The buttons on Zenith’s original “clicker” remote were a mechanical marvel
The buttons on Zenith’s original “clicker” remote were a mechanical marvel
The Space Command fixed problems we still live with today.
My grandmother had one of these.
I somehow discovered that if I took this magnetic screwdriver, and this bent piece of coat hanger and slapped them together, her tv would turn off.
I fucked with her so much she took her tv to a repair shop because she thought it was broken.
Good times.
I think this is hacking in its purest form. You’ve discovered a new way to do something unexpected, and you went ahead with it just because you could.
Funny, when I was a little kid my grandmother had a Zenith TV with that exact remote. I still remember the long throw and clank of those buttons. TV remotes were uncommon then so I thought it was the coolest thing ever. Yeah dating myself here.
My grandpa had a tv store around the time, and he always told the story of him pulling someone's leg by making them believe the tv was voice activated, with that thing in his pocket. So he covered the click sound by yelling at the tv.
I like your grandpa.
I once told my friend that my car was self driving. Little did she know I was driving with my knee.
God I love learning about analog tech! Very creative design!
You'd love Technology Connections on YouTube if you haven't seen him already.
It just feels so much more clever than the modern stuff, even if it's much more complicated overall now.
Would it have been possible for the speakers of the time to emit those frequencies? Imagining the equivalent of a Twitch raid: "I'm done broadcasting so I'm going to send you to the next channel."
Possibly. Still nott as bad as, "Alexa, order a 12pack of dildos"
It would have been possible, but it would have been expensive and required electricity to work. The fact that they accomplished their goal with what amounts to a set of tiny spring-powered mechanical bells is a marvel.
I meant it more in the sense of one channel, when shutting down for the night, emitting the "next channel" tone such that every viewer's set would change to a channel that was still broadcasting.
Not really sure, doesn't seem like they'd bother to deaign speakers that make sounds we can't hear or broadcast them but that doesn't mean it wasn't possible
We had a TV that used ultrasonic sound to control the TV, When I was young I could fairly hear the tone from a couple of the buttons, though super faintly, but the dog would cock its head when certain buttons were used.
We had one of those TVs when I was a kid... and our dog had one of those metal link collars, and when she would shake her head the TV would change channels, and the volume would change. :). I had forgotten all about that.
Yep, my neighborhood friend had one. I discovered that my keys, when shook, would hit the frequencies to do stuff too. His dad was annoyed by it and I don’t know if he figured out how his TV would spontaneously change to channels
Reminds me of getting trolled by my friend with an IR blaster on his phone. Took me way too long to catch on. Simpler times...
"Again, it required no batteries — much desired by Zenith, as the company didn’t want customers to think a TV was broken when the battery died."
Was this really that big of a concern? Did people really think that LMAO
Even today, in tech support, the issue is very often the user
Yeah, makes sense now that I think about it. People are always dumber than you think
If you're planning on selling 1 million units, a half of a percent of people making that mistake means a big headache.
If you’ve ever heard someone refer to a TV remote as a “clicker,”
I say this to my son sometimes. "Throw me the clicker." The first time he looked at me like WTF are you talking about. Told him it's another name for the remote, but didn't tell him why, so he still has no idea
That looks like it was so satisfying to click.
It requires a few pounds of pressure in my experience, which got hard on the thumb if you were rolling up more than a couple of channels.
This is a really neat way to pull off remote technology. I wonder if there are still any applications for this type of ultrasound remote tech.
Interesting purely mechanical design. Our first remote (that didn't have a cable connection) used sound as well, but it was battery powered and as a kid, I could hear at least some of those sounds. It had way more than just 4 buttons though, maybe the mechanical design hits a limit there at some point (or electronics just got cheaper).
That was incredibly interesting.
My aunt and uncle still had a TV with one of these things when I was growing up in the 90s (the 70s version). The buttons had a distinct and satisfying click to them.
There was only one volume button, and and each press would turn up the volume in 3-4 steps and then cycle around to mute. You couldn't turn the volume down without turning it up first. If you wanted more fine control you still had to get up and adjust the volume knob on the set.
I wonder what my aunt and uncle eventually did with that big old box. It belongs in a museum.
Quite ingenious and simple design, even considering the limitations of the time.
I thought this thing was a gag at first, but that's actually really clever. I wonder if dogs would hate it.
The article does indicate that animals were sensitive to the noises:
"It did have its flaws: people found that jingling keys or coins could be picked up by the TV’s microphones and accidentally change the channel, and the high-pitch frequencies from the remote were discernible by pets."
Old-school tech came up with some of the most elegant solutions sometimes. This is quite neat, I wonder if it could be improved upon with modern signal processing.
When I was a kid, I owned a remote control van called the Max Machine. It was sonic, but not ultrasonic. It had a remote with one button that made a loud "clack" when you pressed it. A clack would turn the front wheels left, another would turn them back to the center, another would turn them right, and so on...
The clacking drove my parents crazy. Here's a link: https://flashbak.com/powered-fun-thrills-remembering-schapers-telesonic-toys-mid-1970s-53252/
I guess you could also include "the clapper" among sonically-controlled items. It also had one of the most annoying jingles ever: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRWtFVFSx5I
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=sRWtFVFSx5I
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.
My parents had an appliance/electronics shop when I was growing up and they took used items on trade occasionally. Someone turned in one of those zenith sets and I actually got to use that remote. Bear in mind we were well into the age of infrared remotes by this point (late 80s).
It was definitely interesting and I think I could just distinguish the difference between the sounds of the buttons.
Genius is in simplicity