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[-] devil_d0c@lemmy.world 58 points 1 year ago

God I love learning about analog tech! Very creative design!

[-] HackyHorse3000@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

You'd love Technology Connections on YouTube if you haven't seen him already.

[-] Obi@sopuli.xyz 8 points 1 year ago

It just feels so much more clever than the modern stuff, even if it's much more complicated overall now.

[-] rm_dash_r_star@lemm.ee 34 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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.

[-] LrdThndr@lemmy.world 33 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 11 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] itsAsin@sh.itjust.works 28 points 1 year ago

If you’ve ever heard someone refer to a TV remote as a “clicker,”

[-] Billy_Gnosis@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

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

[-] Ddhuud@lemmy.world 26 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] AzuleBlade@lemm.ee 10 points 1 year ago

I like your grandpa.

[-] SirSimonSpamalot@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

I once told my friend that my car was self driving. Little did she know I was driving with my knee.

[-] MayorMcCheese@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] Bootheal0179@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

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

[-] quicksand@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago

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...

[-] realaether@lemmy.world 22 points 1 year ago

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."

[-] Imgonnatrythis@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Possibly. Still nott as bad as, "Alexa, order a 12pack of dildos"

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[-] Hazdaz@lemmy.world 22 points 1 year ago

Modern design is boring and ugly as hell compared to what engineers and designers were able to come up with decades back.

[-] Dark_Blade@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago

Modern ‘design’ is all about pushing physicality and tactility out of the way, in an attempt to focus as much of your attention into your display as possible. As a result, everything aside from your screen has been ‘pushed aside’.

I get it, I really do…but it’s all so depressingly sterile.

[-] Hazdaz@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

There's a great YouTube channel of this younger guy who teaches design and he makes very good videos that dissect a lot of the BS design trends. One of them is taking the old school "less is more" type of thinking into a stupid extreme. He explains that far too many designers are missing the deeper meaning in that design ethos which ends up making the user experience MORR complicated all so they could save adding an extra button to make navigating the device's interface infinitely easier.

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[-] golli@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I think it also often simply boils down to cost. A cheap touch screen or capacitive button is much cheaper than adding durable buttons with a satisfying click

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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.

[-] FartsWithAnAccent@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago

I remember people claiming they could activate these by flexing cans.

That would make sense, flexing cans would create the ultrasonic noise the TV is listening for. Even still, I think it's a neat technology.

[-] FartsWithAnAccent@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

I think that kinda just makes it cooler. Lose the remote? Flex a can!

[-] Legendsofanus@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

"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

[-] killa44@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

Layer 8 issues occur all the time.

[-] Legendsofanus@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago
[-] sloppy_diffuser@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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).

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[-] a_new_sad_me@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

In a world where remotes are scarce, I could see how this would be a concern, yes.

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[-] A2PKXG@feddit.de 8 points 1 year ago

Even today, in tech support, the issue is very often the user

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_error

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[-] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

If you're planning on selling 1 million units, a half of a percent of people making that mistake means a big headache.

[-] Kushan@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

That's surprisingly cool

[-] HUMAN_TRASH@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

Damn that's interesting, I had heard of the light control but never these

[-] unixpoweredvic@lemmy.ca 11 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] kite@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

That looks like it was so satisfying to click.

[-] Veedem@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

That was incredibly interesting.

[-] Psythik@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

My aunt and uncle still had a TV with one of these things when I was growing up in the 90s (the 70s version). The buttons had a distinct and satisfying click to them.

There was only one volume button, and and each press would turn up the volume in 3-4 steps and then cycle around to mute. You couldn't turn the volume down without turning it up first. If you wanted more fine control you still had to get up and adjust the volume knob on the set.

I wonder what my aunt and uncle eventually did with that big old box. It belongs in a museum.

[-] ElPussyKangaroo@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I know this is about the tech, but OP's name is just cracking me up. Thank you @FartsWithAnAccent

[-] Thadrax@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

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).

[-] GooseFinger@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

I thought this thing was a gag at first, but that's actually really clever. I wonder if dogs would hate it.

[-] DrMango@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

The article does indicate that animals were sensitive to the noises:

"It did have its flaws: people found that jingling keys or coins could be picked up by the TV’s microphones and accidentally change the channel, and the high-pitch frequencies from the remote were discernible by pets."

[-] Korkki@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

Quite ingenious and simple design, even considering the limitations of the time.

[-] FaceDeer@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago

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.

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this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2023
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