Using an Arduino, I hacked my old NES controller to control micro servos with custom conductive arms that simulate touches to the screen of my iPad. The servos are attached to the screen with mini suction cups and can be easily positioned for any game.

I basically wanted to play my favorite iPad game (Reckless Racing) with my NES controller and didn't want to hack a solution via dock port.

Arduino is a tool for making computers that can sense and control more of the physical world than your desktop computer.

It's an open-source physical computing platform based on a simple microcontroller board, and a development environment for writing software for the board.

Arduino can be used to develop interactive objects, taking inputs from a variety of switches or sensors, and controlling a variety of lights, motors, and other physical outputs.

Arduino projects can be stand-alone, or they can be communicate with software running on your computer (e.g. Flash, Processing, MaxMSP.) The boards can be assembled by hand or purchased preassembled; the open-source IDE can be downloaded for free.

The Arduino programming language is an implementation of Wiring, a similar physical computing platform, which is based on the Processing multimedia programming environment.