WebUSB

The Universal Serial Bus (USB) is the de-facto standard for peripherals connected to a computer. A wide range of of useful USB devices exist, most of them provide standard services like keyboard, mice, audio, video and storage devices. These are supported by standard device class drivers implemented in the computers operating system.

However, there are many devices that do not fit into one of the standardized device classes. In order to access these devices, proprietary device drivers and operating system dependent code are usually necessary. This prevents these devices from being used by web applications.

WebUSB provides a way for websites to connect to users' USB devices. A web browser that implements WebUSB enables a web application to expose USB device services using JavaScript without the need to install any drivers on the user side. With the WebUSB API, hardware manufacturers will be able to build cross-platform JavaScript SDKs for their devices.

As a sample application, a vendor of an USB device may provide a web page to configure the USB device or even to update the firmware of the device.

Browser support

References

• WebUSB API Specification: [1]
• List of browsers that support WebUSB: [2]
• Demo application using WebUSB with SEGGER's emUSB-Device USB stack: [3]