Raoul Camacho’s Post

The first ever TV remote was a mechanical marvel… The Zenith Space Command, one of the first wireless television remotes ever to exist, contained one of the most influential and intriguing buttons in history. Robert Adler’s 1956 creation coined the early term “clicker,” referring to a TV remote. The simplistic Sci-Fi-inspired “clicker” pioneered a durable, clicky action for controlling gadgets. When Zenith first started experimenting with wireless remote controls, it used beams of light that the television could receive to communicate a command. The Flash-Matic was launched in 1955, but only lasted a year in the market before being scrapped due to its sensitivity to full-spectrum light from the sun and lightbulbs. Zenith’s engineers then created a device that didn’t require batteries at all, using sound instead of light. The Space Command uses mechanical engineering, rather than electrical. Pressing a button on the remote sets off a spring-loaded hammer that strikes a solid aluminium rod in the device, ringing out at an ultrasonic frequency. Each button has a different length rod, thus a different high-frequency tone, which triggers a circuit connected to a microphone in the television to finish the command. Besides not requiring batteries, the remote didn’t need to be pointed directly at the receiver. The company chose a battery-less device because it didn’t want customers to think a TV was broken when the battery died. Despite its flaws, the Space Command remained the standard TV remote for 25 years. Although it wasn’t a perfect solution as people found that jingling keys or coins could be picked up by the TV’s microphones and accidentally change the channel. Source below. Daily #electronics from Asia insights – connect with me, Keesjan, and never miss a post by ringing my 🔔. #technology #innovation