What is infrared communication?
Infrared communication uses infrared light to transmit data. A common implementation in your house is your TV remote control which uses infrared to control your TV. Infrared communication is point to point communication between two devices with close proximity to one another. Palm Pilots and cell phones can sometimes use infrared to communicate with your computer. Most infrared communication has a maximum data transfer speed of 115.2 Kbps, though there is a specification for 4 Mbps and 16 Mbps transfer rates. Infrared communication requires line of sight, that is, you cannot have an obstruction between the devices communicating.
Infrared communication is being used for "Communication" in other than remote-controller functions , based on "IrDA standards" defined by the infrared Data Association. It's the same point when both have remote-controller and IrDA converted electric signals into infrared's optical signal. However, the communication rule is totally different, IrDA is duly regulated to retain interoperability among its compatible devices.
How infrared communication works?
Infrared radiation is the region of the electromagnetic spectrum between microwaves and visible light. In infrared communication, an LED transmits the infrared signal as bursts of non-visible light. At the receiving end a photodiode or photoreceptor detects and captures the light pulses, which are then processed to retrieve the information they contain. Some common applications of infrared technology are mouse, keyboard, printer, etc. The Infra-Red port for your computer is usually a kind of dark-red glass which is very similar to InfraRed on TV's or VCR's.
