The first remotes designed to control televisions appeared in the living room in s. It allowed viewers to control their TV from the couch … as long as the wire from the remote could reach the couch. Alternate name suggestion: Trip Wire. Whomp whomp. Speaking of great names, the Blab Off, introduced in , was a wired remote that could turn sound on and off to help tune out the commercials.
Wireless remotes soon followed. There was the Flashomatic in It shined a beam of light toward a sensor on the TV. The ad fails to mention that the sensors respond to all kinds of light sources, not just the beam from the remote. Best suited for cloudy locations to avoid spontaneous channel changes. Then came the Zenith Space Command in The main issue with this remote control was that other sounds, like a dog barking or a branch scratching the window could activate it.
Best suited for quiet spaces. The living room? Not so much. Wireless remotes were a game changer. Ultrasonic remotes were the standard for TVs until the s , when remotes began using the infrared light signals that are most common today. Remotes became so popular for so many devices that "remote overload" exasperated many people, sparking the development of so-called universal remotes, which could be programmed to control multiple devices.
Of course, remotes are for more than just channel surfing. Next, you'll see how remote controls are in some ways making us more productive and adventurous than ever before. These days, you can find remote control capability built into a huge array of products. Toy cars and helicopters, video game consoles, ceiling fans, you name it -- there's a good chance you can find a version that's controlled by a remote.
You can even buy a remote-controlled toilet, the Kohler C3 bidet. And the remotes themselves come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, from oversized versions for the near-sighted to tiny, pocket-size devices.
Smartphones are becoming universal remotes that can control a multitude of digital products. With the right app, you can use your phone to unlock a car door from miles away, schedule your DVR to record a TV program, control YouTube on your laptop, or, you guessed it, change channels and a lot more on your TV.
Remote technologies have more serious purposes, too. There are now all sorts of precision-guided munitions used in conflicts all over the world.
Laser-guided bombs are used to hit small areas that were much harder to attack using conventional "dumb" bombs. Cruise missiles can be launched from many miles away and guided into almost any target. A variety of armored vehicles are now equipped with remote-controlled gun turrets that allow soldiers to sit beneath the weapon in relative safety, aiming and firing the gun using a camera and joystick controls. Pilotless drone aircraft provide remote surveillance and attack capabilities controlled by office-bound strike teams thousands of miles away.
Remote technology lets us pursue less destructive aspirations, too. NASA relies heavily on remote control for many of its projects. One of the organization's biggest triumphs came in , when the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft deployed a roving probe to the surface of Mars. Scientists on Earth sent instructions to the rover , commanding it to use different instruments to collect data regarding weather, soil conditions and much more. The success of this mission spawned a rewarding follow-up mission in , in which the rovers Spirit and Opportunity explored Mars for years.
Remote controls have allowed humans to perform many tasks that would be difficult, if not impossible. And although remotes might have a long history, they are anything but over. As we continue to weave technology into every aspect of our lives, it's very likely that we'll need remotes to keep things under control.
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Invented by Eugene Polley, it was able to turn the television on or off, change channels, and mute the sound by flashing a directional light on photoelectric cells at each corner of the screen. A year later, in , Zenith came out with another remote control, this one invented by Robert Adler. Called the Space Command, it relied on ultrasonic sound waves that keyed a sensor embedded in the TV. The one-two punch of the Chicago-born Polley and the Vienna-born Adler initiated a half-century of discord over who was the real father of the TV remote.
Polley often complained that Adler stole the limelight. In , a Canadian company, Viewstar, developed the first TV remote to use infrared technology, a low-frequency light beam invisible to the human eye and capable of operating various electronic products. This approach, which allowed more, and more complicated, commands, soon became standard, especially as cable companies expanded their channel offerings well beyond the limits of a TV dial.
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