The buttons on Zenith’s original ‘clicker’ remote were a mechanical marvel

Ignacio@lemmy.ml to Technology@lemmy.ml – 252 points –
The buttons on Zenith’s original “clicker” remote were a mechanical marvel
theverge.com
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Those don't take batteries and your click generates the electricity for the signal. Right? Like a wind up radio.

No, it's a tuning fork that produces 4 seperate tones, one for each "button." The TV had a microphone listening for tones and would respond accordingly. You didn't actually have to point the remote at the TV, which later became a problem, as the mic on the TV was technically always listening for a tone.

Neat. I knew I could Cunningham Law this instead of doing research.

You can always count on fucking nerds to get excited about explaining something.

Cool. Now, where can we go to talk about CBB?

heynong.social? probably nowhere. or some weird earwolf forum.

Unfortunately, you violated the law slightly by asking a question!

Cunningham's Law states "the best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer."

Nope! It's the sound that does the work. The TV has a microphone in it.