The Father of the Couch Potato at the Consumer Electronics Show

Every once and awhile you get a project that makes you reflect upon the impact technology has on our lives. Recently, we interviewed Eugene Polley, a retired mechanical engineer at Zenith (now LG Electronics), who invented the wireless remote control back in 1950. We were hired by LG to tape an acceptance speech by Mr. Polley who was to receive an IEEE Masaru Ibuka Consumer Electronics Award for this work at C.E.S.

During the interview, Mr. Polley commented on being dubbed the “Father of the Couch Potato.” Yet if you think about it, he actually blazed the trail for a more recent wireless device that can hardly be considered passive: the Nintendo Wii Remote Controller.The Wii is getting people off their couches and using their televisions actively and collaboratively in ways unimaginable in 1950.

So who knows where the remote control will take us in the future?