Robert Adler, a US inventor best known for the creation of the couch potato's dream device, the TV remote control, has died at the age of 93.

He received an Emmy award in 1997 for the 1956 invention jointly with fellow engineer Eugene Polley.

Adler earned more than 180 US patents throughout his 58-year career.

His widow Ingrid said the remote was not his favourite invention, that he rarely watched television and was "more of a reader".

"He was a man who would dream in the night and wake up and say: 'I just solved a problem,'" she told the Associated Press news agency.

"He was always thinking science."

Adler began working for electronics corporation Zenith in 1941 and stayed at the company until a merger in 1999.

Zenith produced the first remote control device, attached to the TV by a cord, in 1950.

Later wireless devices communicated with the TV by flashing at photo cells in the TV, but these were affected by sunlight.

Adler's contribution was to create a device which used ultrasonic signals.

He was also known for his work on military communications equipment during World War II, and is considered a pioneer in surface acoustic wave technology, essential for modern-day TV and computer screens.

My dad sold Zenith Televisions when I was a little boy and I remember the ultrasonic remote that would chase the cat and dog out of the room.

Sad news Mr. Griffiths, but he brought great joy and an entire business culture to this world.

I had one of those Zenith ultrasonic remote TVs in my garage running, about 1975. It would have been a 10 year old TV at the time.

I pushed my Honda 500 into the garage and the TV started furiously changing channels. It stopped when I stopped pushing.

The front disc brake on the Honda had a light squeal to it, and it just happened to output on the ultrasonic frequency corresponding to channel up.

Those remotes, by the way, were mechanical at first. A button push would cause a spring loaded hammer to hit what looked like a small aluminum tube inside the remote, whose length apparently was tuned to the right frequency.

Later they were electronic, with tuning coils in the remote you aligned to the TVs receiving frequency with a "twiddler".

It's like deja vu all over again.

My bosses sat in on the transition meeting when LG bought Zenith. At the end of the power point where they discussed the pioneering achievements attributable to Zenith, he said "it's surprising that Zenith isn't buying LG!!"

Zenith's death knell was their commitment to keep manufacturing in the US far after it became apparent that this would no longer be competitive...

I remember when I was a kid my neighbors had one of the first ultrasonic remotes. It would make this metalic "KA-Cing" sound when the button was pushed. It had only 2 buttons ON/OFF and Channel. If I remember right the channel would only go one channel higher with each push then start again at the lowest channel (there were only channels 2, 4, 5, 7, 9 ,11 and 13 for us back then).

The funny part was when their dog ran across the room the metal tags on his dog collar would rattle and often cause the TV to turn off or change channel.

Yup, I had a Sears TV with mechanical ultrasonic remote when I was a kid... on/off/volume (one button) and channel up (only 12 possible channels to worry about, but boy when it annoying when you accidentially scrolled past the one you wanted). Could also turn on the dog by aiming the remote at her...

Could also cause random TV actions by jingling keys near the microphone.