LIRC - Linux Infrared Remote Control, Version: 0.8.3-CVS

Copyright (C) 1996 Ralph Metzler <rjkm@thp.uni-koeln.de>
Copyright (C) 1998-2006 Christoph Bartelmus <lirc@bartelmus.de>
(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.