Phidget

Phidget! What? Something new i heard today and i wanted to know about it..and a quick search gave me an idea about this interesting stuff.

So now i know what it is and why is it for. :)

A phidget is a physical representation and/or implementation of a GUI widget.

A phidget (physical widget) is attached to a host computer via USB. There are various phidgets available, each having a counterpart class in the phidget API. As each phidget is attached to the host computer, it is made available to control in the API, where its state can be accessed and set.
Phidgets arose out of a research project in 2001 directed by Saul Greenberg at the Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary.

Phidgets can be programmed using a variety of software and programming languages, ranging from Java to Microsoft Excel.
The phidget API is what allows systems to access the phidget devices in a high level manner. The API allows the management of devices as they are attached, to subscribe to events and to access the state of the phidgets. The core API is originally written in C and has been extended to work in numerous languages including .NET and Java.

Got this info from Wiki