One way to picture remote control: you stay where you are, and your order travels for you. The machine is over there; your hand stays here. Everything the word covers is that gap being crossed — the little box that sends the order, the whole way of working a machine at a distance, and the software that reaches a computer in another building.
Two branches
隔空操作機器
這一組把「距離被跨過去」拆成兩面：一面是你手上那個東西，一面是這件事本身。英文用同一個詞，靠可數不可數來分。
noun · B1
A small object you hold in your hand and press buttons on, to make a machine work from a short distance away without touching the machine itself — for example to turn a television on, open a gate, or drive a toy car.
遙控器
伸到另一台電腦
還是同一個畫面，只是那一頭換成電腦。你打字的手在這邊，游標動在那邊，中間靠網路接起來。
noun · B1
Computer software that lets you use a computer somewhere else: you type and click on your own machine, and everything happens on the far-away one.
遠端遙控（軟體）
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
remote controlnoun
A device used to operate an appliance (such as a television, vehicle, or mechanical toy) from a short distance away.
A means of operating a device from a distance, such as radio control or wire-guided control.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。