IR presence detector.
 

There is a lot of discussion on the merits of different remotes and what the output level may be. Although remotes may seem to work most of the time on your home electronics, they may be putting out shortend pulse trains due to bad batteries or loose battery terminals. A cheap method or determining whether your remote is making IR is to purchase an Infrared Detector Probe from MCM Electronics. You can order one, the part is 72-6771 - Infrared Detector - Probe and costs $12.95. I have one in my toolbox and I carry one in my wallet.
www.mcminone.com

Re: IR presence detector.
 

Is this infrared detector any more sophisticated than a cameraphone? Maybe KISS is good here...

To tell if something is emitting IR, you can just whip out any digital camera (to my knowledge) and if there are white dots where there was no white in the original image, that's IR.

JBot