RIP Robert Adler
by DanInteraction design lost a pioneer last week when Robert Adler died in Boise, Idaho on Thursday. The name probably doesn’t ring a bell (there’s not even a wikipedia entry on him), although it should. Adler, along with Eugene Polley, designed The Space Command, which was the first wireless television remote control.
The Space Command was made in the 1950s when both men were working for Zenith. (They won a special Emmy for the invention in 1997.) But Adler didn’t stop there; he’s got over 180 patents, including one filed on February 1st (the guy was 93!) for a touch-screen technology. In fact, he pioneered the use of SAW technology for touch screens, they type of which are now in widespread use in airport kiosks and in museums. A 1974 paper of his on Optical Video Disc Players lead to the invention of DVDs.
Kudos to you, Dr. Adler, and rest in peace.
This entry was posted
on Saturday, February 17th, 2007 at 3:33 pm and is filed under Design Leaders, Interaction Design.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
This post is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
February 17th, 2007 at 10:50 pm
Interesting pics to go along with the news about Robert Adler. My grandparents had a Zenith TV with remote (my grandfather walked with crutches and couldn’t get up and change the channels easily) and I recall as a kid in the 1970s visiting their house and being allowed to use the tv with the remote control. So much simpler than the remotes today - 3 buttons to go forward or back and turn the TV off or on. We didn’t know we needed anything more.
February 18th, 2007 at 1:17 am
[...] adaptive path » blog » blog archive » RIP Robert Adler One guy came up with remote controls, DVDs, touch screens, and more. I probably use half a dozen things the guy invented every day. (tags: . rip design) [...]
February 18th, 2007 at 7:15 am
Looks like someone created one yesterday that is a pretty good start.
February 18th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
[...] Link: RIP Robert Adler (adaptivepath.com) [...]
February 26th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
For the record, a eulogy to Robert Adler did appear in People Magazine this week, not that i read it or anything…