I've recently been researching how to access the infrared hardware on the newest crop of Android phones, and stumbled across something interesting -- there have already been several attempts to port the LIRC server to Android. This surprised me, because up to now most Android devices lacked IR; however, all these ports were using LIRC's audio interface.

"Audio interface? What audio interface?", I asked.

As it turns out, there's a surprisingly simple way to generate IR signals via a sound card. Not being a hardware person, I've been ignoring the various hardware hacks described on the LIRC website; however, it seems that this particular hack is usable on cell phone devices. In fact, at least one group has put together a battery-boosted version of the audio-jack IR transmitter.

Also interesting to me is that there is an infrared receiver device also able to be connected to a sound card.

The possibilities are intriguing; this could be an easy way to bring IR to phones like the N9 or the upcoming Jolla phone. Also, having an IR receiver could allow the N900 to be turned into a "learning remote".

However, as I may have mentioned, I'm clueless when it comes to hardware. A question for those who are not: just how tricky do these LIRC hardware hacks look to you? What sort of risks do you think they pose when used with a cell phone? And, about how expensive would you expect the final product to be? The "Irdroid" device appears to be selling for $36, and I'm thinking of picking one up asap to get my own app (Pierogi) working with it, but it'd be nice to be able to offer these audio IR ports at a somewhat lower price...