If you have to do this over a distance of 10m, I'd opt for a wireless solution, like Xbee. Each Xbee has 1 analog and 3 digital inputs (more actually, but I believe some are reserved for special purposes), so you could choose to use either:
On the buttons side:
1 Arduino + Xbee OR
1 Xbee with the analog resistor encoding idea OR
2 Xbee's with each button connected to a digital pin
and a arduino or PC and Xbee on the receiving side