iPod touch home controller project PART 1

INTRODUCTION

For some years now, I've been looking for a smart universal remote control, to control my home theater system in an elegant way. 

These are existing solutions for that :

• so-called 'universal' cheap remote controllers. Unfortunalty unusable in a custom configuration.
• pronto-like remotes.  Too expensive for a non flexible machine, and poorly-designed
  
• professional domotic solutions. Much too expensive !

When Apple released the iPhone, and the iPod touch some months ago, I thought these machines were good starting points for a remote controller. 

They have :

• gorgeous design
  
• screen-touch control
  
• web browser
  
• and a wifi connection

But the iPod is not meant to be a remote controller, so it has no infrared built-in, and that's what remote control is all about.

To act like a remote controller, the iPod have to call a webpage via the browser.

Then, the web server actually sends the IR codes to the appliances ( receiver, television and whatever I want ) via a IR transmitter.

I'll describe the project in details in an upcoming post.