Earlier this month (February) the co-inventor of the remote control, Dr. Robert Adler, passed away at the age of 93.

Few inventors have made as many offerings as Dr. Adler, who has more than 180 patents to his name, not including one he filed Feb. 1st for his work on touch-screen technology. It’s always sad to see a great inventor pass, especially one who worked diligently to the end.

With more than 60 years of work under his belt at Zenith, his most notable creation was in 1956 with the Zenith Space Command remote control. It was based off of his colleague’s work on the “Flashmatic,” a photo cell-based controller created by Eugene Polley. Dr. Adler’s device used ultrasonics, high-frequency sound, to better the product.

What made Dr. Adler such a unique person was his ability to create continuously, as if his appetite for inventing was insatiable. It’s a trait few have these days. He created equipment to amplify ultra high frequency signals for radio astronomers and the U.S. Air Force. His work on surface acoustic waves pushed touch screen technology to what it is today. It’s just a wealth of fantastic work that should motivate us to strive for more in our inventing.

Remember Dr. Adler, and those who’ve made great technological advances that triggered significant change in our lives, by getting up and changing the channel yourself just this once. Plus, it doesn’t hurt to get the exercise.

Don’t underestimate the power of prototyping. Too often the benefits of prototyping an invention are either played down or completely ignored when “experts” take to the issue. But turning your idea into a product sample is probably the most important part of inventing. And if you’re not convinced here are five reasons why you should prototype your invention:

1. It makes patenting easier
For nearly 100 years, our culture has seemingly indoctrinated us in TV, books and movies to believe that we must patent our ideas immediately, lest they fall to the wayside or be stolen. It’s an expensive and complicated process to take a rough idea and turn into a patent, so you wouldn’t want to enter that $10,000-plus arena without being prepared, right?

Prior to 1880 you actually had to have a prototype built before it could be patented. While it’s not required now, a prototype is a great way to show that you built it first. Also, building your idea flushes out the benefits and features that may not have been immediately evident in the rough idea stage. Now, you can patent that too, which may offer the best protection in the long run.

The whole process of building a prototype will greatly help you in writing, drawing and preparing your patent papers, which can save you a lot of money.

2. Smooth out your invention’s design
Once you build your idea into a prototype, now you can actually test it in real life situations and look out for design or concept flaws. Some may want to go down the route of building a “virtual prototype.” Now, there are a lot of benefits to having an artist create a 3D rendition of your product — you can easily present it to potential buyers, you can get a low-cost idea of how it will look when it’s built and you can decide on visual features of the product — however, a “virtual prototype” can’t be tested in real life. Remember, the real world and the virtual world are completely different and 3D drawings don’t account for everything.

In addition, this is a great time to work out the aesthetics of a product, creating it for the right user. For example, you want to ensure its size isn’t too big or threatening, if the user will be a child. Alternately you want it to be durable enough if the user is a mechanic.

Again, all of these tweaks and such will help you out when patenting, because you know what to draw up and what the benefits are of these features, which didn’t exist when it was in its conceptual phase.

3. Prototypes determine the manufacturing process
Eventually, whether it’s you or the person you manage to sell the idea to, someone is going to have to manufacture your invention. Prototyping helps you determine what manufacturing processes will be required. Will it be injection molded, ultrasonically welded or die cut?

Perhaps you even have to determine a new manufacturing technique to build your invention, but you’d need to know all of this before a manufacturer or a corporation will get on board with your project.

4. Determine the right price
The only way to truly have an understanding of what the product will really cost to manufacture is by prototyping it. As with understanding how it will be manufactured, you’ll know what the materials to build it will cost or at least what types of materials you’ll use.

When prototyping, think about the price point you want to meet. Of course, this should probably have started in design, but later you may realize you need to build it at a lower cost. It’s a good time to analyze the design and find ways it can be changed to meet a better cost of manufacturing. And, since you’d be doing this before you patent, you’ll save yourself by not having to file an amendment or a second patent.

5. It makes it easier to license or sell
With a prototype ready, you’ll not only be able to explain what the features and benefits of your invention are, but also be able to get into the numbers to explain the costs of manufacturing, how it will be built, etc. This shows professionalism and companies respect it. For too long, a lot of well-meaning people have submitted ideas as just paper drawings or hard-to-interpret patents, but having the prototype ready to go — a bonus if you have sample packaging — means a lot.

There is also the fun factor when presenting a real, working prototype. Now, they have something to talk about, look at and interact with. This gets marketing people going when thinking about how to advertise and showcase it. It also lets everyone handle it and determine for themselves the validity of your project. Demonstrations sell.

So, don’t underestimate the power of prototyping your invention. Not only is it at the very heart of inventing, but it will greatly benefit you in the long run.

When you turn to someone for invention advice or help, you need only ask one question: Where can I buy your or your client’s products?

The response you want should be a list of stores that sell their products and not a stuttering salesman spouting a lot of “um”s and “uh”s. If they have successes, then they’d tout them. Unfortunately, there are a lot of groups, inventor clubs, prototype makers, patent attorneys, invention companies, etc., giving inventors advice without their own successes, or a product on the shelf.

If it’s me, I’m looking for an organization with a consistent track record. One product might be luck, but numerous ones mean they have more experience in developing inventions successfully. Here’s how I look at it: Would you hire a tour guide to take you where he’s never been before? Probably not. Neither should you hire a company to take your idea where theirs has never been.

Over the years, I’ve had more people than I care to remember with issued patents for no good reason. In fact, it made absolutely no sense for most of these people to patent at that time. Personally, I wouldn’t trust anyone who said they were going to get me a patent when I was only in the roughest of idea stages.

Inventors shouldn’t be misled by trigger-happy, patent-now invention firms who want you to cough up thousands while your idea is still in the early stages of development. This is an all too common way to kill your idea in its tracks. To add insult to injury, I see some of these worthless patents turn into 20,000 units of poorly developed product with horrible packaging, collecting dust in some warehouse or garage. Those people lost thousands because they put the cart before the horse.

Each organization wants to give something different to an inventor, whether it’s advice, a patent, a design or a prototype, leaving inventors crying out, “I know the rate of success is low, but show me something.” An organization that does it all sees the bigger picture. Find a group that shows what it has done with its own ideas, so you too can see the big picture.