Redirect USB keyboard to something

[Guillaume Bouchard]

Hello,

I have an usb barcode reader that X recognize as a keyboard. But I want
to create an application which work on the output from this barcode.

With the actual solution, I need my apps and a specific entry field to
have the focus, this is not an interesting solution because the event
trigered by the input from the barcode does not more user actions, so
the user can be on his webnavigator, want to scan a barcode without
leaving his navigator, let the computer react to the event, and
continue his navigation.

Some barcode reader allow to use 'serial emulation', which can solve my
problem (I connect my apps to the serial port and read data without
bothering the user). Unfortunately, my device does not have this option.

So, my question is, do you know a way (between hal, evdev, X) or an
other (kernel, but if it the case, sorry for asking here) to transform
an 'usb keyboard' to something like a file device that I can read
'easily' from an application.

Thank everybody

--
Guillaume