It is impossible to test who invented the first remote control. But one of the earliest remote controllers was developed by an inventor named nikola tesla (1856-1943) in 1898 (U.S. Pat. No.61389), which was called "Method of and apparatus for controlling mechanism of moving vehicles or vehicles".
The earliest remote controller used to control TV was Zenith Electric Appliance Company of the United States (which was acquired by LG now), which was developed in 195s. At first, it could only connect to TV by cable. In 1955, eugene polley (1915-212), an engineer of the company, finally developed a wireless remote control device controlled by light beam for the first time, which was called "Flashmatic", and he was honored as the father of TV remote control for this invention.
Although this device can switch TV channels and adjust the volume, the receiver often can't tell whether the light beam comes from the remote control, and it must be completely aligned before it can be controlled. In 1956, Robert Adler (1913-27) improved and developed another remote control called "Zenith Space Command", which is also the first modern wireless remote control device. It uses ultrasonic waves to adjust the channel and volume. The frequency of each key is different, but this device may also be disturbed by ordinary ultrasonic waves, and some people and animals (such as dogs) listen to it.
in the 198s, when the semiconductor device for sending and receiving infrared rays was developed, it gradually replaced the ultrasonic control device. Even though other wireless transmission methods (such as Bluetooth) continue to be developed, this technology continues to be widely used until now.