The Mystery Of The Remote Control - Science/Technology - Nairaland
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| The Mystery Of The Remote Control by cybelink(m): 6:26pm On Nov 29, 2012 |
The invention of the remote control all began when Eugene McDonald Jr, founder-president of US manufacturers Zenith, decided viewers would appreciate being able to ‘tune out annoying commercials’. We have a lot to thank Eugene for Zenith’s first remote, dubbed the ‘Lazy Bones’ was produced in 1950. Viewers could turn the television on and off, and switch channels, but unfortunately, it was connected to the television by a long cable; heading to the kitchen to replenish supplies was somewhat hazardous.To rectify this problem in 1955, the company brought out the Flash-Matic a remote which flashed beams of light at photocells on each corner of the television cabinet. This remote could adjust the volume too. But unfortunately, the photocells reacted to sunlight, and if the sun shone on the TV, the tuner could start rotating. Clearly some advances were needed. Engineers experimented with radio signal remotes next, but found them so effective they could change the channel on a neighbour’s television.A Zenith engineer, Robert Adler, came up with a solution that used ultra-sonic technology (which humans cannot hear) rather than light to communicate between the remote and the set. Pressing a button on the remote depressed one of four aluminium rods. Each rod emitted different sounds, and the television would interpret each of these as channel-up or down; sound up or down; and power on or off. A button could be squeezed to depress a rod towards a spring, which enabled it to rise again. Each rod was called a ‘vibrator element’ which varied in length so emitting different noises. A miniature hammer struck home to create a sound, rather like a tuning fork. The patent also explained the electrical circuits needed by the television to interpret the sounds correctly. Adler’s invention had two advantages over modern remotes: it needed no batteries and did not have to be pointed at the television.Zenith patented Adler’s invention in 1956 and marketed it the same year as the Space Command 400, a futuristic name that brought the technology of James Bond into the living room. The cost of incorporating the technology added US$100 or about 30% to the cost of televisions, and of course the remote only worked with Zenith televisions. The main technology used in home remote controls is infrared (IR). The signal between a remote control handset and the device it is controlling are infrared pulses, which are invisible to the human eye. The transmitter in the remote control handset sends out a pulse of infrared light when a button is pressed on the handset. A transmitter is often a light emitting diode (LED) which is built into the pointing end of the remote control handset. The infrared light pulse represents a binary code that corresponds to a certain command, such as (power on). The receiver passes the code to a microprocessor, which decodes it and carries out the command.Commonly, remote controls are Consumer IR devices used to issue commands from a distance to televisions or other consumer electronics such as stereo systems, DVD players and dimmers. Remote controls for these devices are usually small wireless handheld objects with an array of buttons for adjusting various settings such as television channel, track number, and volume. In fact, for the majority of modern devices with this kind of control, the remote contains all the function controls while the controlled device itself only has a handful of essential primary controls. Most of these remotes communicate to their respective devices via infrared signals and a few via radio signals. Earlier remote controls in the 1970s used ultrasonic tones. Television IR signals can be mimicked by a universal remote, which is able to emulate the functionality of most major brand television remote controls. |
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