This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
My grandmother had one of these.
I somehow discovered that if I took this magnetic screwdriver, and this bent piece of coat hanger and slapped them together, her tv would turn off.
I fucked with her so much she took her tv to a repair shop because she thought it was broken.
Good times.
I think this is hacking in its purest form. You’ve discovered a new way to do something unexpected, and you went ahead with it just because you could.
We had one of those TVs when I was a kid... and our dog had one of those metal link collars, and when she would shake her head the TV would change channels, and the volume would change. :). I had forgotten all about that.
Yep, my neighborhood friend had one. I discovered that my keys, when shook, would hit the frequencies to do stuff too. His dad was annoyed by it and I don’t know if he figured out how his TV would spontaneously change to channels
Reminds me of getting trolled by my friend with an IR blaster on his phone. Took me way too long to catch on. Simpler times...
My grandpa had a tv store around the time, and he always told the story of him pulling someone's leg by making them believe the tv was voice activated, with that thing in his pocket. So he covered the click sound by yelling at the tv.
I like your grandpa.
I once told my friend that my car was self driving. Little did she know I was driving with my knee.
God I love learning about analog tech! Very creative design!
You'd love Technology Connections on YouTube if you haven't seen him already.
It just feels so much more clever than the modern stuff, even if it's much more complicated overall now.
Funny, when I was a little kid my grandmother had a Zenith TV with that exact remote. I still remember the long throw and clank of those buttons. TV remotes were uncommon then so I thought it was the coolest thing ever. Yeah dating myself here.
"Again, it required no batteries — much desired by Zenith, as the company didn’t want customers to think a TV was broken when the battery died."
Was this really that big of a concern? Did people really think that LMAO
In a world where remotes are scarce, I could see how this would be a concern, yes.
Layer 8 issues occur all the time.
What's layer 8
Its a play on the 7 layer OSI Model. Layer 8 would be the user, also known as an ID-10T (idiot) or PEBKAC (problem exists between keyboard and chair).
If you're planning on selling 1 million units, a half of a percent of people making that mistake means a big headache.
Even today, in tech support, the issue is very often the user
Yeah, makes sense now that I think about it. People are always dumber than you think
Interesting purely mechanical design. Our first remote (that didn't have a cable connection) used sound as well, but it was battery powered and as a kid, I could hear at least some of those sounds. It had way more than just 4 buttons though, maybe the mechanical design hits a limit there at some point (or electronics just got cheaper).
Would it have been possible for the speakers of the time to emit those frequencies? Imagining the equivalent of a Twitch raid: "I'm done broadcasting so I'm going to send you to the next channel."
Not really sure, doesn't seem like they'd bother to deaign speakers that make sounds we can't hear or broadcast them but that doesn't mean it wasn't possible
We had a TV that used ultrasonic sound to control the TV, When I was young I could fairly hear the tone from a couple of the buttons, though super faintly, but the dog would cock its head when certain buttons were used.
Quite ingenious and simple design, even considering the limitations of the time.
That looks like it was so satisfying to click.
This is a really neat way to pull off remote technology. I wonder if there are still any applications for this type of ultrasound remote tech.
I remember people claiming they could activate these by flexing cans.
If you’ve ever heard someone refer to a TV remote as a “clicker,”
I say this to my son sometimes. "Throw me the clicker." The first time he looked at me like WTF are you talking about. Told him it's another name for the remote, but didn't tell him why, so he still has no idea
I know this is about the tech, but OP's name is just cracking me up. Thank you @FartsWithAnAccent
Rimjob Steve moment
I thought this thing was a gag at first, but that's actually really clever. I wonder if dogs would hate it.
My parents had an appliance/electronics shop when I was growing up and they took used items on trade occasionally. Someone turned in one of those zenith sets and I actually got to use that remote. Bear in mind we were well into the age of infrared remotes by this point (late 80s).
It was definitely interesting and I think I could just distinguish the difference between the sounds of the buttons.
Old-school tech came up with some of the most elegant solutions sometimes. This is quite neat, I wonder if it could be improved upon with modern signal processing.
