Robert Adler has His Power Button Pushed for the Last Time

I try to remember the first "remote control" that I remember seeing and it probably was the one my grandfather had on his old Zenith console television, and it had the loudest "click" I have ever heard. There were two buttons on it - one that turned the channel to the "left" (down in numbers) and one that turned it up on numbers. It weight probably the same as a small baby, and could have been included in the classic entertainment version of clue as a murder weapon. Nonetheless, it was the initiation of a completely new era in entertainment. I am very happy to have my Logitech Harmony remote that controls each and every piece of equipment I have inside of my theater and it really does show that things have come a long way. My thanks to Robert Adler and his creative thinking. We would have a completely different world without it. Do YOU remember your first Remote Control? Tell us about it here or over at the 2GuysTalking Television Review Blogs now! --Mike2Guys

TV remote control's co-inventor dies

Source: AP

Boise, Idaho: Hit the mute button for a moment of silence: The co-inventor of the TV remote, Robert Adler, has died.

Adler, who won an Emmy Award along with fellow engineer Eugene Polley for the device, died on Thursday of heart failure at a Boise nursing home at 93, Zenith Electronics Corp said on Friday.

In his six-decade career with Zenith, Adler was a prolific inventor, earning more than 180 US patents. He was best known for his 1956 Zenith Space Command remote control, which helped make TV a truly sedentary pastime.

"People ask me all the time - 'Don't you feel guilty for it?' And I say that's ridiculous," he once said about his invention that stopped people from getting up from their couch in front of their TV.