For just wiggling a bit here and there at close proximity, a simple RF transmitter and receiver could be "bit-banged" out with a few discrete components and probably cheaper BOM (<-- less than $2) than an IR TX/RX (<-- and which would be much slower)
Cluso long ago posted a nice 1-pin PS/2 keyboard interface that could use P11 via Pogo pins. There's an object in the ObEx with a description of the wiring in the comments.
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