Is it possible to make one IR universal receiver?

Details:
I have seen some products in the market which are like IR based receiver units. They don't come with any transmitter but claim to learn any buttons on your IR transmitter at your home. Eg, TV or DVD player etc.

It seems like an interesting project to me and I was looking for some starting point, some advise or may be sample code if someone has done this. I would like to make my own IR switch which should be able to learn IR signal from any remote and save it so I can then use few saved signals to control stuff around my house. My 3 garden lights for example.

Any thoughts?

See : http://www.picbasic.co.uk/forum/show...9586#post89586
And here : http://home.citycable.ch/flotulopex/...I_Frames_e.htm it's Mr.Flatulopex's project ...