Remote Control for your PC

With the PC seeing increasing use as a multimedia machine, recording and playing back video and audio, users will soon want to control a number of functions remotely, just as with their TV or hi-fi set. All you need to realise this is a standard infra-red remote control unit, a home-brew receiver circuit and some software.A number of manufacturers in the consumer electronics sector supply remote controls with special receivers — the complete kit allowing a PC to be controlled from a distance. In many cases, the remote control includes a kind of mouse replacement so you can even move the cursor around on the screen. The infra-red (IR) receiver usually consists of a small receiver module for connecting to the PC’s serial port by way of a cable. The supplied software then looks after the processing of received IR signals. In many cases, a remote control set is included with a TV card for the PC, although the features then remain limited to a number of essential TV and radio functions.