page_title: Remote control
section_title: Television remote controls
hierarchical_section_title: Remote control / History / Television remote controls
caption_attribution_description: English: Zenith Space Commander 600, an early television remote control. The Space Commander 600 was available for color TV only. This particular design was offered between the years 1965 through 1972. Deutsch: Zenith Space Commander 600, eine frühe Fernsehfernbedienung. Die Space Commander 600 war ausschließlich für Farbfernseher erhältlich. Dieses spezifische Design wurde von 1965 bis 1972 angeboten.
context_page_description: In electronics, a remote control or clicker is an electronic device used to operate another device from a distance, usually wirelessly. For example, in consumer electronics, a remote control can be used to operate devices such as a television set, DVD player or other home appliance, from a short distance. A remote control is primarily a convenience feature for the user, and can allow operation of devices that are out of convenient reach for direct operation of controls. In some cases, remote controls allow a person to operate a device that they otherwise would not be able to reach, as when a garage door opener is triggered from outside or when a Digital Light Processing projector that is mounted on a high ceiling is controlled by a person from the floor level.
  Early television remote controls used ultrasonic tones. Present-day remote controls are commonly consumer infrared devices which send digitally-coded pulses of infrared radiation to control functions such as power, volume, channels, playback, track change, heat, fan speed, or other features varying from device to device.
context_section_description: The first remote intended to control a television was developed by Zenith Radio Corporation in 1950. The remote, called "Lazy Bones," was connected to the television by a wire. A wireless remote control, the "Flashmatic," was developed in 1955 by Eugene Polley. It worked by shining a beam of light onto one of four photoelectric cells, but the cell did not distinguish between light from the remote and light from other sources. The Flashmatic also had to be pointed very precisely at one of the sensors in order to work.
  In 1956, Robert Adler developed "Zenith Space Command," a wireless remote. It was mechanical and used ultrasound to change the channel and volume. When the user pushed a button on the remote control, it struck a bar and clicked, hence they were commonly called a "clicker," but it sounded like a "clink" and the mechanics were similar to a pluck. Each of the four bars emitted a different fundamental frequency with ultrasonic harmonics, and circuits in the television detected these sounds and interpreted them as channel-up, channel-down, sound-on/off, and power-on/off.
  Later, the rapid decrease in price of transistors made possible cheaper electronic remotes that contained a piezoelectric crystal that was fed by an oscillating electric current at a frequency near or above the upper threshold of human hearing, though still audible to dogs. The receiver contained a microphone attached to a circuit that was tuned to the same frequency. Some problems with this method were that the receiver could be triggered accidentally by naturally occurring noises or deliberately by metal against glass, for example, and some people could hear the lower ultrasonic harmonics.
  In 1970, RCA introduced an all-electronic remote control that uses digital signals and metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) memory. This was widely adopted for color television, replacing motor-driven tuning controls.
  The impetus for a more complex type of television remote control came in 1973, with the development of the Ceefax teletext service by the BBC. Most commercial remote controls at that time had a limited number of functions, sometimes as few as three: next channel, previous channel, and volume/off. This type of control did not meet the needs of Teletext sets, where pages were identified with three-digit numbers. A remote control that selects Teletext pages would need buttons for each numeral from zero to nine, as well as other control functions, such as switching from text to picture, and the normal television controls of volume, channel, brightness, color intensity, etc. Early Teletext sets used wired remote controls to select pages, but the continuous use of the remote control required for Teletext quickly indicated the need for a wireless device. So BBC engineers began talks with one or two television manufacturers, which led to early prototypes in around 1977–1978 that could control many more functions. ITT was one of the companies and later gave its name to the ITT protocol of infrared communication.
  In 1980, the most popular remote control was the Starcom Cable TV Converter (from Jerrold Electronics, a division of General Instrument) which used 40-kHz sound to change channels. Then, a Canadian company, Viewstar, Inc., was formed by engineer Paul Hrivnak and started producing a cable TV converter with an infrared remote control. The product was sold through Philips for approximately $190 CAD. The Viewstar converter was an immediate success, the millionth converter being sold on March 21, 1985, with 1.6 million sold by 1989.
caption: The Zenith Space Commander Six hundred remote control
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