INVENTORS HALL OF FAME
Adler
Patent No. 2,817,025 Television Remote Control
Born in Vienna, Austria, in 1913, Robert Adler received a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Vienna in 1937. He joined Zenith Electronics U.S. research division in 1941 and specialized in military communications equipment during World War II.
After the war, he focused on television technology. He invented the gated-beam vacuum tube, which substantially reduced sound interference, and led a team that invented a special circuit that improved reception.
Adler invented the first practical, wireless television remote control. In the early 1950s, television remote controls relied on cumbersome cords, or light beams pointed at photo cells in the television cabinet--photo cells which also reacted to sunlight.
Adler's solution was to use ultrasound, or sound waves above the range of human hearing. The buttons on his device struck one of four aluminum rods inside the unit, which produced tones the television recognized as "channel up," "channel down," sound on/off," or "power on/off."
Introduced as the "Space Command" by Zenith in 1956, the ultrasound remote control became standard equipment for television viewing for more than a quarter century. Adler's device was sold with more than nine million televisions before the advent of infrared technology in the 1980s.
The above information was supplied by the National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation, Inc., Room 1D01-Crystal Plaza 3, 2021 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington, Virginia 22202. Videotapes and printed materials are currently available. For more information, visit the Foundation's web site at: http://www.invent.org
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