A remote control (also referred to as a "remote" or "controller")
is an electronic device used for the remote operation of a machine.
Remote controls are commonly used to issue commands from a distance to
televisions, DVD players, stereo systems, and other consumer electronics
devices. Remote controls for these devices are usually small, wireless,
hand held objects with an array of buttons to adjust such settings as
the television channel, track number, and volume. For the majority of
modern systems with this type of controller, the remote contains all the
function controls while the controlled device itself has only a handful
of essential primary controls. The controllers for electronic
appliances usually emit infrared signals that reach the appliance, but
some controllers emit radio frequency signals.
History
Early developments
One of the earliest examples of a remote control was developed in 1893, by Nikola Tesla. He described it in his patent, named Method of an Apparatus for Controlling Mechanism of Moving Vehicle or Vehicles.
In 1903, Leonardo Torres Quevedo presented the Telekino at the
Paris Academy of Science, accompanied by a brief, and conducted an
experimental demonstration. In the same year, he obtained patents for it
in France, Spain, Great Britain, and the United States. The Telekino
consisted of a robot that executed commands transmitted by
electromagnetic waves. In this manner, Torres pioneered the field of
remote control. In 1906, in the presence of the king and a large crowd
of observers, Torres successfully demonstrated the invention in the port
of Bilbao, guiding a boat from the shore. Later, he tried to apply the Telekino to projectiles and torpedoes, but he abandoned the project due to lack of funding.
The first remote-controlled model airplane was flown in 1932. During
World War II, intensive work was done on the use of remote control
technology for military purposes, and one result of that was the German
Wasserfall missile.
By the late 1930s, several radio manufacturers offered remote controls
for some of their higher-end models. Most of them were connected to the
set being controlled by wires. However, in 1939, the Philco Mystery
Control was manufactured as a battery-operated, low-frequency radio
transmitter, thus making it the first wireless remote control for a
consumer electronics device.
Television remote controls
The first remote intended to control a television set was developed by
Zenith Radio Corporation in 1950. The remote, officially called "Lazy
Bones," was connected to the television set by a wire. To improve on
this setup, a wireless remote control called "Flashmatic" was developed
in 1955, which worked by shining a beam of light onto a photoelectric
cell. Unfortunately, the cells did not distinguish between light from
the remote and light from other sources, and the Flashmatic had to be
pointed very accurately at the receiver.
In 1956, Robert Adler developed "Zenith Space Command," a wireless
remote. It was mechanical and used ultrasound to change the channel and
volume. When the user pushed a button on the remote control, it clicked
and struck a bar, hence the term "clicker." Each bar emitted a unique
frequency detected by circuits in the television set.
Invention of the transistor made it possible to produce cheaper
electronic remotes that contained a piezoelectric crystal fed by an
oscillating electric current at a frequency near or above the upper
threshold of human hearing, though still audible to dogs. The receiver
contained a microphone attached to a circuit that was tuned to the same
frequency. Some problems with this method were that the receiver could
be triggered accidentally by naturally occurring noises, and some
people, especially young women, could hear the piercing ultrasonic
signals. In one notable incident, a toy xylophone changed the channels
on these types of TVs because some of the overtones from the xylophone
matched the remote's ultrasonic frequency.
The impetus for a more complex type of TV remote control came in the
late 1970s, with the development of the Ceefax teletext service by the
BBC. Most commercial remote controls at that time had a limited number
of functions, sometimes as few as three: Next channel, previous channel,
and volume (with on/off). This type of control did not meet the needs
of teletext sets, where pages were identified with three-digit numbers. A
remote control to select teletext pages would need buttons for each
number from zero to nine, as well as other control functions, such as
switching from text to picture, and the normal TV controls of volume,
station, brightness, color intensity, and so on.
Early teletext sets used wired remote controls to select pages, but the
continuous use of the remote control required for teletext quickly
indicated the need for a wireless device. So, BBC engineers began talks
with one or two television manufacturers, leading to early prototypes
(around 1977-78) that could control a much larger number of functions.
ITT was one of the companies and later gave its name to the ITT protocol
of infrared communication.
Social effects of early television remote controls
In the 1950s, remotes were upgrade options for T.V. sets. Zenith,
mentioned above, was ready to change the lives of "lazy" people for
good. The initial purpose of the T.V. remote was to turn off the T.V.
set from afar and to change the channels or mute commercials. People
were told that the remote could turn off the T.V. while they were still
lying in their LaZBoy and thus could drift off to sleep without
interruption. A common complaint, however, was that people tripped on
the cable attached to those early remotes. Development of the Flashmatic
(Zenith's first wireless remote) took care of that problem, but it led
to another type of frustration: If sunlight hit the T.V. set, the
channel would change.
The remote gave viewers an opportunity to “arm” themselves with the
ability to change their minds about what they were watching, without
bothering to get up to change the channel.
The remote’s technology started something new for the everyday T.V.
viewer: The "joystick." The joystick allowed people to interact with
their T.V., going beyond the kinds of interactions they had earlier with
their television sets. Pong—the game in which people first used
joysticks—was based on Ping-Pong. This new technology gave T.V. viewers
the ability to manipulate pixels on the T.V. screen for the first time.
Invention of the remote control has led to various changes in television
programming. For example, it led to the creation of split screen
credits. According to James Gleick, an NBC research team discovered that
when the credits started rolling after a program, 25 percent of viewers
would change the channel before it was over. Because of this, the NBC
2000 unit invented the “squeeze and tease,” which squeezed the credits
onto one third of the screen while the final minutes of the broadcast
aired simultaneously.
The remote control also led to an adjustment in commercial airings.
Networks began to feel that they could not afford to have commercials
between programs because it would detract viewers from staying tuned in
on their channel. Programmers decided to place commercials in the middle
of programs to allow for direct transition into the next show.
Aware that people were equipped with remotes, networks cut 30-second
advertisement spots into segments of eight seconds or less. MTV was made
up of this high-speed and broken cutting style, which aired music
videos that were around three-minutes and each shot no more than two or
three seconds. When it was thought that even these three-minute segments
were too long, MTV created an animated series called Beavis and Butthead
to keep their viewers' attention. In the program, they would show
segments of music videos and then switch back to the characters and
offer dialog and action while the music video played in the background. Beavis and Butthead
was purposefully stagnant, with slow dialog and dependent on reaction
shots, but animation took the most management and pacing was found to be
"everything." The last fraction of a second of sound track was overlaid
with the first fraction of a second of the visual track for the next
scene.
Other remote controls
In the 1980s, Steve Wozniak of Apple Inc. started a company named CL 9.
Its purpose was to create a remote control that could operate multiple
electronic devices. The CORE (Controller Of Remote Equipment) unit, as
it was named, was introduced in the fall of 1987. The advantage of this
remote controller was that it could “learn” remote signals from various
other devices. It also had the ability to perform specific or multiple
functions at various times with its built-in clock. It was also the
first remote control that could be linked to a computer and loaded with
updated software code as needed.
The CORE unit never made a huge impact of the market. It was much too
cumbersome for the average user to program, but it received rave reviews
from those who could figure out how to program it. These obstacles
eventually led to the demise of CL 9, but one of its employees continued
the business under the name Celadon. This was one of the first
computer-controlled learning remote controls on the market.
By the early 2000s, the number of consumer electronic devices in most
homes greatly increased. According to the Consumer Electronics
Association, an average American home has four remotes. To operate a
home theater as many as five or six remotes may be required, including
one for cable or satellite receiver, VCR or digital video recorder, DVD
player, TV, and audio amplifier. Several of these remotes may need to be
used sequentially, but because there are no accepted interface
guidelines, the process is increasingly cumbersome. Many specialists,
including usability specialist Jakob Nielsen and Robert Adler, inventor
of the modern remote, have noted how confusing, unwieldy, and
frustrating the multiplying remotes have become.
Brief overview of the technology
Most remote controls for electronic appliances use a near infrared diode
to emit beams of light that reach the device. An LED emitting at a
wavelength of 940 nanometers (nm) is typical. This infrared light is
invisible to the human eye but carries signals that are detected by the
appliance as well as by the sensor of a digital camera. Some controllers
are operated via radio frequency signals. Remote controls for
electronic appliances are usually powered by small AAA or AA size
batteries.
For a single-channel (single-function, one-button) remote control, the
presence of a carrier signal can be used to trigger a function. For
multi-channel (multi-function) remote controls, more sophisticated
approaches are necessary, such as modulating the carrier with signals of
different frequency. After demodulation of the received signal, the
appropriate frequency filters are applied to separate the respective
signals. Nowadays, digital procedures are more commonly used. One can
often hear signals being modulated on the infrared carrier by operating a
remote control in very close proximity to an AM radio not tuned to a
station.
Standby power
To be turned on by a wireless remote, the controlled appliance must
always be partly on, consuming standby power. Studies indicate that
around 5-10 percent of domestic electricity is consumed by appliances
when they are off. In the average home, 75 percent of the electricity
used to power home electronics may be consumed when the appliances are
turned off.
Applications
Industry
Remote control is used for controlling substations, pump storage power
stations, and high-voltage direct current (HVDC) plants. In these cases,
PLC systems working in the longwave range are often used.
Emergencies
Remotely controlled machinery is useful for work in radioactive and
toxic environments, to prevent adverse health effects on human workers.
For example, remotely controlled robots were used during cleanup
operations after the Chernobyl disaster.
Military
In World War I, the Imperial German Navy employed FL-boats
(Fernlenkbootes) against coastal shipping. These were driven by internal
combustion engines, controlled remotely from a shore station through
several miles of wire wound on a spool on the boat. An aircraft was used
to signal directions to the shore station. EMBs carried a high
explosive charge in the bow and traveled at speeds of 30 knots.
During the 1930s, the Soviet Red Army used remotely controlled teletanks
in the Winter War against Finland and the early stages of the Great
Patriotic War. A teletank is controlled by radio from a control tank at a
distance of 500–1,500 meters, the two constituting a telemechanical group.
The Red Army fielded at least two teletank battalions at the beginning
of the Great Patriotic War. There were also remotely controlled cutters
and experimental remotely controlled planes in the Red Army.
Space
Remote control technology is used in space travel. For instance, the
Russian Lunokhod vehicles were remote-controlled from the ground.
However, direct remote control of space vehicles at great distances from
Earth is not practical because of increasing delay times of the
signals.
Video games
Video game consoles were not operated with wireless controllers until
recently, mainly because of the difficulty in playing the game while
keeping the infrared transmitter pointed at the console. Early wireless
controllers were cumbersome, and, when powered with alkaline batteries,
lasted only a few hours before needing replacement. Some wireless
controllers were produced by third parties, in most cases using a radio
link instead of infrared. Even these were very inconsistent, and in some
cases had transmission delays, making them virtually useless.
The first official wireless controller made by a first-party
manufacturer was the WaveBird for Nintendo Gamecube. The Wavebird
changed the face of wireless technology in video game consoles. In the
current generation of gaming consoles, wireless controllers have become
the standard.
Toys
Remote-controlled toys, such as racing cars, boats, and aircraft, are a favorite pastime for many people.
Toy airplanes
Remote-controlled airplanes serve as a great hobby for all ages. The
plane has the same fuselage as a real plane, and it flies just as well. A
small, electric motor generates thrust, and the wings are in airfoil
form that create high- and low-pressure regions to produce lift. The
operator on the ground controls the transmitter (radio), which sends
signals to the receiver on the plane. The receiver gives commands to the
rudder, ailerons, elevators, and so forth.
The plane is controlled by various channels. For example, channel 2 is
mostly for beginners and the plane is controlled through its rudder and
elevators. Channel 3, for beginners and experienced pilots, provides
control over the motor speed, which sets the pitch. Channel 4 helps
control the ailerons, allowing for smooth turns. Channels 5-8 are for
such controls as gearing up and down, but they are not essential.
There are different types of remote-controlled planes, including
biplanes, fixed wing, jets, turbine jets, and so forth, but they all
operate in the same way. The turbine plane is powered by a small turbine
that works the same way as a real turbine but is much smaller. This
"mini-turbine" is very powerful. The more common RC planes are operated
with electric or nitro power. RC planes come in wingspans ranging from 8
centimeters to more than 5 meters.
Although remote-controlled planes provide a lot of fun, there are tricks
on how to fly them and those who wish to begin this hobby need to read
the forums on which planes to buy and how to fly them.