At CES 2014 in Las Vegas, Samsung announced a host of new products, including a new remote controller for the company's line of Smart TVs. The remote is similar to the Wiimote, which might be a good thing. With the new remote, Samsung chose to go with a more rounded design rather than the traditional curved edges and sharp corners. The company has also tweaked the trackpad to allow for four-way directional buttons. This move caused for an 80 percent decrease in size when compared to the model of last year.
While the ability to change channels and launch apps with voice commands is still present, it might take a back seat to an all-new motion control feature that does the same thing. Furthermore, the Korean giant was wise enough to add a button that allows for watching two programs side-by-side each other at the same time. This feature was not there in the previous model of the remote. Now, if you should be lucky enough to own Samsung's latest high-end smart TVs, then you would have realized that some of the features are already built into the TV.
It's really nice to see remotes evolve from just being a thing in the hand with a plethora of confusing buttons into something much more useful. What Samsung is doing here could change the way remotes are designed and what features they come with.
"As more and more functions are added to TVs, the remote control is also evolving to accommodate the added functions," said KwangKi Park, Executive Vice President of Visual Display (Sales and Marketing), Samsung Electronics. "We will continue to work so that our customers can use remote control more intuitively and easily."
While the remote is still one of the most popular gadgets in the living room, that might end with the introduction of voice recognition and hand gesture devices such as the Microsoft Kinect. There is not much one can do with the remote, and as time changes, the remote might one day become obsolete. That day isn't today, however, as voice commands and gestures are not at the point of perfection. Until that day comes, the remote is our friend.
