I have detected that there is a signal being sent between the two and that it is sending a serial signal to the arduino.
Great. Umm, how did you detect this?
I'm still unsure of how to go from the serial signal to actual numbers I can use.
The usual way is to use Serial.available() to see if there is serial data to read, and Serial.read(), if there is, to get the first byte. Then, repeat.
Store the bytes in an array, or show them on an LCD, or whatever. Once you understand what the bytes mean, you can then figure out how to "use" them.