Magic aside, the “Lazy Bones” remote was connected to the TV by a clumsy wire. Zenith Founder-President Eugene F. McDonald then had a vision. With the belief that audiences would not tolerate commercials and that commercial television would soon collapse, he desired a wireless device that could mute all those irritating ads. Engineer Euguene Polley executed his vision and by 1955, introduced the birth of the first wireless remote control, “The Flash-o-Matic” (alas, the death to commercials remained fantasy). Operated by directional light beams, the “Flash-o-Matic” often confused other sources of light without being pointed directly at the receiver, thus paving way for the evolved “Space Command.”

In 1956, Zenith’s next evolution came from Robert Adler, developer of the first practical wireless remote, “Space Command.” With a tuner using four prongs producing ultrasonic waves, he managed to improve upon previous attempts by eliminating the wire, interference and need for a power source. The buttons, when clicked, would hit a bar emitting different frequencies that the television would pick up, hence the term “clicker.” This eventually ran into some issues with other objects that were capable of matching the same frequencies, changing channels and powering off and on at the plunk of a xylophone.

After “Space Command,” progress in remote control technology fell stagnant until the late 70’s, when BBC engineers developed infrared communication through their research with teletext. This allowed for more control functions (beyond the previous standard of next/previous channel, volume and power) and also led to the inception of a powerful, mutant of a device; the Universal Remote.

The universal remote was initially introduced by Phillips Magnavox in 1985, by software engineer, William McIntyre. Though, it wasn’t until 1987 when Apple’s Steve Wozniak brought the world the first programmable universal remote through his start up, CL 9. This version remote had macro capabilities and its settings could be uploaded to a computer.

Not much has changed since the adoption of infrared controllers. That is, until now. On the eve of the 25th anniversary of the TV remote, ThinkFlood, Inc. will unveil the future of universal control with RedEye; the first universal remote interface/software for the Apple iPhone/iPod Touch that controls your TV, DVD Player, Stereo and many other devices through a wireless connection. Not only can you control multiple devices to perform multiple activities, but with RedEye, you can control multiple rooms, even while not being in one.

And there we have it: a half century of the TV Remote. As technology marches forward, the definition of magic continues to evolve, and with ThinkFlood’s new RedEye, evolution is only one wireless software update away.