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by MrEricSir 43 days ago
Not very reliable. The remote only had four buttons (volume up/down, channel up/down) and various sounds like kitchen appliances, flushing toilets, and jingling keys would be interpreted as remote control actions by the TV.

My grandfather had one; he seemed to find it more entertaining to talk to people about it than to actual use it.
1 comments
jacquesm 43 days ago
Blaupunkt (in the early 80s) had a similar system which was a lot more reliable also based on ultrasound, they used an encoding that was a bit less likely to show up in normal environmental sounds.
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mmooss 43 days ago
Doesn't / didn't Blaupunkt make hi-fidelity audio equipment? I would think the range of sounds output by its speakers would make finding distinct sounds difficult. Maybe their audio expertise came in handy.
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jacquesm 43 days ago
Yes, they did, but this was on a TV set, a - for the time - large color TV. It was a pretty weird little box, I have been searching but can't find an image for it.
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