I am working on a project that will (hopefully) end up with several identical "devices" being used in the same room.
Each "device" needs to be operated from a uniquely paired IR remote handset, so signals from each remote should only be recognised by its respective "device".
My best guess so far is to build remotes using something like Arduino Everys.
When configured, both the "device" and remote could (manually) be given a matching ID, and respective IR code-sets could be drawn from a library stored within an array.
The Every boards seem massively over-spec'd for this, so is there a simpler way?
Choose one of the rich Arduino model zoo. Most important will be the integration of the keyboard, less important the size and features of the Arduino board. Do you need USB or BLE, except for programming? There exist means to program the boards using ISP.
I'd consider a thick (TV...) remote with circuits replaced by one of the small Arduino boards. Most useful will be the 3.3V Pro Mini, powered directly from the remote batteries.
USB programming will suffice.
I'm afraid I don't know what you mean by "rich Arduino model zoo".
I like the idea of hacking a TV remote, though wouldn't a membrane keyboard be simpler in terms of physical connections?