Early this year, we bought a new Sony plasma TV. The TV came with a remote that uses radio transmission instead of infrared. At first I just thought it will be a big TV, I soon realized that it frees us from certain interaction styles we used to have.
First of all, with radio, we no longer need to lift the remote up. You can simply keep the remote on a flat surface and it works properly. Secondly, the angle does not matter either, you can even have your back or side against TV, but the remote will still work. And we also do not need to lean forward every time we change the channel. This is really useful, since the TV is getting bigger, allowing us to watch TV from a further distance.
The evolution of remote is subtle, but when I think of the days there was no remote, when I was often scolded by my mother for being too close to the TV, I feel that we have come a long way.
I created the above image to describe an anonymous family, but unconsciously it became more like the one of my own. The one who is benefiting from this evolution, is clearly, me, the mom.
