The remote is fitted with a timer which counts the time left idle. Let's say, 24 hours for item used daily (garage door opener) or 1 hour, for items used oftener (television). When this time has elapsed, it activates its electro active polymer powered cilia and crawls towards it "home".
The remote will have on board a receiver and direction finding device and the controlled appliance will transmit a homing signal. Or else a separate "home transmitter" will be available for the place where you want the remote to be.
Next time you are at the beach and junior loses the garage opener just park in the driveway and wait. The missing article will arrive after a few days of patient crawling. If the battery does not run out. Or some teenager does not see fit to stomp on it. As the jurist did to the tarantarantulala . . .-- neelandan, Jun 07 2002 Better might be a seperate home...I'd rather my TV remote go to where I normally put it, rather than to the TV. <My croissant, by the way.>-- StarChaser, Jun 07 2002 The thought of all these roaming homing controls reminds me of the instance when as a teen-ager I witnessed hundreds of tarantulas crossing a little-used backroad en-masse. Needless to say, without getting out of the car, I did my best to dissuade them from their objective. (Read: Lots of smushed big spiders.) What's to keep the same fate by teenagers befalling the hordes of creeping-crawling garage door openers as they make their way homeward?-- jurist, Jun 07 2002 Separate home transmitter, for StarChaser, who wants the TV remote to gravitate towards his favourite chair.-- neelandan, Jun 07 2002 random, halfbakery