BOISE, Idaho (AP) Hit the mute button for a moment of silence: The co-inventor of the TV remote, Robert Adler, has died. Adler, who won an Emmy Award along with fellow engineer Eugene Polley for the device that made the couch potato 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.
1956? 19-fifty-freakin'-six??? That's when the tv remote came out? Wow.
Adler wished he had been recognized for more of his broad-ranging applications that were useful in the war (WWII) and in space and were building blocks of other technology, she (his wife) said, "but then the remote control changed the life of every man."
RIP, Robert Adler.
The Father of the Couch Potato lives to be 93! Damned, must have been all the energy he saved from not having to walk across the room and change the channel!
ReplyDeleteI would imagine that all men in the US are mourning his passing. As for all women, we wish the silly things would blow up. Seriously.
ReplyDeleteEllenK, I've never seen you display such insensitivity.
ReplyDeleteYou should sit where I sit. My husband will switch stations at warp speed. He's so busy trying to find a station that doesn't have an ad on that we miss half of the show (I am) we are watching. To be fair though, we counted commercials on Letterman one night-and there were TWENTY commercials at the 11:20 ad spot. That is pretty much an overload. I still want one of those gadgets that stops the remote from working. But then I also want a gadget that stops cell phones in restaurants, cinemas and my classroom.
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