Backstory

It so happened that my parents' generation grew up in a closed society with a centralized structure of government and a unified ideological grid that penetrated, to a greater or lesser extent, all aspects of social life. After Perestroika and the collapse of the Soviet project, the citizens of the former USSR quickly discovered their helplessness before the sudden freedom without state paternalistic support and, having no experience of independent organization of public institutions and diversity of opinions, unwittingly formed the ground for the reproduction of a similar centralized state-centric model on a new round.

As modern political science teaches us, alas, all post-totalitarian regimes reproduce this scenario to a greater or lesser extent. And today (I am writing this preamble in 2023) we see what tragic consequences this can lead to, given the underdeveloped public institutions, the preservation of the centralist model of power and the simultaneous strengthening of the repressive apparatus.

The media play a paramount role in maintaining this status quo. And for the generation that grew up and was formed in the late Soviet era, Central Television was and still is the most important source of forming the picture of the world. No Internet and youtube can compare for our grandparents in terms of the power of impact with the glowing picture from the box.

And it is difficult to overestimate how demoralising, destructive to the psyche and deforming the picture of reality such influence is when it is permeated with ideological propaganda.

All these reflections and observations at some point led me to the idea of creating a simple to assemble device that would combine the ability to expand the range of information sources without changing the familiar interface (TV remote) and the way of interaction with the TV, and at the same time would diversify the TV entertainment experience of my elderly parents. So here is results of my work :)

You can read a detailed article about the project published in 2020 on habr.com (a popular russian-language community of IT specialists and DIY tinkerer, you would need a built-in translator or so). Original "pre-censored" article saved here.

PS. Yes, I should probably also add that the effect of installing this device to my parents exceeded all my expectations. Every time we talk, my parents never cease to thank me and emphasize how wonderful and useful gadget I have made them. It's incredibly uplifting :)