Inventor of TV remote;
Born: November 29, 1915; Died: May 20, 2012.
Eugene Polley, who has died aged 96, was the inventor of the first wireless TV remote, which began as a luxury but, with the introduction of hundreds of channels and viewing technologies, became a necessity.
In 1955 he introduced American consumers to the new Zenith television with Flash-Matic tuning, the precursor of today's ubiquitous devices. The TV came with a green ray gun-shaped contraption with a red trigger. The advertising promised "TV miracles". The "flash tuner" was "absolutely harmless to humans!" Most intriguing of all: "You can even shut off annoying commercials while the picture remains on the screen."
Mr Polley was proud of his invention even late in life. He showed visitors at his assisted-living apartment his original Flash-Matic and how it had evolved into the technology of today. He was a proud owner of a flat-screen TV and modern remote but always kept his original control with him.
Mr Polley's Flash-Matic pointed a beam of light at photo cells in the corners of the television screen. Each corner activated a different function, turning the picture and sound off and on, and changing the channels.
Chicago-bor Mr Polley and fellow Zenith engineer Robert Adler were honoured in 1997 with an Emmy for their work in pioneering TV remotes. In 2009 he received the Masaru Ibuka Consumer Electronics Award from the Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers.
Beyond keeping TV viewers pinned to their chairs, his invention unchained technology from mechanical knobs and levers, opening vast possibilities and it has been argued that his idea helped bring in the modern era of electronic communications by going beyond the physical dial.
During his 47-year career as an engineer, Mr Polley earned 18 US patents. At Zenith (now owned by LG Electronics), he worked his way up from the stockroom. He also worked on radar advances for the US Department of Defense during the Second World War. He helped develop the push-button radio for automobiles and the video disk, a forerunner of today's DVD.
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