space Commander clicked — both literally and with the public. Its small aluminum rods were struck like tuning forks to produce ultrasonic waves when one of the four buttons were depressed. More than 9,000,000 ultrasonic remotes inspired by Dr. Adler’s invention were sold between 1956 and 1982, before infrared technology took over.

The Viennese-born electronics engineer didn’t watch too much TV himself and he was far prouder of his barometric amplifier, which was considered useful by radio astronomers and antimissile radar specialists. The increase in remotes for electronic entertainment, as well as the burgeoning number of buttons on buttons on each, dismayed him.

“Given the complexity, perhaps you’ll need a pilot’s license,” he once said.

In 1997, Adler and co-investor Eugene Polley were awarded and Emmy for their inventions. Polley, the forgotten man in instant histories that praise technological innovation, actually was the first to solve the problem posed by Zenith’s top executive, who wanted to squelch the ear-splitting sound of commercials.

A wired device called Lazy Bones, designed in 1950 by Zenith, was offered. It was pricey and primitive, but ads proclaimed: “Prest-o! Change-o! Just press a Button … to Change a Station!”

In 1955, Polley built the Flashmatic, a flashlight shaped like a sprinkler nozzle. The viewer pointed a beam of light at the sensors in the corner of the TV set. Nearly 30,000 were sold. But it was too sensitive to sunsets, floor lamps and flashbulbs. The following year, Adler’s audio-driven Space Commander debuted and was declared more reliable.

Adler was considered a pioneer in the surface acoustic-wave technology, used in color TV sets and touch screens found in airport kiosks, museums and cell phones. His most recent patent application for advancement in touch-screen technology was published Feb. 1.

Adler joined Zenith’s research division in 1941 after receiving a doctorate in physics from the University of Vienna. His work at Zenith’s suburban Chicago location range from improving television sound to developing a synchronizing circuit that permitted better television reception in fringe areas, before the days of cable and satellite TV. He also envisioned, in a 1974 research paper, what was to become the digital video disc or DVD for short.

He retired as Zenith’s V.P. of research in 1979 and was a technical consultant until 1999, when Zenith merged with LG Electronics, Inc.

He was a downhill skier until age 89 and was hiking in the past year. He had three remotes in his house — one fewer than the average American.