TV remote control's co-inventor dies

Boise, Idaho: Hit the mute button for a moment of silence: The co-inventor of the TV remote, Robert Adler, has died.

Adler, who won an Emmy Award along with fellow engineer Eugene Polley for the device, died on Thursday of heart failure at a Boise nursing home at 93, Zenith Electronics Corp said on Friday.

In his six-decade career with Zenith, Adler was a prolific inventor, earning more than 180 US patents. He was best known for his 1956 Zenith Space Command remote control, which helped make TV a truly sedentary pastime.

"People ask me all the time - 'Don't you feel guilty for it?' And I say that's ridiculous," he once said about his invention that stopped people from getting up from their couch in front of their TV.