What is the purpose of a keyboard wedge?

Answer 1

The wedge is the active twin of the inclined plane. It does useful work by moving. In contrast, the inclined plane always remains stationary. This simple machine consists of a pair of inclined planes set face-to-face, that can sustain relative sliding or rolling motion. By moving one plane relative to the other, a wedge is capable of building up enormous force in a direction perpendicular to that of the moving wedge. Force multiplication varies inversely with the size of the wedge angle; a sharp wedge ( small inclined angle ) yields a large force. With adequate friction at the interfaces, the wedge becomes a separating, holding and stopping device with countless mechanical applications.

Answer 2

A keyboard wedge is an interface which allows a non-keyboard device to plug into a computer as though it were sending keyboard data. Since most data-entry software is set up to take data from a keyboard, it is necessary to use a keyboard wedge if you want to plug in a peripheral such as a barcode scanner or magnetic strip reader and have it send information to the program. A keyboard wedge is so called because the physical version "wedges" between the keyboard and the computer. The keyboard is plugged into the wedge, which in turn is plugged into the computer, so that data may be inputted through either the keyboard or the other peripheral.