Remote Control Inventor Dies
By Darryl Wilkinson February 17, 2007 — The man who made the life of the couch potato possible, Dr. Robert Adler, died of heart failure on Feb. 15 in Boise, Idaho at the age of 93.

Dr. Adler has been widely recognized as the co-inventor (with Eugene Polley while both were working for Zenith) of the wireless TV remote control. The "Space Command" ultrasonic remote control was introduced by Zenith in 1956 but was later supplanted by remote controls using infrared technology. Together with Polley, he received an Emmy award 1997 from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for Zenith's introduction of the first wireless TV remote controls. He was a charter inductee in the Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame in 2000.

Some of Dr. Adler's other innovative work included

• the gated-beam tube which simplified the sound system in television receivers, improved reception, and lowered the cost of the sound channel;
• originating and developing a synchronizing circuit that helped provide greater stability in fringe TV reception areas (technological principles still used today);
• invention of the electron beam parametric amplifier (with Glen Wade of Stanford University) that was used by radio astronomers as well as by the US Air Force for long range missile detection;
• suggesting the use of surface acoustic waves (SAWs) in intermediate frequency filters for color television sets, a technology that has become universal in TVs and cell phone handsets;
• pioneering the use of SAW technology for touch screens;
• and writing a report entitled "An Optical Video Disc Player" (for which he received the IEEE 1974 Outstanding Technical Paper Award) that represented early work in what eventually became the DVD.

Dr. Adler was born in Vienna, Austria on December 4, 1913 and emigrated to the US in 1941 when he joined Zenith (now LG). He was quite active in the Chicago, Illinois cultural community. He traveled throughout the world and was fluent in German, English, and French. He was an avid downhill skier until he was 89 years old. He is survived by his wife Ingrid (nee Koch) Adler and an incredible legacy of engineering innovations.

The consumer electronics world of today would not have been the same without him. Anyone who picks up a remote control and enjoys a movie at home owes Dr. Adler a debt of gratitude.