A device for generating conditioned electrical signals in response to forces applied to the device. The device includes a shaft (11) attached to a substrate (14). Several strain sensitive resistors (16) are mounted on the substrate (14) around the shaft (11) for generating an electrical signal representative of a magnitude and direction of force applied to the shaft by a user. Several apertures (17) are in the substrate (14), each aperture (17) is located between a pair of strain sensitive resistors (16). The apertures (17) concentrate the stress on the resistors (16). A signal conditioning device (20) is mounted to the substrate (14) and is electrically connected to the resistors (16) for conditioning the electrical signal. The signal conditioning device (20) receives the electrical signal in an analog form and provides a conditioned signal as an output in a digital form. The device is mounted to a keyboard base (41). An alternative embodiment is shown using a cavity instead of apertures in the substrate.