Working with sensors from computers

HID

The USB HID protocol is the easiest way to access the largest array of sensors. It of course supports all the standard HIDs like mice, keyboards, joysticks, gamepads, tablets, etc. but also more and more sensor boxes like the MultIO, STEIM's junXionbox, and Phidgets natively support the USB HID protocol.

Related links

Software

• libusb - free, cross-platform lib for accessing raw USB devices
• libusb-win32 - a Microsoft Windows port of libusb
• libHID - free, cross-platform lib for parse HID
• Pd - graphical, dataflow programming language that is a great platform for NIME work
• Development of a User-Space Application for an HID Device, Using libhid

Useful Documentation

• USB HID Usage Tables (PDF format)

Sensorboxes I am working with

• MultIO
• Arduino
• STEIM's junXionbox
• MIDItron

Other interesting sensorboxes

• Phidgets - kind of like object-oriented hardware
• Teabox - connects to the computer using audio S/PDIF connection

Sponsors

Thanks to the sponsors for supporting these efforts:

vibrez.net

Microsoft Windows porting sponsored by vibrez.net

Eroktronix

MIDItron work supported by the use of a MIDItron.

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