Infra-RedTooth Relay

Really nice remotes are surprisingly expensive. If you are properly set up, you need something that will control the amplifier, the TV, the DVD, the video (well, by the time I can afford everything else, we can probably forgo that one), several sound separates and, if you're like me, a small video-dedicated computer. Really, you also want to be able to program the control with macros, so that when you want to watch a dvd, for instance, the dvd button switches on the dvd player, TV and amplifier, switches the input modes on the TV and the amplifier to the DVD channels, and mutes the TV volume, or some such).

This not only makes for expensive remote controls, it makes them large and covered in buttons, only a fifth of which you are likely to use at any one time.

You can buy really nice remotes, of course, with touch sensitive screens and image maps that will change depending on the function of the remote - but these are still bulky, and cost a great deal more money than they should.

It seems to me that most of us allready have access to a possible alternative. Most of us have a mobile phone or a PDA which has a bluetooth capability. These can be programed to a greater or lesser degree to do all (or at least some, in the case of a primitive phone) of the tasks required above.

My idea, which would make this a practical, affordable reality, is simply a relay station which is capable of translating certain bluetooth signals to certain IR signals and vica versa.