IR Trans has some nice devices (except for the price range)
The site states that the software is open source:
http://www.irtrans.de/en/technicalinfo/app.php (http://www.irtrans.de/en/technicalinfo/app.php)
Would it be interesting to adapt this to the USB IR Toy
(change only PC<->USB part, keep rest of the interfaces unmodified?
I think the opensource architecture they mention is the LIRC server for communicating with home automation and mediaplayer software.
I do not think the firmware is open.
LIRC compatability is a good idea though.
Connecting as a HID device would be different to connecting to LIRC and perhaps better.
I downloaded the software and it contains also a 'IR Trans server' that can act as a webserver/TCP-IP socket.
If the communication to the USB (via serial / CDC) was adapted to the IR Toy, other stuff could be reused.