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I've often wondered why I need remote control units for the TV, stereo, air conditioner, VCR *and* a mobile 'phone.
Since mobiles are becoming increasingly prevalent in our society it would surely make sense to equip them with a low powered IR transmitter to usurp the role of all of the other remote
control units?
They already have a numerical keypad, volume control and a decent battery pack. Surely this would be useful and reasonably simple to do?
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Also easy to find when you lose them (assuming you have another phone in your house). My phone has IR and Bluetooth, but I've not yet used either (I only had it a few days). These functions seem to be for (1) using phone as a modem, (2) games with other phones, (3) printing stuff with an IR-equipped printer, but nothing as useful as this idea. |
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I don't mean to be rude, but:
We need so many remote control units because (a) we allow these machines to dominate much of our lives and (b) we are too lazy to get up and change the channel/volume at the set.
You are right that it would make sense to combine all our labour saving devices into one thig, and that is already possible. But there is also a matter of principle at stake here - couchpotatoising our entire society!
technical issues: could you talk on the phone while other members of your family wanted to change channel? could you channel-flick in one room while junior was putting a CD on in another? could you have different family mobile phones directing all the same appliances? would you have no remote control left, if your mobile phone was stolen when you were out of the house? |
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[sappho], I agree with you on all of these points. For the record:
I don't watch TV, but my TV is a video projector which puts an image 1600 x x900 on the loungeroom wall. It is mounted to the ceiling. I'm 6ft, but not tall enough to reach it.
The VCR doesn't work, but I will have to get it fixed sooner or later, for the kids.
The remote for the stereo doesn't work, for whatever reason
The airconditioner manual controls are 9ft above floor level
My mobile bill is about $400 per month, so the thing is usually on my person at that rate of usage (@ 14c/min) |
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That last comment was what drew me to the conclusion this could be useful. I'm only thinking of others, as usual. |
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I've often thought this too. My mobile has IR, but I can't (yet) effect any of the ir fitted devices in my house, with the exception of my laptop. Definately good though, I have - at the last count - some nine remote controls, mostly for my stereo. At any given point I have no idea where half of them are, but I always kn ow where my mobile is. And I can always find my mobile should it get lost by ringing it. So doubley useful. |
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You forgot garage door opener. |
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Extrapolating from what [pottedstu] said, get everyone in the family a cell phone (through the phone company's family plan or whatever). Set up one phone to run the various household appliances and use Bluetooth/IR to copy the RC configuration to the other phones. Now everyone has their own cell phone/remote control - and they're all set up identically. |
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I have a watch that can act as a remote for quite a few different TVs and videos (more if you can be bothered to program it using the tiny little buttons)... So I guess this wouldn't be too hard to include as a basic feature on a mass-produced phone... |
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I've got a great remote for nearly anything I want and it features speaker-independent voice recognition, too: my 6 year old son. |
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You go [bristolz]. I used to have one too. Then she turned 8 and stopped working. |
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