Peripherals

Off-the-shelf input devices can be useful for rapid prototyping. In addition to the ones listed below, also consider game controllers, which can be bought cheaply from Aliexpress and disassembled.

• 3Dconnexion - Known for their 6-dof "SpaceMouse", in USB or wireless flavours.
• X-Keys - Makes various kind of button arrays, foot pedals and analogue controls
• Grayhill - Makes a number of components and kits for interaction
• Myo - gesture control arm band
• Leap Motion - high resolution hand and finger tracking. JS API
• Sensel - Multi-point force detection surface without using capacitance

Software

Many advanced controllers offer SDKs to talk directly to the hardware. If this isn't available, you might want to look at the USB HID data emitted by the device, or use one of the following tools which translate the data into something more readily consumed.

• Osculator - Emits OSC data (an alternative to MIDI) for Wacom tablets, Nintendo Wii controllers and 3Dconnexion SpaceNavigator
• ControllerMate - Software that essentially allows you to reprogram controllers or combine the inputs of several controllers into a single one. Data is emitted via MIDI (Mac only)
• InputMapper - Similar to the above but for Windows
• FreePIE - Supports remapping of input from mouse, keyboard, mobile phones (!), joysticks, some eye trackers and VR controllers (Windows)
• antimicro - Cross-platform app to map keyboard and mouse controls to a virtual gamepad
• See more