Interactive technology in urgent need of change: Five sins of TV remote control

As most young users believe, no matter how manufacturers brag about the innovation of TV technology, it is impossible to stop the fact that TV is gradually becoming a living room decoration. This just proves the backwardness of the TV industry in the field of consumer electronics. When PCs, mobile phones, tablets and other electronic products have completed a round of revolution, TV still looks like an "antique" that cannot be reborn.

Some people believe that "the backwardness of interactive technology is the biggest obstacle to the production of revolutionary products in television." When television has completely become a display device, the picture quality of television is improving year by year, the size is getting bigger, and the audio equipment is also striving to be perfect. However, what does not match these advances is that when televisions become more and more intelligent and perfect, the remote control becomes more and more clumsy and difficult to use.

Let’s count the “five sins” of TV remote controls together with our readers.

The most complicated

Speaking of cumbersome, before the advent of smart TVs, most TV remote controls in the world were cumbersome. There were often 20 or 30 buttons, but the ones that were really commonly used were high-frequency buttons such as forward, backward, volume, and power on/off. This situation still exists today. No matter how advanced the smart TV consumers buy, as long as they connect a cable TV set-top box, a multi-button remote control becomes a must-have. If the unfortunate user has a non-smart TV at home, and has installed a set-top box and connected a TV box, then they must accept the reality that one TV obeys three remote controls.

Of course, there are even more bizarre manufacturers who have put a full keyboard design on their TV remote controls. The combination of nine Arabic numerals + twenty-six English letters + function keys is condensed on a remote control that can be controlled by the palm of your hand, instantly making users feel at a loss as to where to start.

The most difficult

The emergence of Nintendo Wii in those years really amazed many players, especially the design of the somatosensory remote control, which was once considered a disruptive product. However, the somatosensory remote control has not become the mainstream of TV control, including the common air mouse remote control on the market. Although the air mouse can already achieve the effect of pointing to a certain place, somatosensory control does not conform to people's TV usage habits. For example, when a user is curled up on the sofa watching TV, he only needs to move his fingers to use an ordinary remote control, but when using an air mouse, he needs to find a good posture and point it at the TV to select content. Therefore, somatosensory control is more suitable for players to stand up and play games, rather than watching content comfortably.

The funniest

Since the new generation of Apple TV added the voice recognition system Siri to the remote control, it is foreseeable that domestic TV manufacturers will follow suit and make voice recognition a standard feature of TV remote controls. However, the biggest technical challenge of voice recognition is still "recognition". Whether it can accurately identify who is the user of the TV, whether it can accurately find what the user needs, and whether it can eliminate external noise interference are all problems that need to be solved.

Another problem is that voice recognition is easy, but it is not easy to become Siri. For example, users can ask Siri about the weather, traffic, who won the game, etc. If you accidentally miss a sentence, you can also directly ask "What did you say just now?", and then Apple TV will automatically go back a few seconds. However, the current domestic voice recognition remote control is only at the level of "I can understand Mandarin".

The most useless

Although the current generation of Apple TV has added a touchpad to the remote control, it still cannot prevent the touchpad from becoming a useless feature of the remote control. Touch control is largely related to the TV UI design. If the TV interface logic is as complex as that of a PC, then precise touch is necessary. However, the current TV UI design tends to be simple and easy to use, with clear levels. The main application of TV is still watching video programs and playing games. At this time, the precise control of the touchpad is obviously not as good as the up, down, left, and right movements.

The most helpless

Mobile phone remote control is an application that TV manufacturers now consider when designing smart TVs. If TVs tend to become a single screen in the future, and content mainly comes from mobile devices, then mobile devices may become the only remote control for TVs, which is what we usually call screen projection.

When TVs were not completely reduced to screens, physical remote controls were still necessary. Without physical buttons, it was very difficult to operate a mobile phone by feeling, and it was very easy to make accidental touches. For children and the elderly, smartphones are not essential electronic devices. If they want to watch TV, they still need a simple physical remote control that is easy to learn and use.
The design concept of current home remote controls is still oriented towards traditional channel-centered live programs, so some numeric keypads are retained. As a result, remote controls have become too complicated and difficult to master, reducing the entertainment value of TV. Smart TVs, on the other hand, are more inclined to control innovation, simplifying the UI interface. However, remote controls such as touchpads, air mice, and full keyboards are based on operating the TV as if it were a PC. These remote controls have high positioning accuracy, but may not be suitable for TVs. With the popularization and development of smart TVs, the applications and functions of TVs are also increasing, and TV interactive technology will become one of the key points of competition for TV manufacturers in the future.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.