James and all,

As most of these remote control devices use an infra-red link for
communications, theoretically, it should be possible to program a
laptop that has an IR port to produce all the control codes for any IR
remote.  Then it is a matter of tying this in with a control program
with VR capabilities.  I have seen some shareware products in the past
that do things like this, but wether or not they can be adapted to
work with VR or not, I don't know.

There is an interesting program that has been developed at the Federal
University in Brazil that just may do what you want, though it is
unclear exactly if this only does on/off type control, or something
more.  I found this article that explains it a bit better.  I don't
know what the availability of the program is, or what their licensing
terms are, but I'm sure it would be worth contacting them to find out.

Here's the article, and I'm sure, as usual, the wired page has all the
links to the university and personnel involved.

Good Luck!

-- Jim

-----
"'No-Touch' Typing for Disabled"
Wired News (12/25/02); Rebelo, Paulo

Programmers at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil have
produced a free adaptable software program that disabled people use to
operate computers and home automation systems. Once downloaded onto a
user's
computer, the Motrix program allows people to read, write, launch
applications, and navigate menus. Motrix can also be integrated with
home
automation systems so that disabled users can turn on and off
appliances
such as the TV or air conditioner, for example. Typing is achieved
letter-by-letter, with people using the "alpha," "tango," and "bravo"
type
of characters in the International Phonetic Alphabet, which is easier
to
distinguish in noisy environments. The system was especially developed
for
the 200,000 quadriplegics in Brazil, who often cannot afford expensive
imported programs. It uses free voice-recognition software and only
requires
a 133 MHz Pentium processor and the Windows operating system. Motrix
is an
enhanced version of Dosvox, which in turn was based on a text-editing
program developed by a blind computer science student, Marcelo
Pimentel
Pinheiro. Programmers at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro's
Electronic Computation Nucleus have been working on adaptable software
since
1994.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,55539,00.html