roland's d-beam...?

[dpm]

hi
 i've been reserching building my own optical midi controller (it uses light and 
shadow) for about a week, and i'll tell you what i've come up with. basically i 
found one site with a product, but it's real expensive and not really what 
we're looking for, i didn't even save the link. my experience with building 
hardware is limited to a fatman, so you certainly wont be mystified by my 
tech :)
so... paia (www.paia.com) sells a diy kit "midi fader" that uses any 
potentiometer for pitch wheel or controller messages for $87. but then we 
need different interface circuitry between the photo cell and the kit. this is 
about the point to where i've gotten and need help with this one.... 

Then there's www.pavo.com, which makes'miditools' , a box that interfaces 
all diffent types of controllers. how it works it you build the kit ($300+) and 
then you can build all sorts of stuff to plug into it for lighting, controllers, etc, 
all midi.  i think its over priced and i dont care about all the other stuff...

so if you get any please drop me a note. here's some other helpful links i've 
come across (maybe i'm just missing it:)

http://www.audiomulch.com/midipic/

http://www.art.net/~troika/geekpage.html

http://fargo.itp.tsoa.nyu.edu/~dano/physical/physical.html

goodluck,
dan