Radio remote controls use radio waves to send commands to different devices. These are electromagnetic waves of varying frequencies, emitted through antennas and picked up by radio receivers.

Therefore, when you press a button on your radio remote, it sends radio waves to your music system, which decodes the signal and obeys your command. An amazing aspect of radio remotes is that they can send signals from greater distances, since radio waves travel as long as 100 feet to reach the receiver. They can even penetrate walls, and therefore an increasing number of modern appliances are now being designed with radio remotes.

Bluetooth technology also uses the principle of radio frequencies. For example, Bluetooth technology can interconnect your home theater system, mobile phone, music system, computer and television by using radio frequencies to send signals between them. It creates a wireless community of your gadgets that literally speak to each other. Every appliance works on different bands of frequency.

For example, alarm and security systems work at 40 megahertz, mobile phones between 824 to 849 megahertz and an air traffic radar at anywhere between 960 to 1,215 megahertz. Now the question arises that, if there are so many frequencies traveling in the air at the same time, how do gadgets know which ones to receive and which to ignore? When advanced radio remotes send radio waves, their unique digital address is also sent embedded in the waves, which the target receiver recognizes and accepts. This smart technology is already being used in cellular phones, Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) environments and cordless phones.

In the future, as our need to remotely control multiple appliances increases, radio remotes will be seen playing greater roles. Tasks in risky environments, such as space and military scenarios, can be performed through remote control. Devices and remotes will become more intelligent as radio remote control technology develops.