Where would you be without your Flash-Matic?

[moggy]

thought this thread was about being with out your flash mac. (eternal optimist style)

[Paddy]

I invented the remote control and designed a long pole with a piece of rubber on the end.

[EternalOptimist]

Probably cost and size. IR frequencies are pretty easy to get in and out of semiconductors e.g. diodes & photocells, and these components are cheap and small whereas suitable radio equipment is fairly bulky and even today much more expensive.

I hate it when I have to lift my arm up, point the thing down and wiggle it around till I can change channels. it's so tiring

[doodab]

I sometimes wonder (and wished) why TV remotes can't use radio waves rather than infrared, as the former travels better through bed sheets etc. Still, with the rise of the smartphone that will no doubt be the future.

Probably cost and size. IR frequencies are pretty easy to get in and out of semiconductors e.g. diodes & photocells, and these components are cheap and small whereas suitable radio equipment is fairly bulky and even today much more expensive.

[TimberWolf]

I sometimes wonder (and wished) why TV remotes can't use radio waves rather than infrared, as the former travels better through bed sheets etc. Still, with the rise of the smartphone that will no doubt be the future.

[doodab]

If ms doodab has left the remote on the table I have to walk past the TV to get it so I often use the buttons on the side of the telly instead.

[gingerjedi]

My nans first remote plugged into the TV when you didn't need it, my granddad insisted on leaving it in the TV to save on batteries.

There was an early Sony sonic remote that had 2 buttons, if you did a loud 'SShusssh' the TV would mute.

[ctdctd]

A bit like this one, you mean?

Remote control television, 1956. -- High quality art prints, canvases, postcards, mugs -- SSPL Prints

But that was 1956. The Flash-Matic was a year earlier - it's the future I tells yar

[TheFaQQer]

You need remote control on a wire, really.

[ctdctd]

It all started in 1955

The inventor of the television remote control has died at the age of 96, his former employer has said.

Zenith Electronics said Eugene Polley passed away of natural causes on Sunday at a Chicago hospital.

His 1955 invention, Flash-Matic, pointed a beam of light at photo cells on each corner of the TV, turning it off and on and changing the channels.

RIP