A noble man has passed away...

Pongo

From today's Indo...

OBITUARY: Robert Adler, TV remote inventor (and patron saint of fatties?)


In this age of couch potatoes and goggle-eyed childhood obesity, the late Robert Alder might have admitted a certain inadvertent responsibility. For Adler, who has died aged 93, was the co-inventor of the television remote control.

Although an earlier version existed - it used cables and was called Lazy Bones - in 1956 Adler and a colleague came up with a wireless version using ultrasonic sound.

While Lazy Bones turned sets on and off and changed channels reasonably efficiently, it was attached to the set itself by a flex that soon proved a safety hazard to less nimble viewers.

In 1955, the American company for which Adler worked, Zenith, produced the Flashmatic, a wireless remote that was basically a flashlight pointed at photo cells located at the corners of the television set. Unfortunately, however, the photo cells reacted to sunlight as well as the remote.

Adler's solution was to have the remote communicate with the set not by light but by sound, specifically ultrasound, at frequencies higher than the human ear can hear.

His remote unit was very simple, and did not even require batteries. The buttons struck one of four aluminium rods inside the unit.

The receiver in the television set interpreted these high-frequency tones as signalling channel changes, or requests for sound or power to be switched on or off. In the 1960s, Adler modified his system to generate the ultrasonic signals electronically.

Over the next 20 years, the ultrasound television remote became a standard accessory. By the time the device embraced infrared technology in the early 1980s, more than nine million television sets had been sold with Adler's remote control system.

Robert Adler was born on December 4 1913 in Vienna, earning a PhD in Physics from Vienna University in 1937. After emigrating to the United States, he joined the research division of Zenith Electronics in 1941.

During the Second World War, Adler worked on high-frequency oscillators and electromechanical filters in aircraft radios.

Always seeking broader applications of a specific technology, Adler later relied on this work when, in the 1960s, he explored the use of surface acoustic waves in frequency filters for colour television sets.

By 1963, Adler had become director of research at Zenith, and remained a technical adviser to the company until 1997.

Acoustic wave technology is essential to both modern television screens and touch-sensitive computer displays: Adler's last patent application, filed a fortnight before his death on February 15, concerned touch-screen technology. In all, he was granted more than 180 American patents.

Ultrasonic remotes, remember them well... used to wake up the cat every time you changed channel.

Tom Dunne

The passing of a legend.

We have much to thank him for.

Green_Martian

R.I.P......What a legend!!!!!!!!

SligoBrewer

A tear to my eye:(

jester77

A sad day. RIP

gonker

I remember when I was little my dad put a log box beside the tv so one of us could sit beside the tv and change the channels for him . When we werent there he had a length of bamboo cane with a piece of blue tac attached to the end to change the channels.

TerrorFirmer

I wouldn't necessarily call it a 'sad' day - the man lived to a very impressive age of 93 - if only we could all be guaranteed such a lifespan!

The Hill Billy

Brings me back to the days when you changed channels using a dial.
Not like one of these new-fangled jobbies with fancy buttons.

Mahatma coat

Have encountered kids occasionaly who are incapable of operatin the telly without the remote, the sort that will spend over an hour searchin for the remote without ever realising that the functions exist on the telly underneath that little panel thing.

dr.bollocko

Little Panel thing???????
Little panel thing???????
That is against what this forum is all about! If your remote dont work you sit there until batteries fall out of the sky for it.

If you really wanna touch that front panel ****, call an electrician. From the sofa.

sprinkles

I for one would search the house up and down until I found the remote rather than lower myself to the levels of changing the channels with the panel on the tv. I mean come on, how does one channel surf?

Green_Martian

sprinkles wrote:

I for one would search the house up and down until I found the remote rather than lower myself to the levels of changing the channels with the panel on the tv. I mean come on, how does one channel surf?

That is what the women are for brother............:rolleyes: