Robert Adler, best known as a co-inventor of the first successful television remote control, died Feb. 15 at the age of 93. The "Father of the Clicker" worked at Zenith for almost 60 years and held nearly 200 patents.
Here's a look at the clicker's past and also some of its more interesting new iterations from CNET's gadget Web site and other sources. Adler's "Space Command" wasn't the first TV remote or wireless TV remote, but it was the first that actually worked. When Zenith asked its scientists to invent a wireless television remote that didn't rely on batteries, Adler came up with the idea of using ultrasonics or high-frequency sounds to trigger the device.
When clicking on one of four buttons on Space Command, a small hammer is released that strikes a 2.5-inch aluminum rod. The sound wave produced is beyond a human's hearing range and prompts a tuner inside the set to change channels up or down and turn the TV on or off.
This clicker went into production in the fall of 1956. Left is the original Space Command as it appeared in a 1957 ad featuring TV stars George Burns and Gracie Allen.
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