For more than five decades now, we've been able to indulge in being lazy bones that don't have to get up in order to turn on their TVs or media players, to turn on the AC or open the garage door and draw the curtains and so on. Even though the remote control entered the life of numerous people as a TV-controlling device, its purpose has spread in the recent years, which is why we don't have to put any effort in using the devices around us.

Beginnings

However, the first machines to be operated by remote control were used mainly for military purposes. Radio-controlled motorboats, developed by the German navy, were used to ram enemy ships in WWI. Radio controlled bombs and other remote control weapons were used in WWII.

Once the wars were over, United States scientists experimented to find non-military uses for the remote control. But preoccupations in this way existed long before the wars. Thus, one of the earliest examples of remote control was developed by Nikola Tesla in 1898, and described in his patent, U.S. Patent 613809, named Method of an Apparatus for Controlling Mechanism of Moving Vehicle or Vehicles.

Next, in 1903, Leonardo Torres Quevedo released the Telekino, for which he obtained a patent in France, Spain, Great Britain and the United States. The Telekino consisted of a robot that executed commands transmitted by electromagnetic waves. This was the world's first apparatus for radio control and was a pioneer in the field of remote controls.

By the late 1930s, several radio manufacturers offered remote controls for some of their higher-end models. Most of these were connected to the set being controlled via wires, but the Philco Mystery Control (1939) was a battery-operated low-frequency radio transmitter, thus making it the first wireless remote control for a consumer electronics device. In the late 1940's, automatic garage door openers were invented, and in the 1950's the first TV remote controls were used.

Zenith's Lazy Bones, Flashmatic and Space Command remote controls

Channel surfing was born five decades ago. The first TV remote control, called "Lazy Bones," was developed in 1950 by Zenith Electronics Corporation (then known as Zenith Radio Corporation). Lazy Bones used a cable that ran from the TV set to the viewer. A motor in the TV set operated the tuner through the remote control. By pushing buttons on the remote control, viewers rotated the tuner clockwise or counterclockwise, depending on whether they wanted to change the channel to a higher or lower number. The remote control included buttons that turned the TV on and off.

Although customers liked having remote controls to operate their television sets, they complained that people tripped over the unsightly cable that meandered across the living room floor. Commander Eugene F. McDonald Jr., Zenith's late founder-president, believed TV viewers would not tolerate commercials and was convinced that sooner or later commercial television would collapse. While waiting for the development of commercial-free subscription television, McDonald yearned for a wireless remote control that would mute the sound of commercials.

The first wireless TV remote came five years later, also from Zenith, thanks to one of its engineers, Eugene Polley. Dubbed “Flashmatic,” this remote was operated by means of four photo cells, one in each corner of the TV screen. The viewer used a highly directional flashlight to activate the four control functions, which turned the picture and sound on and off and changed channels by turning the tuner dial clockwise and counter-clockwise.

But, while it pioneered the concept of wireless TV remote control, the Flashmatic had some serious limitations: it was a simple device that had no protection circuits and, if the TV sat in an area in which the sun shone directly on it, the tuner would often start rotating.

In 1956, Robert Adler developed the Zenith Space Command remote control, which was mechanical and used ultrasound to change the channel and volume. Also referred to as a “clicker”, the Space Command clicked and struck a bar when the user pushed a button. Each bar emitted a different frequency and circuits in the television detected this noise.

The first such remote control used four rods, each approximately 2-1/2 inches long: one for channel up, one for channel down, one for sound on and off, and one for on and off. They were very carefully cut to lengths that would generate four slightly different frequencies. They were excited by a trigger mechanism - similar to the trigger of a gun - that stretched a spring and then released it so that a small hammer would strike the end of the aluminum rod.

However, the original Space Command was expensive because an elaborate receiver in the TV set, using six additional vacuum tubes, was needed to pick up and process the signals. Although adding the remote control system increased the price of the TV set by about 30 percent, it was a technical success and was adopted in later years by other manufacturers.

In the early 1960s, solid-state circuitry (transistors) began to replace vacuum tubes. Hand-held, battery-powered control units could now be designed to generate the inaudible sound electronically. In this modified form, Adler's ultrasonic remote control invention lasted through the early 1980s, a quarter century from its invention.

In the 1990s, when semiconductors for emitting and receiving infrared radiation were developed, remote controls gradually switched to that technology which, as of 2005, is still widely used. Remotes using radio technologies, such as Bose Audio Systems and those based on Bluetooth technology are also to be found on the market.

On the infrared remote control, each button is assigned it's own command, and is sent to the TV set in a series of signals. There is a digital code for each button, and in the TV there is a tiny sensor called a photodetector that identifies the infrared beam, and translates the code into a command.

Other remote controls

In the 1980s, Steve Wozniak of Apple was one of the people who manifested a real interest towards developing an universal remote control. And he succeeded, launching the CORE (Controller of Remote Equipment), in 1987. This remote controller was highly advantageous, as it could learn remote signals from various other devices. Not only that it had the ability to perform specific or multiple functions at various times with its built-in clock, but it could also be linked to a computer and loaded with updated software codes as needed.

However, the CORE was never a real hit on the market because it was much too complicated for the average user to program, even though it received rave reviews from experts in the field.

[IMG=8]By the early 2000s, the number of consumer electronic devices in most homes greatly increased, along with the number of remotes to control those devices. Now it's probably a rare situation to find only one (or none) remote control in one's home. Only to operate a home theater you need as many as five or six remotes. Not to mention the newest trend to have remote-controlled lighting, curtains, toys and even showers.   From relieving us from making the effort to control the devices around us, remote controllers might soon become a nightmare and an obstacle in our way to control the gadgets that we are so dependent on.