How to access the IR sensor of MacBook Pro Mid 2010 to be able to use non apple remotes

I have an Audio to IR accessory for my iPhone which works very well with most of the TVs and DVD players as the app that comes with it supports them.

I was wondering if it would be possible to write an iPhone App + Mac App that would let me control my MacBook Pro similar to how Apple remote works.

Is the IR sensor on MacBooks accessible to third party applications ?

Any Open Source Projects, SDK's or hacks you nice people can point me towards ?

You may want to investigate candlair, or its big brother, Remote Buddy (google them). Candlair I believe only supports apple remotes, but remote buddy should let you configure other types of remotes with relative ease (they have a supported hardware list which is significantly larger than the stock IR port's driver). I've never used it though since my apple remote does everything i need. Good luck!