The origins of the IrDA infrared communications standard

A historical look at the origins of the IrDA infrared data standard, tracing back to a 1993 Hewlett-Packard industry meeting that launched the Infrared Data Association. The standard quickly gained traction with over 150 member companies including IBM, Microsoft, and Apple, and became ubiquitous in late-1990s phones, printers, and computers. Early IrDA suffered from poor interoperability due to limited standardization above the physical layer, with application-layer implementations varying widely between vendors.