Help me WebUSB, you're my only hope - Voxxed Days Singapore 2019

Published on: Saturday, 29 June 2019

Speakers: Gergana Young (BBD)

Gergana Young is a software developer, adventurer, and Star Wars geek extraordinaire. Intending on making a career of reprogramming astromech droids with JavaScript, she abandoned the Imperial Academy and defected to BBD. After a tour of duty in the banking sector, working on .NET, JavaScript, Angular and Meteor, she finally found her place in the R&D team. In her spare time she builds cool software and “things” for her other passions: rock climbing, running and, of course, Star Wars.

Help me WebUSB, you’re my only hope

If I told you this talk is about USB, you would probably think of something mundane like a mouse, keyboard or printer. But these are not the droids we are looking for. What if I told you it is about USB on the web?

For me, USB devices running on the web include adventures with ActiveX, Internet Explorer 8 and Windows XP. USB devices whose drivers only run under very specific and relatively old conditions, but are still a requirement. We have one of three options: We settle for what we have been presented with, we splash out and replace all of the devices, or we find a new, more creative, cross-platform solution.

In this talk I would like to tell you about the WebUSB API, what it is, how it works, and what it means for web developers. Using some devices I have had to deal with, I will show you how to connect to them directly from the browser. The WebUSB API gives us hope for the future of integrating hardware and the web.

Event Page: https://voxxeddays.com/singapore/