Friday Flashback: Advanced Technology

Many years ago, in the early 1990's, I worked for WordPerfect Corporation in its Advanced Technology Group. One project with which I was heavily involved was using a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) as a remote control for television.

I made a huge cardboard mock-up (about 3 feet by 18 inches and six inches thick) out of a cardboard box, with an image of the screen and controls pasted on the front. Also, we constructed a working prototype, using a PC connected to a universal remote control. The screen of the PC showed what would appear on the screen of the PDA, and the remote actually controlled a TV.

Now this has become reality! See this new app for the Apple iPad.

Other than the social networking feature (remember that our work was done before the Internet was widely known), we had foreseen all of the features shown in the video demo of this new app. Amazing what 20 years can do for technology maturation.