Television Remote Control

Aldin Mujevic

The remote control in today’s society seems to be taken for granted. The focus is on television remotes, but there are so many different uses for remotes in today’s day and age. The people who developed certain controllers into other similar ones for different uses were great innovators, however the idea and invention was already there. It’s one thing to innovate based off of an invention, and it’s another thing to invent something.

When looking into the remote control, you can either look at two things. We can either look at the creator of a remote control, or the creator of the remote control for television.When looking into the prior, Nikola Tesla was the one who created the remote control.

He demonstrated a remote control he created while demonstrating a radio controlled torpedo boat. This was the beginning of the remote control from then on, however, it took until 1950, for a company to innovate that remote control. The Zenith Radio Corporation were the first to create the first wireless television remote control.

When looking into how something like a remote control would work, we need to break it up. There are two aspects to the remote control, the outside where you see aesthetics to the controller and the controls, obviously. The next aspect of it is the interior part of the controller, where its a bit more sophisticated than just buttons. When taking a look at the picture given on the right of this paragraph (1), you can see that it is a fairly standard piece of remote control technology.

The exterior is filled with buttons and organization to it as well. They aren’t just scattered. Each button is also placed on the controlled with reason because those are all commands that the producer of the controller saw as common needs for someone that operated a television. As you look from the top down, you see a power button which is quite obviously important, but it does have another color to it. It has a different color for multiple reasons. The button is obviously important, but with many types of technologies, the color red usually represents off, or an on and off switch, which in this case, it is. Next, it has a grid of number which are obviously needed for typing in channels manually, but could also be used for other things like passwords,   for example. You next have the volume and channels, which are buttons, but aren’t the same type. They’re in a sense, two buttons connected together. When pressing the top, you increase the volume or channel, and vice versa. Since increasing and decreasing channels and volume are connected commands, it would make sense that the majority of controllers have them together.

On the controller, one of the final important things that are on the exterior are the arrows. These are very important while navigating in menus to customize your tv’s sounds, screen settings and things like that. The arrows allow you to maneuver in menus and through guides as well. Other smaller buttons not mentioned like the “last” button, “fav” button, “guide” button, and “menu” button are all things that smaller for the reason that although they aren’t necessarily needed, it does make the experience for the viewer much more easier and enjoyable, so they were still placed on the controller.

The exterior part of the television remote control is quite simple, with just buttons, however the interior and how it works is a little more in depth than just button arrangement.

The way the interior parts of a controller are quite interesting. The way the controls are inputted are through the backs of the buttons that you press. The second the contact between the back of the button and the button contacts are made, code is then transported through copper to a piece of the controller where it interprets the inputs. After the inputs are interpreted by the code piece at the bottom as seen in figure 2, it is then sent back up to the infrared light at the top of the controller. Infrared light is invisible to the naked eye, which is actually very useful because if we could see it, it would seem as it you’re flashing a light at your television which could be quite annoying. The infrared light is sent out in specific pulses towards the television. That is why you need to point your controller towards your tv when using the controller. If angled badly, the television won’t receive your inputs well and it won’t work. When looking at the inside of a controller, it might seem very complicated, and although it is more sophisticated than the outside, it is still quite a simple technology.

Overall, the television controller is something that if you lose, either that be by sitting on it, or by getting it between your couch cushions, can make television a pain to watch without it. Although it isn’t necessarily an extremely sophisticated technology, it is extremely useful and does its job in making television not only more easy to enjoy, but operate and control as well.

References

Beschloss, Steven. “Object of Interest: Remote Control.” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 19   June 2017, www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/object-of-interest-remote-control.

“Remote Control.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 4 Apr. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_control#Opto_components_and_circuits.

Smooth, Mrs, et al. “Official LG USA | LG AKB74475401: Replacement TV Remote Control.” Official LG USA | LG AKB74475401: Replacement TV Remote Control, 12 July 2018, www.lg.com/us/tv-audio-video-accessories/lg-AKB74475401-tv-remote-contol.