How to read codes from (many) IR remote controls with as little code as possible
Background Inexpensive infrared (IR) remote controls have been ubiquitous in our lives for many many years. This is because the technology is inexpensive and works so well that it fades into the background. The IR signal gets 'sprayed' (transmitted/reflected/received) so effectively in most indoor environments that you rarely have to care in which direction the LED is pointing and it somehow 'just works'. The clever inventors of the technology discovered that by modulating the digital data on a 36 to 40KHz carrier wave, it would have a high signal to noise ratio (be detectable with a relatively weak transmitter in very noisy conditions). The wavelength of IR chosen (940nm) was useful because it is just beyond visible light, but not too far beyond the properties of light that it still reflects well off of ordinary surfaces. The reason for this article, and the software project I created, is to harness these ubiquitous controls to restore functionality to my MacBook that ...