As explained by Arduino to Go, each color band on the resistor corresponds to a number but this can differ depending on the band's placement. It's not complicated, but the sheer number of colors ...

[Dave Jones] from EEVBlog.com takes “Arduino fan boys” off the garden path getting down and dirty with different methods to capture, evaluate and retransmit IR remote control codes. Capturing ...

The processing code works (with Arduino connected of course) if you see it run and color in box changes properly. If not, change the serial port number in the code.

Off the shelf RGB colour pickers allowing you to extract and objects RGB values can range from a few hundred dollars to thousands depending on your needs.