How to control any IR based home appliance using iPhone? Will it require SSH/UPnP based application?

Question

I want to use ssh protocol. I want to make an app to transmit signal that would ultimately converted to control IR based home appliances (like controlled by IR remote control. i.e. TV)

This stuff is new to me. I don't have any clear understanding about how it will be possible.

I got suggestion to use SSH:

->Install SSH on your server.

->Configure your Network / Router to forward the SSH port to server and

->Use the SSH client on the iPhone.

Now. Is it the only way? Someone also suggested to develop UPnP base app!

Is there any sample code available using which I can learn How to transmit the signal from iPhone to do above.

Please give some guidence if anybody has done such thing before or if they know how to do?
So that I can understand the flow and put my efforts afterwards.

Answer 1

If I understand correctly, you want to go iPhone->IR transmitter->(some device that is controlled by IR)

If so, you probably want to use whatever protocol the IR transmitter device is expecting. If it's not expecting anything, I would look to HTTP, rather than SSH. Implementing SSH on the iPhone sounds like a huge hassle, and the only benefit of it is the tight security. Unless the device you are controlling is a nuclear weapon, I would go with some simple HTTP authentication.

For example, if it was a TV you were controlling, you could just request http:///remote.php?action=turnonthetv from your server. Then you'd use a PHP script to generate the IR signal to turn on the TV. This moves a lot of the logic off of the iPhone, which may or may not work with what you're doing.