Just wondering if any of you might know what year the very first remote came in to use, and for what purpose. Also, was it completely wireless ect. Any help out there. I'm doing a report and could use a little info.
Thanks.
Greg M.

I don't have a lot of information, unfortunately, but here's something interesting I ran across while reading my favorite website The Straight Dope:

[Link: straightdope.com]

Apparently the first remotes worked with high frequency sounds, which meant you could duplicate remote commands on accident. In this case, a Slinky could do it.

And on a more personal note, our family's first VCR was a Beta, which had a remote that connected to the front of the VCR with a wire. I still have the Beta player and remote, although the player doesn't work anymore.

tim

Ditto my first remote on an RCA VCR - hard wired with very little functionality and maybe a 20-ft cord. I do remember the sonic remotes being advertised now that you mention it, but was not a possibility in my economic circle at the time.

The first remote was from Zenith in 1950, the "Lazy Bones". It was a simple wired remote which operated a motor on the TV's dials.

Next was the Zenith "Flash-o-Matic" in 1955, which was basically a flashlight you aimed at sensors on the four corners of the TV (so technically wireless). The problem was other lights could also activate the TV, which was a little inconvenient.

Then came out the Zenith "Space Command" in 1957. This was the first ultrasonic (not RF or UHF) remote control ever, and despite the apparant rapid growth of new technologies up until this point, the same system was into the 1980's when, finally, the first infrared remote came out.

The first remote I remember seeing, was in 1978ish at a friends house. He had a brand new sony betamax toploading VCR. The remote was hardwired, and about 20' long. He lived in a trailer park full of good neighbors and friends. There was an ongoing line of people "just stopping by" to see the new device and be amazed at it's remote control convenience.

Daniel seems to know the actual history. What is the first remote control YOU remember?

Dave

Greg M: Here are a couple of links that take you to the story of the first remote from Zenith, etc. The URLs also contain other links to stories about the first remote control and other remote control history. Kinda neat!

Click here and here.

...Greg :-)

Hmm, actually the first remote I had was to a Sears color TV... it was UHF. Had two buttons -- POWER/VOLUME and CHANNEL. When you hit POWER it toggled between three preset volume levels (which were determined by where you had the knob on the TV -- and whether the knob was in the ON position) and power off.

The CHANNEL button rotated through about 10 or so preset channels on the TV. Each preset button had separate tuning knobs in a hidden panel beside it -- you had to manually find each channel. Little plastic numbers slid into slots that were illuminated when that channel was active. Wanted more than 10 channels? Tough!

What was interesting was that each channel also had a touch-sensitive pad so you could randomly pick a channel when you were physically at the set. I recall it was quite the workhorse TV... kept on going for years and years.

I believe the first infrared remote I had was to a Zenith VHS VCR (also my first VCR) -- it was one of the first infrared ones out there. Didn't have a keypad on it, but you could power it on and off, go up and down channels, full transport controls, etc. The unit itself had a full keypad (one of the first digital random access tuners). Once again, it was quite a workhorse and kept on going for ages. But really REALLY slow!

Daniel: I know how old you are. You must have been using that first remote while breast feeding! ;-

LOL, well the set stayed around for a long time. :-)

In the 50s we got a new TV (can't remember the brand) with what was called the "clicker". The remote had two buttons, each of which generated a different (ha ha) "click". The volume button cycled around through a series of preset volume levels, while the channel button cycled through the standard VHF channels 2-13.

The sound generated was not particularly subtle; dropping a set of keys onto the floor would often change either the volume or the channel, at random.

To this day, we refer to any remote as a clicker.

Sounds like the Zenith "Space Command".