Sampolin

Dave Macdonald has a fun project, partially in reference to Laurie Anderson's tape violin, but his is all digital and fun, using Arduino, Pure Data, and a cheapo violin (I love that blogger considers "cheapo" a correctly spelled word).

It's mostly done, and he and I have worked together and learned a lot about everything through building this thing. Pretty great. Expect a longer post later with more details.

Serial to Socket Server

So, to use an Arduino with some computer software, the communication comes in as serial data, which Pd and Max/MSP can use, but which don't work in internety things like Flash and Air. Apparently it's a bad idea to give control over serial ports to things that are internet-hackable. *shrug*

So, to use an Arduino with Flash or Flex/Air, we have to set up a Serial to Socket Server, which doesn't seem to tricky... so yeah, more investigation:
http://www.arduino.cc/playground/Interfacing/SerialNet

Also, I bet the kind of recording/playback we want from the "button" button could be achieved with a combination of Flash and Flex, all the audio stuff happening in Flash. Recording may not be free in Flash, in a really bad way. More investigation:
http://www.tutorialized.com/tutorials/Flash/Audio/1