Remote control co-inventor Robert Adler dies at 93

CHICAGO: Robert Adler, the co-inventor of the wireless television remote control, has died at the age of 93 in Idaho, Zenith Electronics said in a statement on Saturday.

Adler, who died on Thursday, was a prolific inventor who held more than 180 US patents.

His best-known and arguably most fought-over invention was the TV remote control he developed with Euguene Polley, introduced by Zenith in 1956.

Adler had a six-decade career with Zenith. He joined the company in 1941, working with its research division after receiving his doctorate in physics from the University of Vienna in 1937.

The US Patent and Trademark Office published Adler's most recent patent application, for new developments in touch-screen technology, on February 1.

"Bob Adler was an unparalleled technical contributor, leader, adviser and teacher," said Jerry Pearlman, retired Zenith chairman and CEO, who knew Adler for 35 years.

"His gifts and passions were many, his mentoring matchless and his ego totally nonexistent."

Adler won the 1958 Outstanding Technical Achievement Award of the Institute of Radio Engineers (now the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) for his original work on ultrasonic remote controls for television.