Turning Off TV

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By David Randall
Published: 18 February 2007

It is with profound regret that we report the death, at 93, of Robert Adler, the co-inventor of the TV remote. Millions of people would have loved the opportunity of asking him (a) what are some of those buttons for? And (b) where is it? We could have sworn we left on the sofa.

Adler, who rarely watched television, refined an earlier version, which used cables and was called the "Lazy Bones". In 1956, with a colleague, he came up with a wireless version, using high-frequency sound. The rest is couch-potato history.

During the Second World War, Adler specialised in military communications. He also held some 180 other patents.

His wife, Ingrid, said Adler wouldn't have chosen the remote control as his favourite invention. "He was a man who would dream ... and wake up and say, 'I just solved a problem'. He was always thinking science," she said.

Viewers wishing to pay their respects may wish to press the mute button for a minute's silence.