Blender could be a hugely powerful simulation tool if it could be easily interfaced to the real world for custom applications not just standard joysticks, VR gear etc. What is required is a way to hook up blender to analogue to digital and digital to analoge cards. whilst custom C/C++ or similar routines may be required for the prototype hardware there should be a way of "hooking" these custom routines into Blender. It is such a powerful package, but it is frustrating that there is no simple way of attatching it to the outside world.