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http://electronics.quickfound.net/
"
Early technology to enable the channel-surfer."
Public domain film from the
Library of Congress Prelinger Archive, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied.
The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_control
A remote control is a component of an electronics device, most commonly a television set,
DVD player and home theater systems originally used for operating the television device wirelessly from a short line-of-sight distance.
Remote control has continually evolved and advanced over recent years to include Bluetooth connectivity, motion sensor enabled capabilities and voice control.
The main technology used in home remote controls is infrared (IR). The signal between a remote control handset and the device it is controlling are infrared pulses, which are invisible to the human eye. The transmitter in the remote control handset sends out a pulse of infrared light when a button is pressed on the handset. A transmitter is often a light emitting diode (
LED) which is built into the pointing end of the remote control handset. The infrared light pulse represents a binary code that corresponds to a certain command, such as (power on). The receiver passes the code to a microprocessor, which decodes it and carries out the command.
Commonly, remote controls are
Consumer IR devices used to issue commands from a distance to televisions or other consumer electronics such as stereo systems,
DVD players and dimmers.
Remote controls for these devices are usually small wireless handheld objects with an array of buttons for adjusting various settings such as television channel, track number, and volume. In fact, for the majority of modern devices with this kind of control, the remote contains all the
function controls while the controlled device itself only has a handful of essential primary controls. Most of these remotes communicate to their respective devices via infrared signals and a few via radio signals. Earlier remote controls in the
1970s used ultrasonic tones.
Television IR signals can be mimicked by a universal remote, which is able to emulate the functionality of most major brand television remote controls
...
History
One of the earliest examples of remote control was developed in 1898 by
Nikola Tesla, and described in his patent,
U.S. Patent 613,809, named
Method of an
Apparatus for Controlling Mechanism of
Moving Vehicle or
Vehicles. In 1898, he demonstrated a radio-controlled boat to the public during an electrical exhibition at
Madison Square Garden.
Tesla called his boat a "teleautomaton".
In 1903,
Leonardo Torres Quevedo presented the Telekino at the
Paris Academy of Science... The Telekino consisted of a robot that executed commands transmitted by electromagnetic waves. With the Telekino, Torres-Quevedo laid down modern wireless remote-control operation principles and was a pioneer in the field of remote control...
The first remote-controlled model aeroplane flew in 1932, and the use of remote control technology for military purposes was worked intensively during the
Second World War, one result of this being the
German Wasserfall missile.
By the late
1930s, several radio manufacturers offered remote controls for some of their higher-end models. Most of these were connected to the set being controlled by wires, but the
Philco Mystery Control (
1939) was a battery-operated low-frequency radio transmitter, thus making it the first wireless remote control for a consumer electronics device.
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...
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 clicked and struck a bar, hence the term "clicker". Each bar emitted a different frequency and circuits in the television detected this sound. The invention of the transistor 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...
- published: 03 Nov 2012
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