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Robert Adler, the co-inventor of the TV remote control passed away February 15th.
The cause of death was heart failure at age 93. Apon hearing this, a fellow nursing home patient suggested putting new batteries in him to work again.

It was a sad day for many a couch potatos.

Adler spent a unheard of 60 years career with Zenith, and held 180 U.S. patents. He was best known for his Zenith Space Command remote control which was thought to be the last time someone would have to get up to change the channel, but was proven a little premature though because you still had to tell someone to go adjust the rabbit ears and hold their left arm up while kneeling on the ground, until the advent of cable.

Adler joined Zenith’s research division in 1941 after earning a doctorate in physics from the University of Vienna. He retired as research vice president in 1979, and served as a technical consultant until 1999, when Zenith merged with LG Electronics Inc.
He was a pioneer in Surface Acoustic Waves (SAW) tecnology. The same stuff that goes into touch screen technology, and even used in cell phones. Can you say “iPhone”?

The U.S. patent office published his most recent patent February 1st for advances in touch screen technology

Adler wished he had been recognized for more of his broad-ranging applications that were useful in the war and in space and were building blocks of other technology, but then again, the remote control changed the life of every man.

In a related note…, Police were called to a Long Island man’s house, and discovered the mummified remains of the resident, dead for more than a year, sitting in front of a blaring television set. (apparently he didn’t have a remote control)

The 70-year-old Hampton Bays, New York, resident, appeared to have died of natural causes. Police said his body was discovered on Thursday when they went to the house to investigate a report of a burst water pipe. Officials could not explain why the electricity had not been turned off, considering he had not been heard from since December 2005.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 18th, 2007 at 2:04 am and is filed under Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.