For TV, the most important device for human-computer interaction is the remote control, which provides a lot of convenience for everyone. As TV functions have become more abundant in recent years, such as the addition of smart operating systems and Internet elements, making TVs more complicated, it seems that the remote control will be replaced by voice and mobile phone control.
Many people predict that the remote control will gradually disappear in the future. While lamenting that this invention that is of great convenience to people may be about to be replaced, we might as well look back at the development history of the remote control.
In 1950, the first wired/wireless remote control was born
In 1950, wired remote controls became a reality. An American electrical company named Zenith (later acquired by LG) developed the first TV remote control. At this time, the product was a wired remote control. Then in 1955, the same company mentioned earlier invented a wireless remote control device called "Flashmatic". However, this kind of device cannot distinguish whether the light beam is coming from the remote control, and it must be aligned to control it. Because it is not easy to control, it has not been recognized by the market and has become popular.
1956 Ultrasonic remote control was born
There are only four buttons on the ultrasonic remote control: volume mute, channel increase, channel decrease and switch
In 1956, Robert Adler developed a remote control called "Zenith Space Command", which uses ultrasonic waves to adjust the channel and volume, and the frequency of each button is different, but this device is also It may be disturbed by ordinary ultrasound, such as the sound of animals or ultrasound that other people cannot hear, so there are great limitations in its use.
1961 A true wireless remote control
It was not until 1961 that the idea of a multifunctional remote control finally became a reality. RCA Victor from the United States has produced the world's first wireless remote control. Although this wireless remote control is rather ridiculous in appearance, it is as thick as a brick. But in terms of functions, it is by no means lost to some of the later old remote control products, such as commonly used channel switching, sound size adjustment, and color and brightness adjustment functions. It can be said that it is the originator of today's remote control.
In 1980, low cost made the infrared remote control popular.
In 1980, when semiconductor devices for transmitting and receiving infrared rays were developed, infrared remote controllers gradually replaced ultrasonic remote controllers. However, the traditional infrared remote control has many disadvantages. For example, as the TV screen gradually increases, but the infrared receiving window becomes smaller and smaller, some new indoor lighting equipment and different installation methods of the TV will also interfere with the operation of the infrared receiving window of the remote control. Therefore, in order to solve this problem, as a giant in the home appliance industry, Sony Corporation of Japan finally took action.
In 2007, Sony released the RF radio frequency remote control
In 2007, Sony took the lead in adopting a new type of RF radio frequency remote control in its BRAVIA series, heralding the wireless communication standard entering the field of RF radio frequency remote control in the future. The RF radio frequency remote control changes not only the physical layer medium, but starts with the change of the physical layer. Various aspects such as the shape of the remote control, the types of buttons, and the types of controlled objects may change.
Sony TV released the world's first RF radio frequency remote control. At that time, Sony TV included two different remote controls. The left picture shows the new RF radio frequency, and the right picture shows the old infrared radio.
Therefore, we have also seen that the shape of the remote control has also changed from a traditional rod shape to a flat rectangle. The reason why infrared remote controllers are mostly elongated is that infrared rays need to point in the direction where the TV is located. The RF radio frequency remote control uses radio waves with less direct propagation, and basically does not need to point to the TV. Therefore, most of the current TV manufacturers have adopted the mainstream RF radio frequency remote control technology.
Will the remote control gradually disappear in the future?
Now many smart TVs have added powerful functions such as gesture control and voice control. There are even different methods that do not require a remote control, relying on voice, gestures, or camera somatosensory to control; or install and use Android through mobile phones or tablets. , IOS client virtual software to control.
Of course, in order to consider different user groups, such as the elderly or children, the manufacturers say that the remote control will not die out in a short time. However, one day in the future, we may be able to perform various operations by touching the holographic image control panel out of thin air, just like the plot in a science fiction movie.
