Detect input from USB port

[DannyT]

I'm creating an application that recieves input from a USB barcode scanner. By default the input from the scanner is exactly as if the input were from a usb keyboard, I.e. if I leave notepad open, scan a barcode that barcode sequence get's "typed" into notepad.

 

What I want to do is detect when input is received from the barcode scanner and take that input and use it in my own application rather than wherever the cursor happens to be at the time.

 

Has anyone any suggestions on how I could achieve this?

 

Any help much apprecaited.

 

Dan

[grip003]

I am also in the same predicament. I am trying to integrate a card swipe system into my existing punch clock software. I want the program to be running in the background, waiting for input to come from someone swiping their magnetic card through the machine. I found something that allows you to run a device through USB that uses a virtual COM port that you can use to interface with. Can input be detected through a COM port as well?

 

I'm sorry this doesn't answer your question, but I am looking for the same solution. It would be much easier, I think, to be able to do the input detection directly through the USB port.