Adding a special sound-to-IR converter then turns those sounds back to IR and allows you to use your iPod as a remote control. As an added bonus, it works up to 100 feet.

For today's how-to we spent some time rummaging around in our parts box to build a serial IR remote interface for our PC. We took a few pieces from various designs to come up our own, built ...

Working with IR remote protocols Decoding IR signals Remote controls encode commands in the spacing or timing of a 38KHz carrier pulse, [San Bergmans] has an explanation of the principals involved.