LIRC - Linux Infrared Remote Control, Version: 0.8.2-CVS Copyright (C) 1996 Ralph Metzler Copyright (C) 1998-2006 Christoph Bartelmus (according to GNU General Public Licence 2.0 or later) LIRC is a package that allows you to decode and send infra-red signals of many (but not all) commonly used remote controls. Pre-release versions are currently available at the LIRC homepage: http://www.lirc.org/ Former versions focussed on home-brew hardware connected to the serial or parallel port. Descriptions how to build this hardware can be found on the LIRC homepage. Current versions of LIRC also support a variety of other hardware. An up-to-date list of all supported devices and the status of the according drivers is available on the LIRC homepage. The most important part of LIRC is the lircd daemon that will decode IR signals received by the device drivers and provide the information on a socket. It will also accept commands for IR signals to be sent if the hardware supports this. The second daemon program called lircmd will connect to lircd and translate the decoded IR signals to mouse movements. You can e.g. configure X to use your remote control as an input device. The user space applications will allow you to control your computer with your remote control. You can send X events to applications, start programs and much more on just one button press. The possible applications are obvious: Infra-red mouse, remote control for your TV tuner card or CD-ROM, shutdown by remote, program your VCR and/or satellite tuner with your computer, etc. I've heard that MP3 players are also quite popular these days. Adding new remotes is still problematic but since version 0.5.2 there comes the first program that will try to add new remote controls automatically. Don't expect much documentation. This is only a pre-release version and there is still much to be done before LIRC becomes easily configurable and usable. For people with a little C/C++ knowledge this should already be possible with this pre-release. Otherwise, wait for version 1.0.