This is Eugene Polley.

He passed away this week at the age of 96.

If you don't know his name, you certainly know what he invented because he's the man who spawned millions of couch-potatoes.

How?

By inventing the first wireless television remote, the Zenith Flash-Matic.

Here's what it looked like:

It used a flashlight device to activate photo cells embedded in each corner of the TV to change the channel, adjust volume or turn the TV on and off.

The Flash-Matic was only available with Zenith televisions for one year, in 1955. Zenith had a hard time keeping up with demand for it, 30,000 televisions with the 'Flash-Matic' were sold.

The Flash-Matic, led to the more common remote control that most of us remember, the 'Space Command.'

The 'Space Command' used sound waves instead of light to transmit a signal to the set.

The 'Space Command' was made by Polley's colleague, Robert Adler and it is Adler who got all the credit for the first wireless remote, which irked Polley. 

'Space Command' may have been the second wireless remote, but it was much more popular, between 1956-1982, 9 million TV sets controlled by Space Command technolgy were sold.

Listen to Bill's segment about Eugene Polley.