Universal Remote Controls
This is the age of the universal remote control, the mother of all remote controls. Remote controls basically operate on the principle of unique codes that are transmitted from them to the receiving device, which recognizes the code and decodes it.
That is why your T.V., home theater system, DVD player and music system have their own separate remote controls. This leads to the problem of too many remotes, which causes confusion. Now this problem is solved with the universal remote control. You can feed the command codes of all your devices into one universal remote control and use it to control all their functions. Manuals accompanying universal remotes usually list the codes of different brands. Another wonderful invention is the learning remote, which automatically absorbs and stores the codes of other remotes (including universal remotes) and uses them to control their respective devices. All learning remotes are, therefore, universal remote controls as well.
Universal remote controls are super-intelligent, as they are driven by complex and sophisticated software. Imagine a scenario where the entire electrical wiring system of your house is wirelessly connected to your universal remote. Then, while you are sitting on your couch, you can set or reset the security alarm system, direct MP3 music to the speakers of your home theater and transfer your digital photos so that you can see them on your T.V. What's more, since your entire house is controlled through the universal remote, when you switch on your DVD player to watch a movie, the T.V. will be switched on automatically and even the lights will be appropriately dimmed. Impressive, isn't it?
All this is already happening in a few homes. Soon the ease and convenience of universal remote controls will be seen in more homes, doing away with the clutter of many separate sony universal remote codes controls and bringing a digital synergy between all appliances to create a truly intelligent home.
Today sitting on a couch, we can flip through hundreds of T.V. channels, tune the T.V. to suit our requirements and perform a host of other operations without moving an inch. The T.V. remote control has become an indispensable gadget.
The first T.V. remote, called Lazy Bones, was made in 1950 by the Zenith Corporation. It had a wire attached to it, which connected it to a motor inside the T.V. By pressing the buttons on the remote, viewers could move the motor in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction to move up or down channels. But the remote wire caused plenty of accidents, with people constantly tripping over them.
Subsequent developments led to the manufacture of the wireless remote, which used ultrasonic sound, and then the modern T.V. remote, which uses infrared light to send signals to the T.V. The low-frequency infrared light is invisible to the human eye and can only be detected by the T.V. receiver.