Foobar2000 Copilot is a remote control mobile app. These days there are a myriad of apps in that category -- all allowing you to control 'something' from 'afar'. Whether it be your thermostat, TV, light dimmers, ceiling fan or your music, as is the case with Foobar2000 Copilot.

Increasingly our remotes have been virtualized into phone apps, versus being dedicated pieces of hardware, so your phone can now replace multiple hardware devices.

Feeling in a nostalgic mood recently, I purchased a Zenith Space Commander 400 remote off eBay, see it pictured next to my mobile app. This remote dates back to the early 1960's and was used to remote control Zenith TVs. This is one of the earliest incarnations of a remote control, and so all remotes, remote apps today can trace their lineage back to this initial idea.

The Space Commander 400 has a very retro look and historically the early 60's was the era of Sputnick and our early space efforts, hence the space commander reference.

But there is also something about holding the Space Commander remote today. It resonances with a sense that in its time so many have held and operated this device to get their news, to be entertained, to laugh, to relax, to learn, to have another window onto the world.

In the 1950's, Zenith started first with a wired remote called the Lazy Bones (that failed because of the tethered wire that you could trip over), followed by their light controlled remote the Flashmatic (but sunlight could affect it), before perfecting their ultrasonic technology which is what is used in the Space Commander 400. It is a purely mechanical device -- pressing a button triggers a small hammer that strikes a tuned tube that emits an ultrasonic sound that the Zenith TV responds to.

So not being battery powered, this remote should work today if you happen to still have a Zenith Space Commander TV.

People didn't want to constantly get out of their easy chairs to change a channel or change the volume on the TV. You could see how having to do so could quickly diminish your enjoyment of TV. 

TV wouldn't be what it is today without remote controls -- try to imagine a TV without a remote.

So regardless of whether or not this made us a nation of 'coach potatoes', the basic demand for this sort of convenience drove the design ethos.  

So you could say all our current remote control apps, including Foobar2000 Copilot, are derivative of this early Zenith remote control or any of the earlier devices used to control 'something' from 'afar'.  

It's always cool to see how the nucleus of an idea came into being, was nurtured and evolved into the technologies we have today...