We in some ways are talking about different things.  The IR Blaster doesn't need to be pointing at anything, but something in another room, yea, that's going to to see it.  Back to the flash analogy.  It the IR Blaster works much better than you think it would.  Point it at a wall, still turns on the TV when you say, "Xbox On."

But do we know how the remote is connecting to the Xbox One?  The Xbox One is controlling the other devices, but the remote could be using WiFi Direct or something else.  Do you have any stats on how it connects to the Xbox One/Kinect?

Haha yup we're talking about different things. You're talking about the IR blaster in the kinect itself controlling the devices it's hooked up to and I'm talking about the limitations of an IR remote. I actually have no idea why I thought the Xbox One remote was IR. It could very well be, but I don't know where I got mixed up in assuming it was. My mistake.