I Want this for a DIY MIDI Controller !!!
I’ve found this fuckin awesome part by chance while searching the web. Isn’t that cool ? I want such stuff for a DIY Midi controller. But sadly its quite expensive and waaay too long for a normal fader (10").
Curious inventor is pretty awesome. Leaf dev is also cool (another Arduino centered company). Don’t forget about Livid Tech. Then you have companies like Spark Fun (sparkfun.com) who sell the mats for Arduino and similar. From there you have a long list of hobby->pushing->professional engineers making stuff. Many of them are on PIC micro controllers (think of it like a little brother to Arduino). If you want the big brother look into the ARM chipset (iPhone chipset more or less). I am trying (on the side) to get a TS7800 Arm SBC to do my MIDI work. No luck so far, but then again I am not too focused on that right now.
All of these parts fit together some how. That is the best part!
I try to keep track of the various “fringe” efforts via our Ableton Denver site