title: Proprietary USB device access via browser... possible? Silverlight maybe? (Java is excluded for now)
body: <p>Probably there are a lot of similar questions around, but since I know only few solutions to this which I am not sure will work for us, I am looking for something else, maybe new technologies...</p>
  
  <p>What we have is this USB device which is not so fancy (of course, it requires a driver to be loaded), and it has couple of C++ dlls to help getting certain output from it. On top, we made  a C# desktop application which makes use of the device in a more attractive way (plenty of interop inside). </p>
  
  <p>So far so good, but to have the application lifted up to the web in order to gain more flexibility... What options are there?</p>
  
  <p>Known solutions are: </p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>1) <strong>ActiveX</strong> - kinda old technology and not cross-browser;</li>
  <li>2) <strong>.Net 'applet'</strong> - not so common (is this even a solution?)</li>
  <li>3) <strong>Java applet</strong> - well known, but JVM needed (since we went for C++ C#
  maybe    is out of scope);</li>
  <li>4) <strong>Web service on the usb device itself</strong> - our    device is very
  light, we cannot have it there.</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Are there other ways? Is Silverlight 4, 5 (maybe "out of browser") a feasable solution? What about these new technologies nowadays? <strong>Html 5</strong> or something? </p>
  
  <p><strong>EDIT1:</strong> In particular I am interested in Silverlight. Is there a way using <strong>Silverlight</strong>?</p>
  
  <p><strong>EDIT2:</strong> I found this question: <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2252683/can-silverlight-access-a-net-library-that-accesses-a-usb-port">Can Silverlight access a .Net library that accesses a USB port?</a> . What shall I understand from that? Is really Silverlight not a feasable solution for my scenario?</p>
  
  <p><strong>EDIT 3: VERY IMPORTANT!</strong> </p>
  
  <h2>These devices need to be used on customer side! People browsing must use them locally on their PCs!</h2>
  
  <p>Thanks in advance.</p>