The ArtBus, an open source installation interface, and the programming it took to work with Max/MSP was no easy task, but the man who got it done, SAIC's Robb Drinkwater, talks about how. It's a little complex, so I'll break it down into terms that even I can understand.

Robb Drinkwater uses a magic box that talks to any connected ArtBus hardware and tells the hardware to do things. Magic box gets angry when ArtBus doesn't listen!