Inventor of the world’s greatest invention dies aged 93
The inventor of the the world’s greatest invention, the TV remote control, has died aged 93. Dr Robert Adler, a prolific inventor and a long-time employee of Zenith Electronics, died of heart failure in Boise, Idaho.
Dr Adler’s “Space Command” ultrasonic remote control for TV sets was introduced by Zenith in 1956. He received the 1958 Outstanding Technical Achievement Award of the Institute of Radio Engineers (now the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers or IEEE) for his “original work on ultrasonic remote controls” for television.
Dr Adler’s work in the area of TV remote control spared millions and millions of couch potatoes the inconvenience of having to get up from the lounge to change TV channels.
While Dr Adler is best known as co-inventor of the wireless TV remote control (with fellow Zenith engineer Eugene Polley), he was actually responsible for a large number of significant scientific contributions to the electronics industry, including landmark inventions in the field of consumer products and in sophisticated specialized communications equipment.
A prolific inventor with a seemingly never-ending thirst for knowledge, his pioneering developments spanned from the Golden Age of Television into the High-Definition Era, earning him more than 180 US patents.
For example, Dr Adler also pioneered the use of SAW technology for touch screens. Touch screens employing principles he originated are now in widespread use in airport kiosks and in museums such as the Holocaust Museum in Washington, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, the Milwaukee Art Museum, and the San Jose (Calif.) Technology Museum, among others.
The US Patent and Trademark Office published his most recent patent application, for advances in touch-screen technology, on February 1.
Dr Adler’s six-decade career with Zenith Electronics Corporation began in 1941 when he joined Zenith’s research division after receiving his PhD degree in physics from the University of Vienna in 1937.
He was named associate director in 1952, vice president in 1959, and vice president and director of research in 1963. He retired as research vice president in 1979, and served Zenith as a technical consultant until 1999, when Zenith merged with LG Electronics.
“Bob Adler was an unparalleled technical contributor, leader, adviser and teacher,” said Jerry K. Pearlman, retired Zenith chairman and CEO, who knew Dr. Adler for 35 years.
“His gifts and passions were many, his mentoring matchless and his ego totally nonexistent.”
A world traveler for both business and pleasure, he was fluent in German, English and French. He was an active participant in a Chicago-area French Club in the Chicago area for 35 years. He was as passionate about hiking and skiing as he was about science and the arts. He was an avid downhill skier until age 89, and was still hiking in the past year.
Doctor Adler is survived by his wife Ingrid (nee Koch) Adler.
Related Posts:
February 19th, 2007
That’s really very sad. I’ll remember Dr Adler everytime I change channel.
August 15th, 2007
Not to be disrespectful, but… world’s greatest invention? What a joke.
I’m sure he was exceptionally intelligent, humble, and a great person all-round, and his lifestyle is definitely something to be emulated – especially by those who make use of the remote control. But an invention that has contributed, however much, to lethargy in the 21st century global population is hardly something to be praised, and grieving the loss of its inventor for the sake of his invention is nothing short of ridiculous.
I harp, I know. But seeing as I no longer watch television, and am better off for it, I think I’m entitled to deliver a comment from the other side of the fence.