I couldn’t attend to the presentation of this new tool, but i still want to spread the information it because – as far as i can say from the distance – it’s a very interesting low-cost development: The CUI is a interface board that lets you connect up to the 13 analog inputs (10-bit resolution) and buttons/switches to the digital inputs. It’s is kind of similar to the Arduino board with one big difference: It will be recognized by the system as a USB HIDevice, which means that you can get the data from the sensors into max/pd/suppercollider easily using the [hidio] object.
It’s based on a PIC processor, so you can of course also program it in both C and assemler – if you can. The Create USB Interface is available pre-built and bootloaded for $50 on the Create USB Interface homepage. There are also the schematics and part-lists available for download if you fancy soldering it on your own.
unfortunately i had to realize that they can’t ship any boards until februar 2008..