The life of Robert Adler - the father of the TV remote control

He is best known as the 'Father of the TV Remote Control'.

Robert Adler was born in Vienna, Austria on December 4, 1913. He was a talented physicist but also loved nature, books and classical music. He successfully defended his doctoral thesis in physics at the University of Vienna in 1937, when he was only 24 years old. Soon after, he immigrated to the United States and worked at the research department of Zenith Electronics Corporation on the west side of Chicago.

During World War II, Adler specialized in research on military communications equipment , including high-frequency oscillators and electromechanical filters for aircraft radios.

Robert Adler (1913-2007). (Photo: Wikipedia)

Adler has always been one to find broader applications for existing technologies. In the 1960s, for example, he took advantage of his wartime research to develop a frequency filter for color TV based on surface acoustic waves (SAW). Today, sound wave technology plays an important role in both TV screens and touch computer screens.

After the war, Adler focused on researching television technology. One of his first inventions was the gated beam vacuum tube, which effectively eliminated audio interference in television receivers and reduced operating costs. He and his colleagues also developed a special synchronization circuit, which improved signal reception at the edge of the television station's broadcast area. However, his greatest success was the wireless remote control device.

The desire to control machines remotely has been around for a long time. As early as the late 1800s, genius inventor Nikola Tesla patented a variation of remote control technology, which he claimed could control a ship from shore.

In the early 1950s, Eugene F. McDonald Jr. – founder of Zenith Electronics Corporation – believed that what television viewers wanted most was to be able to ignore annoying product advertisements by replacing change the channel, mute the sound, or both.

Robert Adler invented a TV remote control called Space Command that relied on ultrasonic waves in 1956 and sold nine million TVs before infrared remote control technology was born in 1956. early 1980s.

Originating from McDonald Jr's comment, Zenith Electronics Corporation produced the first TV remote control called ' Lazy Bones'. It can perform the functions of turning the TV on/off and changing channels without the viewer having to get up. However, it is quite cumbersome due to connecting to the TV with a wire, making it dangerous for elderly users because they are at risk of tripping.

In 1955, Zenith Group continued to introduce the 'Flashmatic' product , a wireless control device - essentially a flashlight shining on light sensors [or photoresistors] placed in the corners of the cabinet. TELEVISION. In addition to light from the remote control, these sensors also respond to sunlight.

Although the Flashmatic device overcomes Lazy Bones's previous problem by completely eliminating wires, it introduces another problem : sunlight can cause the TV to behave erratically.

McDonald Jr. summoned researchers to an emergency meeting at Zenith Corporation to fix this problem. Solutions using radio waves are ignored, because they can pass through walls and change the neighbors' TV channels.

Adler's solution was to have the remote 'communicate' with the TV using sound, rather than light – specifically, with ultrasonic waves at a higher frequency than the human ear can hear. Adler's remote controller has a very simple structure. It doesn't even require batteries. The buttons activate a small hammer that strikes one of four lightweight aluminum bars located inside the device, much like a piano key strikes a string. The receiver in the TV interprets these high-frequency sounds as channel up, channel down, sound on/off, or power on/off signals.

In an interview on the Archive of American Television website in 2004, Adler recalled that he found the solution for the remote control device after visiting a steel mill and hearing a sharp sound when the The metal bar collides with a hard object. So he went back to the lab with the idea of ​​using ultrasound waves, which are beyond the range of the human ear, to send signals to a receiver in a television.

Initially, Adler's audio TV remote control system called Space Command increased the price of the device by about 30%, causing some financial pressure on consumers. But with its convenience and usefulness, this technology quickly became popular.

Adler is honored as the 'Father of the TV remote control'.

During the 1960s, Adler improved his system to generate ultrasonic signals using electronic circuits. Over the next twenty years, ultrasonic remote controls gradually became a standard auxiliary device for televisions. Zenith Group and others sold a total of more than nine million TVs using ultrasonic remote control systems before infrared control technology was introduced in the early 1980s.

Nowadays, remote controls are widely used in the consumer electronics and entertainment industries. Most electronic devices such as TVs, DVD players, air conditioners, fans. all have remote controls included.

With his great contributions, Adler is honored as the 'Father of the TV remote control ', a seemingly simple device that has helped change and enhance our experience when enjoying television programs. presented on the small screen.

'However, if asked, Adler would not choose the remote control as his favorite invention,' Adler's wife, Ingrid, shared in Latimes in 2007. 'In fact, he even I don't even spend much time watching TV. He prefers reading books'.

'My husband also often dreams at night and then suddenly wakes up and says: "I just solved a problem." He was always thinking about science ,' said Ms. Ingrid.

In 1963, Adler became Vice President and Director of Research of Zenith Electronics Corporation. He was a technical advisor to the company until 1997.

Adler died at a Boise, Idaho Nursing Home of heart failure on February 15, 2007, at the age of 93. During his career, he owned a total of 180 patents and was awarded countless prestigious awards, including the Edison Medal of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 1980. He was also a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).