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Remote controls are cool. Especially Doctor Who remote controls shaped like your favourite time traveller’s sonic screwdriver.
Yes, you’ll soon be able to use Time Lord technology to turn on your telly. Licensing.biz reports that a planned new remote control is based on the current green-glowing sonic screwdriver as wielded by the Eleventh Doctor, played by Matt Smith.
You’ll control your TARDIS — sorry, your telly — by waving the sonic screwdriver in the air in preset gestures. Flicking upwards, for example, could go up a channel, flicking left or right could skip a track, and making a small circle in the air could dial the volume up or down. In all there are 39 possible remote control options.
Sadly, it’s not sonic waves but infrared beams that tell your gadgets what to do. But you can control all kinds of entertainment systems from TVs and DVD or Blu-ray players to iPod docks. There’s no mention of locks, unfortunately.
The remote will be built by the Wand Company, the people behind a magic wand that controls your telly. The wand remote control first appeared on business begging show Dragons Den and allows you to switch channels, adjust volume and more with a wizardly flick of the wrist.
Cool as this is, it’s not a patch on the real thing — which could be closer than you think. Scientists are working on real-life versions of the sonic screwdriver, and the Star Trek tricorder too.
There’s no word yet on when the screwdriver remote will be available to buy. Meanwhile Doctor Who returns later this year with the seventh series since it was revived in 2005. The first episode will be called Asylum of the Daleks and will feature every type of Dalek featured in the series. It’s set to get its first screening on 14 August, but no date has been confirmed for when new episodes materialise on our TV screens.
Having originally begun in November 1963, next year marks the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who. The humble remote control is even older, created in 1955 by Eugene Polley, who died recently.
