TV-B-Gone is a little keychain-sized remote control that can turn off virtually any television. Press it's button, and it will turn off any of 209 brands of televisions within sight distance of its infrared eye.
Today's Wired does a story on Mitch Altman, the inventor of the TV-B-Gone who invented it to "improve conversation." Snippet:
"I was always squandering my time, energy and creativity on something that was at best benign," he said, in the suddenly quiet aisle at Best Buy. "I was always trying to get people to do something good. Some people do something for the disabled or something. But that's not really my thing, so I did this."
The idea for TV-B-Gone was born at a restaurant in the early 1990s, when Altman and his friends kept paying attention to a TV in the corner, not to one another. They chatted about how to turn off all televisions, and he wondered if it would be possible to string together a series of "power" commands.
Check out the story here.
Check out the TV-B-Gone here.
-aB
1 comment:
CBS News with Dan Rather did a segment on the TV-B-Gone last night, along with an interview of Mitch Altman the inventor.
He said that he had planned on only manufacturing 2000, but that he already has orders for 20,000 and they're coming in, thousands a day.
The segment wrapped with an interesting note. The same TV-B-Gone can also be used to turn on any TV, since it's the same infrared remote code that does both.
-aB
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