Robert Adler

Achievements
Adler was born in [[Vienna)1913. He earned a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Vienna in 1937. After emigrating to the United States, he began working at Zenith Electronics in the research division in 1941. In his lifetime, Adler was granted 58 US patents.
Contributions to the remote control
The invention Adler is best known for is the wireless remote control for televisions. While not the first remote control, its underlying technology was a vast improvement over previous remote control systems.
The "Flashmatic" remote control, invented by Eugene Polley, another engineer at Zenith, was the first wireless remote control, replacing the signal cable based remote control devices, which never were a success. The Flashmatic used directional flashlight in the transmitter device, and photo cells in the television set itself. One of the major shortcomings of this technology was that if the television set was exposed to direct sunlight, it could inadvertently trigger one of the remote control functions. The company president sent the engineers back to the drawing board to come up with a better solution.
A Zenith Space Commander 600 remote control.
A system based on radio waves was briefly considered but rejected because the signals could easily travel through walls and could inadvertently change the channel on a neighbor's television. Furthermore, the marketing people at Zenith desired a remote control which did not require batteries, as it was perceived at the time that if the battery died, the customer might think something was wrong with the television set itself.
Adler's solution was to use sound waves to transmit signals to the TV. The first remote control he developed, the "Space Command", used aluminum rods, analogous to tuning forks, struck by hammers toggled by the buttons on the device, to produce high-frequency tones that would be interpreted to control functions on the television set.
In the 1960s, Adler modified the remote control to use ultrasonic signals, a technology which went on to be used in television sets manufactured for the next 25 years, until replaced by infrared systems which could transmit more complex commands (but, alas, require batteries to run).
Professional accomplishments
By the time of his retirement from Zenith, officially in 1982, Adler was the company's Vice President and Director of Research. He remained a technical advisor to Zenith until 1999. In 1980, Adler was awarded the IEEE's Edison Medal. In 1997, Adler and Polley were jointly awarded an Emmy Award by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Adler's latest patent application was filed on October 6, 2006 for work on touch-screen technology .
Death
Robert Adler died in a Boise, Idaho nursing home of heart failure at age 94.
External links
Inventor of the Week Archive - Robert Adler
Robert Adler: Biography of the Inventor Who Made Life Easier for Couch Potatoes
Man who glued TV watchers to the couch dies
The Inventor Who Deserves a Sitting Ovation - The Washington Post
Robert Adler, 94; Engineer, Co-Inventor of TV Remote Control - The Washington Post
Obituary, The Independent, 22 February 2007
Obituary, The Daily Telegraph, 13 March 2007
Obituary and Archive of American Television interview description
Biography from IEEE
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IEEE Edison Medal
1976-2000
Murray Joslin (1976) Henri Busignies (1977) Daniel E. Noble (1978) Albert Rose (1979) Robert Adler (1980) C. Chapin Cutler (1981) Nathan Cohn (1982) Herman P. Schwan (1983) Eugene I. Gordon (1984) John D. Kraus (1985) James L. Flanagan (1986) Robert A. Henle (1987) James Ross MacDonald (1988) Nick Holonyak, Jr. (1989) Archie W. Straiton (1990) John Louis Moll (1991) George D. Forney (1992) James H. Pomerene (1993) Leslie A. Geddes (1994) Robert W. Lucky (1995) Floyd Dunn (1996) Esther M. Conwell (1997) Rolf Landauer (1998) Kees Schouhamer Immink (1999) Jun-ichi Nishizawa (2000)
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Categories: 1913 births | 2007 deaths | Austrian Jews | American inventors | American businesspeople | Emmy Award winners | People from Vienna | National Inventors Hall of Fame inductees | IEEE Edison Medal recipients | Deaths from heart failure | Jewish inventors

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