@vvp,
re: deskthority, yeah, I think this section of GH gets as close to weird DIY HID hackery as sanely possible.
There might be something on reddit, though I haven't been looking very deeply.
re:patents, aaargh, don't get me started.
It's one huge sh!t pit that disfavours individuals creators and originality, and openhardware is virtually non-existent. Bleh.
If you're looking for a controller, STM released some nice Cortex-based boards called Nucleo:
http://www.st.com/en/evaluation-tools/stm32-mcu-nucleo.htmlGot a heads up on these from a friend recently, they're quite the little beasts.
Awesome idea about the force feedback buttons, really curious how that will feel in use over time. Are you gonna design the switches for that, or use existing ones?
I wanted to fiddle with thin foil tensometers a bit, getting a trackpoint that's optimized for awesome rather than low manufacturing cost.
Btw, did you see Keynav? It makes a lot of sense with horizontal staggered designs.