Suggestions for Micro Controller

[Cheraphy]

I've built my own hardware before, and simulated a few circuits that used micro controllers, but I've never actually built a physical piece of hardware that would need any on-board processing. Well I want to design and make a laser projector that displays a dynamic keyboard on a piece of Plexiglas. The idea is to have the lasers project the current keyboard up onto the Plexiglas based on data fed to it from it's host computer via USB. The data being sent to the laser will be generated by software that will pull snapshots taken at regular intervals from some sort of optical input device. Until I can learn how to build that piece, my web cam would have to do.

The whole point of doing this is so I can have a very non conventional keyboard. not in the "I'm different" way. In the I don't like the standard input we have, so I want to experiment with something new.

Anyways, back story aside, does anyone have any experience with micro-controllers and can share a preferred brand I should look in to?

I'm thinking an 8bit Micro Controller will do the trick for the output.

[jeffsg605]

The Arduino is an awesome 8-bit, open source microcontroller. There's plenty of information online and although I've never done anything with it as extensive as your project, I'm sure it could do the trick.

www.arduino.cc

Otherwise if you do find you need more power,

http://leaflabs.com/devices/maple/

Sounds like a great project, good luck!

[Cheraphy]

Thanks, lol. Like all my personal projects I'll be lucky if I even start working on it. Let alone finish it :P