Posted on 02/16/2007 3:12:56 PM PST by NormsRevenge
BOISE, Idaho – Hit the mute button for a moment of silence: The co-inventor of the TV remote has died. Robert Adler, who won an Emmy Award along with fellow engineer Eugene Polley for the device that made couch potatoship possible, died Thursday of heart failure at a Boise nursing home at 93, Zenith Electronics Corp. said Friday.
In his six-decade career with Zenith, Adler was a prolific inventor, earning more than 180 U.S. patents. He was best known for his 1956 Zenith Space Command remote control, which helped make TV a truly sedentary pastime.
The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences awarded Adler and co-inventor Polley, another Zenith engineer, an Emmy in 1997 for the landmark invention.
Adler joined Zenith's research division in 1941 after earning a doctorate in physics from the University of Vienna. He retired as research vice president in 1979, and served as a technical consultant until 1999, when Zenith merged with LG Electronics Inc.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published his most recent patent application, for advances in touch screen technology, on Feb. 1.
Adler is survived by his wife, Ingrid.
It sure beat a notched piece of PVC pipe.
My batteries should last as long as his did. -)
Hmmmm....my parents were pretty good at hiding modern technology from me. I was still standing at the set turning the tuner and adjusting the rabbit ears in the 70's. It wasn't a major chore, considering there were only 3 channels back then.
That is a Mesocricetus auratus, a hampster.
It cannot act as a mouse, but is a good storage device. (That's an inside joke for people who know hamster behavior.)
My grandparents had one of those. It made a clicking sound. I tried to replicate the sound with a plastic comb and it would not stop changing channels until I turned it off!
probably why early results were so poor. . Oh well. ;-)
To think he might have made it to 100 if he'd just gotten a bit of exercise getting off the couch and walking 6 steps.
LOL!
Thanks!
I wish I could get some you regular posters to help with pointing out the obvious dupes and downright stupid postings -- although ZOT!'s are fun.
Some of these people have no clue how many times the same story gets posted - because they never search (ego damage if they do).
Obviously the mods are/have been swamped (or have given up)
Just my $.02 --
JSC
I always search , usually do OK and not miss an earlier post,, and try to not pop a dupe thread and will pull one if I have to..
If it's a new source including a wire one that may not have been been posted, up it goes.
I don't see it as a form of spam, tho depending on the topic at hand, it might to some.
Nevertheless it put my parents on the cutting edge at the time and raised their social pecking order in the neighborhood.
the earliest one I remember was "ultrasonic" - I think it was a zenith also
He had the thumb of an 18 year old.
I could accomplish the same effect by jangling my key ring.
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