Electrical switches running programs

[johnjacobjingleheimersmit]

This is fairly technical but I will try to explain it as easily as possible.

I have a computer which will be connectd to a radio (Through audio in in the sound card) This computer also has my mp3's. Every day at xyz a.m. it will record my favourite radio station (Really funny prizegiving thing on then) and save it as an ogg file. It will stream the mp3's, record the radio station for replay at my request and it will also stream the radio station. These won't all happen at once.

I will connect a box with 3 push button switches up to the computer. Then box will be connected to some speakers in my room. When I push one of these buttons, it will switch the audio output of the soundcard to either the radio station, the music streaming or the radio recording.

Does anyone know of any documentation of how to connect this box up to my computer and how to get the buttons to turn on/off the various programs?

Cheers

[Roy Smith]

first thing that comes to mind is that you tap into your keyboard (solder some wires or use solenoids to press the keys), and then use software to define what happens when those keys are pressed. rather, do it in the opposite order - define keys and make sure they work, then modify the keyboard.

surely there's a more elegant way, but this sounds pretty cheap, and it's something i think i could do...implying that i therefore think a lot of people could do. i suspect that an older keyboard would be easier to modify, too.

to actually answer your question: no, i don't know of any docs for setting up what you describe. sorry.