IC

The MCP23017 and MCP23008 integrated circuits are a great way to add more I/O pins to a microcontroller. They use the i2c standard, so they can share the same serial line with 254 other sensors and even up to 8 other chips of the same exact type.  They are particularly good for a Raspberry Pi because they have higher current capabilities than the Raspberry Pi's GPIO pins. The MCP can supply 25mA per pin and the Raspberry Pi can only do less than 16mA per pin. 20mA is enough to fully power a strong LED, so 16mA may not be enough in some cases.