Eugene Polley

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Eugene Polley is the inventor of the remote control.

Eugene Polley was an employee of the Zenith Electronics, who came up with the Flashmatic, the industry's first wireless remote control in 1955. While it worked reasonably well, it did have limitations that kept it from being practical enough for everyday use.

The Flashmatic shined highly focused light beams on four receivers located around the screen. Viewers couldn't remember which corner did what, and sunlight could change channels. Once again, Zenith engineers took on the task to develop new approaches to wireless remote control.