How does IR signals work

Projects General Guidance
1

Hi

I am thinking about communications between two of my little robots and i feel IR signals maybe the way to go.

But i dont really know anything about them. Mainly, the idea would be each robot would have a unique ID in the form of a 16 digit integer and would need to send this out as a signal. Is this kind of thing possible?

Also, wheres the best place to get the ir led and receiver, what should i be looking for and how should they be setup and coneected to an arduino.

Im just looking for the simplest, cheapest option with upto 5m range

Thanks

2

Why would you need a 16 digit number to identify two devices?

Useful Google terms "38kHz IR modulation"

This is not a programming question (yet)

3

http://arduino-info.wikispaces.com/IR-RemoteControl

4

This IR Thread may be of interest. I used it for a project.

...R