Replacing capacitor across power input to VS1838B infrared sensor
According to the reference design in the datasheet of the manufacture, yes you can. It is also mentioned that the pull up resistor \$R_2\$ should be bigger than \$20k\Omega\$. 

The combination  of \$R_1\$, \$C_1\$ and \$C_2\$ is probably being used as a filter as well, preventing the carrier's frequency from being coupled back into the supply voltage of the microcontroller. 

Each sensor should have their own decoupling capacitor / filter, otherwise their efficiency would drop, meaning:


The decoupling capacitor would not be able to provide enough current to all sensor if they were active at the same time
The magnitude of the carrier frequency being coupled back would increase if they were activie at the same time


 

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