Wednesday, Google TV announced their new remote control application for Android devices. This comes as no surprise, and not just because Android is Google’s mobile platform.

Mobile devices are fast-becoming the remote controls of the future. Look in the iTunes store or Android marketplace… There’s definitely a growing trend. Loads of mobile apps are being introduced, to help us quickly manage our home entertainment equipments as well as find and view content.

The app, available in the Android marketplace, allows users to control their program guides, access their DVRs and send content from the mobile device directly to the TV.

Perhaps a bit more interesting are some of the other features – apart from the standard TV remote options (like changing channels or accessing your DVR). Using the Google TV remote app for Android, you can now interact with your TV in ways you never have before. For instance, try using the integrated voice search which allows you to find your favorite shows and movies just by speaking into your Android phone. Pretty slick.

Watch the official Google TV demo of the Android app:

Internet+TV= A Big Deal

It looks like Google is taking a step in the right direction. There are numbers to prove it.

In November, Logitech and independent research firm Wakefield Research announced the results of the Global Remote Control Trends Study. The survey of seven countries from around the globe revealed that consumers are ready for an entertainment overhaul when it comes to ease of use in the living room.

Nine of 10 (93 percent in America, 89 percent and higher globally) people believe their home-entertainment experience would be better if they could press a single button for their favorite feature film.

It makes perfect sense.

Tapping the touchscreen for our favorite movies is intuitive, not only because today’s mobile devices are smart and fast, or because touchscreens provide the perfect input device for the task. It’s because we’re using our touchscreen devices while watching TV anyway. Google TV is even adding voice control to the fray.

Google TV, Sony and Logitech aren’t the only companies up on the trend. Our beloved paid TV providers like AT&T, Dish Network, Comcast, Time Warner and Verizon have all launched or announced new apps for Android and iOS devices as a way to browse on-demand TV content.

This is all great. But what about the actual entertainment?

On-screen clutter disrupts real content.

If you recall, we’ve spoken before about the clutter on the Google TV screen. I don’t want to wait around while someone scrolls around ‘searching’ for something to watch. Doing that on the phone is just fine. It’s almost expected.

Clearly, ad-supported TV isn’t going anywhere. But please, remove that from the big screen. I want content.

A growing number of us are accessing the web, texting or chatting on our phones while we watch TV. We spend our entire day with these devices – so extending our TV viewing experience to the touchscreen and integrating voice commands just feels right.

But do we need the second-screen content on the TV screen? I think not.

And another thing…

I’ll close out with a quick rant. Indulge me for a moment…

Google TV doesn’t support Apple Quicktime video.

That’s just petty. Apple won’t play nice and support Flash video, so Google doesn’t want to take anyone to Apple generated content, in Quicktime. And to justify it by not supporting Microsoft content, in Silverlight either? C’mon.

I would have thought Google would be over that kind of tit for tat behavior. Grow up.

(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Supposedly an acoustic trigger could have remotely sealed the under sea oil well that is currently spilling 210,000 gallons of oil per day into the Gulf of Mexico.

Many news outlets are reporting that if British Petroleum had invested in this particular remote control technology, workers escaping from the burning BP rig on April 20 would have been able to send a signal more than a mile under water, causing 450-ton hydraulic rams to close off the well, almost immediately stopping the flow of oil.

Since they didn’t install an acoustic trigger, the people at BP are now shamefully watching their precious oil contaminate the once-beautiful Gulf, killing thousands of innocent sea creatures (as well as the price of  their stock).

So why didn’t BP have a remote valve shut-off system in place? Most of the reports I’ve seen and heard blame it on the $500,000 price tag for an acoustic trigger . I know what you’re thinking: “That’s one expensive remote!”

Do I hear crickets chirping?

Okay, so maybe you’re actually thinking about the environmental and economic devastation starting to take hold in the Gulf; but please take one more moment to further consider the remote control technology that “could have” saved the day.

Was  BP just trying to save a buck (er… 500,000 bucks) when they opted not to  install an acoustic trigger in their undersea drilling operation that’s now hemorrhaging oil into the Gulf? Maybe. But we should also consider the possibility that acoustic switches aren’t quite as foolproof as certain outraged lawmakers and media outlets would like us to believe.

These pricey switches are used voluntarily in many offshore drilling operations, and are required by law for drilling off the coast of Brazil and Norway. So why isn’t this technology required for offshore drilling in the US?

Consider one of the earliest everyday remote controls, Zenith’s Space Command, which first appeared in 1956. This remote used sound waves to control the television it was paired with. History tells us that sound control didn’t last long on land; but why?

Zenith’s Space Command fell out of favor because noise in the home environment—say the plunk of a child’s xylophone or a squealing little brother—often matched the frequencies for controlling the TV. Accidentally changing the channel or powering off was all too common.

Could competing sounds be the same reason acoustic triggers aren’t the most popular item in the offshore drilling safety toolbox?

In 2003, the U.S. Minerals Management Service commissioned a report on whether oil companies drilling offshore should be required to install an acoustic trigger for remote valve shut off.

The report concluded that,  “Acoustic systems are not recommended because they tend to be very costly, and there is insufficient data available on system reliability in the presence of a mud or gas plume.”

Hmmm… so it doesn’t really work?

I checked out the MMS report, and here’s what I discovered: the reason sound waves are not the preferred way to achieve remote control under water is same reason sound waves are not the preferred way to achieve remote control on land—acoustic signals leave too much room for error.

Under water, acoustic interference caused by the noise of a flowing oil well or a plume of mud can make the operation of an acoustic trigger unreliable.

It seems both land and sea are just too noisy for acoustic control to be especially effective. Other sounds can get in the way–skewing, blocking or mimicking actual commands.

In living rooms around the world, infrared light has been king of the remote control universe since the 1970s. Unfortunately for the little fishies of the Gulf (and every living thing on Earth),  IR isn’t a viable solution for triggering emergency shut-off valves deep in the ocean.

From “The Shining,” ©1980 Warner Bros

“91% of families fight over the remote.” So says Logitech in a study carried out last November. Among the findings, “72% of people have fallen out or argued over a remote control, 12% have thrown one and 7% have actually physically fought over one.” What’s got everyone so riled up about having total control over the TV?

Yesterday, the Saudi Gazette reported a married couple of three years ended their relationship over remote control “discord.” The husband filed for divorce after insisting his “own control over the remote control.”

Divorce over a remote control — yikes. But considering some other possible outcomes of an epic fight over the remote control, perhaps a divorce is getting off easy:

• After a 911-call about a violent argument over the TV in which a Waupun woman threw the remote at her boyfriend, the man punched the reporting police officer in the face, landing him a free vacation behind bars.
• In Minneapolis, a woman stabbed her boyfriend in the gut after disputing whether the couple was to watch a movie or a music video.
• In Hudson, Wisconsin, a 50-year-old man pushed her physically disabled wife into a wall after she turned off the TV on him.
• Have you heard about the Arlington woman who sliced open her boyfriends hand with a knife?
• Or the 10-year-old boy in Lucknow, who killed another 10-year-old boy with his brother’s pistol.
• In Hyderabad, an engineering college lecturer took her own life by hanging after her husband ignored her request to fix the remote.
• Another suicide occurred in New Delhi when a 20-year-old man hung himself after fighting with his brother over the remote.
• A Beijing man accidently killed his 12-year-old son with a broomstick while trying to put an end to a dispute between him and his younger brother over the remote.
• There have even been eerie encounters (of the supernatural kind?) when it comes to electronic death threats over who or what has control over this family’s living room.

I didn’t set out to write the most depressing blog post about TV remotes — ever, but this is the world we live in. Perhaps it wouldn’t hurt/kill us be a bad thing if we all came up with some self-affirmations to help calm down during commercial breaks. With the Halloween season of constant horror movies upon us, we might think twice before flipping that station.

Don’t touch that dial. No, seriously.

Does reality television make you sick? Me too… but not as much as the TV remote in the hospital bed can, apparently.

Microbiology Professor Chuck Gerba — “The Germ Doctor” says that the TV remote harbors more bacteria than “the toilet bowl handle, bathroom door and call buttons, among others. Even more disturbing is the detection of Methicillin-Resistent Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) on the remote control. As an antibiotic- resistant bacteria, MRSA is a leading cause of infection and death in hospitals.”

Wait, what? The most dangerous thing in the patients room is the TV remote? Mom always said TV would rot my brain, but I never thought it could kill me.

The University of Arizona carried out the study, finding “the total average bacteria on sites in the hospital room were 91, compared to the average for the remote controls at 320. The sites tested included the hand rail, call button, tray table, door knob in/out, bath door out, faucet handle and flush handle.”

Study Results:

• The average total bacteria on the remote controls was 320.
• The average total bacteria on sites in the hospital room was 91.
• The average total bacteria on newly opened disposable remotes was 8.35.
• There was no detection of Staphylococcus Aureus on newly opened disposable remotes.
• MRSA bacteria were present on television remote controls in patient hospital rooms.

Nothing like a little death-by-remote to start the morning off… Luckily we don’t all live in hospital beds, though one might wonder what critters reside on the family remote surface, unbeknownst to the human eye. Time to grab that anti-bacterial cream or perhaps it’s time to consider a personal remote to limit the exposure to germs to your very own.

It’s 3:51 PM: do you know where your remote is?

According to a new poll, chances are nay. Sky, UK’s leading entertainment and communications company has conducted a poll of 4,000 viewers on their TV remote control habits.

Among the findings…

“The average viewer loses it an average of 3.2 times a week and spends more than four minutes looking for it each time.

That means each week we spend 15 minutes hunting for the pesky little device – nearly 13 hours each year – or 31 days during the average adult lifetime.”

A whole month spent looking for your TV remote? Preposterous, you say? Consider this: in a separate study, Neilsen found the average American watches 151 hours of TV a month.  I guess when it’s put that way, it doesn’t seem SO bad… unless its one minute til the season finale of “Lost”… and you’ve got three kids… AND a teething puppy…

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.