Ever since they first went on sale in 1952, remote controls have become an integral part of our daily lives. They’re strewn across our coffee tables, tucked into kitchen drawers and stuffed behind the backs of our sofas, and we use them to control everything from our televisions to our heating systems.
The remote control was arguably the first invention that truly defined the importance of a great user experience within technology. It was a simple solution to a problem that had bugged lots of television owners, and it consequently made those people’s lives easier. But this solution took time to perfect.
The very first television remote control, the Lazy Bones, was an expensive piece of kit that connected to the TV via a cable that users seemingly found impossible not to trip over. A later wireless iteration, the Flash-Matic, worked by shining a flashlight on four photocells - one in each corner of the television display. The Flash-Matic almost worked perfectly, but its inventor Eugene Polley didn’t foresee that sunlight would interfere with the photocells, and so a particularly bright day would cause the TV to behave like a child after too many fizzy drinks.
After much experimentation and trial-and-error, a man named Dr. Robert Adler invented the Zenith Space Command, a remote control that communicated with the television via ultrasonic technology, which proved to be far more effective. Ultrasonic became the industry standard for the next 25 years, until infrared was introduced and took over in the early 80s. To this day, infrared continues to be the choice for remote control manufacturers globally.
Nowadays, the remote control has a whole new kind of challenge to face. The popularity of Smart TVs means that we use them just as much for browsing the internet as we do for catching up on the six o’clock news, and so the remote has had to adapt in order to accommodate these new viewing habits. Who wants to spend ten minutes searching for something on Netflix with those clunky buttons?
And so we invented the One-Flick Remote. By reimaging the whole design of the classic remote control from the ground up, we’ve made it smaller and sleeker, and the buttons have been replaced with an intuitive touchpad which makes it a breeze to navigate between apps and menus on your TV.
But technology keeps on moving at a rapid pace, and so we continue to innovate, staying ahead of the game at all times. Selected models in our 2015 BRAVIA television range come equipped with Android TV, a brand new platform that puts the power of the TV remote onto your mobile phone. Android TV is built around Google’s hugely-popular and easy-to-navigate Android operating system, and the intelligent Voice Search lets you search for films or Google anything that comes to your mind just by talking to the TV, adding a whole new layer to the user experience.
In 50 years we’ve gone from controlling our TVs with clunky wired remotes to sleek smartphones and even our own voices. Who knows what might become the norm in the next 50 years.
