Detect if a USB device is plugged in Javascript from browser

Question

Is there Javascript based mechanism with which i can detect, through a browser, that a user has a specific usb device plugged in?

Answer 1

For security reasons, JavaScript in web browsers provides only restricted access to computer resources. It is not possible to store files in an arbitrary folder, start applications or communicate with a USB device.

But there are some exceptions :

• In legacy browsers such as IE6 ~ IE8 you can use ActiveX objects or Java applets to achieve this .
• Use a chrome.usb API .
• Write a browser plugin using NPAPI , (Here, it is not for long though)

2023 Edit

The USB interface of the WebUSB API provides attributes and methods for finding and connecting USB devices from a web page.

( browser support is still limited, for more information refer to browser compatibility table )

Example code:

navigator.usb.getDevices().then((devices) => {
  console.log(`Total devices: ${devices.length}`);
  devices.forEach((device) => {
    console.log(
      `Product name: ${device.productName}, serial number ${device.serialNumber}`
    );
  });
});