Before remotes, TV viewers had to plod over to their televisions to change the channel and volume using rotating dials or buttons. In 1950, electronics manufacturer Zenith introduced the Lazy Bones remote. Unfortunately, it used a long, snaking cable that turned as many ankles as it did channels.
In the mid 1950s, Zenith engineer Eugene Polley devised his Flashmatic TV remote, which used directional flashes of light to control the television. But the TV's four photo cells (one in each corner of the screen) responded to all sorts of light sources, including sunlight and ceiling lights, causing spontaneous channel changes.
In 1956, Polley's colleague, Robert Adler, created the Space Command control, which employed high-frequency, ultrasonic sound instead of light. This new remote didn't even require batteries. Instead, it use tiny internal hammers to strike one of four aluminum rods, creating different sounds used only by the TV's receiver. One rod each controlled the on and off power functions and the channel up and down function. There was no volume control.
This style of remote increased the price of a new TV by a third, but that didn't stop people from buying them in mass quantities. These remotes became known as "clickers" due to the sound they made, and although their ultrasonic frequencies were inaudible to humans, they drove a lot of dogs bonkers.
Remote controls completely changed the way consumers interacted with their electronic devices. Instead of getting a bit of exercise every time they wanted to change a TV channel, people could remain glued to their chairs for hours on end -- giving rise to the term "couch potato."
This was a new type of sedentary lifestyle, one in which motionless consumers could call upon hundreds or even thousands of television channels. And because viewers tended to click through commercials or slow scenes, TV programs changed as well, with faster pacing to keep people continuously engaged.
Remotes kept evolving, too. Ultrasonic remotes were the standard for TVs until the 1980s, when remotes began using the infrared light signals that are commonly in use today.
When the Betamax hit the scene (LV-1901 and SL-7200) there was no remote for pausing the VCR. A mechanical lever to the left of the button array stopped the tape temporarily so you could remove commercials or do edits. These early machines used a mechanical tape transport but as soon as solenoids were incorporated into the functions the remote pause (for the VCR) was born. It was a simple pause button on a wire but it gave the viewer "remote control". Single button pause soon lead to including operations like fast forward, rewind, and play in addition to pause/still. Next came more functions as the manufacturers competed to cram added features into the VCRs and their remotes. The wire was getting fatter and bulkier and the remote more complicated. To reduce the wire size manufactures came up with a clever way to code the functions of the remote. Each button when pushed sent a different voltage, controlled by resisters, to the VCR. It in turn interpreted these different voltages into functions. This work good until the switches wore out and started sending untrue voltages, which confused the VCR. The wires also suffered from internal breakage due to flexing that resulted in loss of some or all control. The wire had to go and taking its place was the wireless infrared remote. This system used a broadcaster (Sony called it the remote commander) that sent a series of invisible coded flashes to an infrared receiver inside the front of the VCR. The VCR interpreted these pulses and turned them into functions. These days, you can find remote control capability built into a huge array of products. Toy cars and helicopters, video game consoles, ceiling fans, you name it -- there's a good chance you can find a version that's controlled by a remote. You can even buy a remote-controlled toilet, the Kohler C3 bidet.
And the remotes themselves come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, from oversized versions for the near-sighted to tiny, pocket-size devices. Samsung's LED 9000 TV even comes with a remote that has its own built-in LCD touchscreen, letting you watch a TV program different from the one on the big screen.
Smart phones are becoming universal remotes that can control a multitude of digital products. With the right app, you can use your phone to unlock a car door from miles away, schedule your DVR to record a TV program, control YouTube on your laptop, or, you guessed it, change channels (and a lot more) on your TV.
Remote technologies have more serious purposes, too. There are now all sorts of precision-guided munitions used in conflicts all over the world. Laser-guided bombs are used to hit small areas that were much harder to attack using conventional "dumb" bombs. Cruise missiles can be launched from many miles away and guided into almost any hard target.
A variety of armored vehicles are now equipped with remote-controlled gun turrets that allow soldiers to sit beneath the weapon in relative safety, aiming and firing the gun using a camera and joystick controls. Pilotless drone aircraft provide remote surveillance and attack capabilities controlled by office-bound strike teams thousands of miles away.
Remote technology lets us pursue less destructive aspirations, too. NASA relies heavily on remote control for many of its projects. One of the organization's biggest triumphs came in 1997, when the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft deployed a roving probe to the surface of Mars.
Scientists on Earth sent instructions to the rover, commanding it to use different instruments to collect data regarding weather, soil conditions and much more. The success of this mission spawned a rewarding follow-up journey in 2003, in which the rovers Spirit and Opportunity explored Mars for years. And now we have a new Mars rover which landed on February 18, 2021. Called Perseverance (Percy for short) it makes its own decisions about how to best travel around on the surface. But it still gets its marching orders remotely from Earth. It also carried with it a small robotic helicopter named ingenuity (Ginny). These two together have raised our understanding of the red planet to a new level, and there is still more on the horizon.
So remote controls have allowed humans to perform many tasks that would be very difficult, if not impossible otherwise. And although remotes might have a short history, it is anything but over. As we continue to weave technology into every aspect of our lives, it's very likely that we'll need remotes to keep things under control.