I'm thinking about making a physical controller (device?) with knobs, buttons, and LEDs. I'd like to interact with it using Java (respond to the knobs, light up LEDs, etc). The reason I mention Java is two-fold: first, I know Java well¹. Second, I've written the rest of the program I need to interface with in Java (though there are ways to talk to the Java program from another language).

I would like the device to connect via USB and be (computer-)platform independent.

I haven't the slightest idea of where to start, except to start reading the Arduino website. Is this my best/only option? Is there something better suited for communicating with Java?

Note: I know that Arduino has something to do with Java (not sure what), but it seems like code must be written in a subset of C.

How would I get moving on this topic?

_{1 - No laughter, please.}