controllerscan

ControllerScan is a term used to describe the process or tooling that automatically detects and inventories input controllers connected to a system. It is used to streamline device setup, mapping, and compatibility across platforms. The concept covers detection of a range of devices, including gamepads, joysticks, flight sticks, steering wheels, and other control peripherals.

In practice, a ControllerScan implementation acts as a scanning engine that queries the operating system’s input subsystem or hardware interfaces to enumerate connected devices, retrieving identifiers such as vendor and product IDs, and capabilities such as the number of axes, buttons, and supported input modes. Results are typically compared against a device database or used to generate dynamic configuration profiles or mappings. Advanced implementations may support automatic calibration, conflict resolution when multiple devices have overlapping layouts, hot-plug handling, and public APIs for applications to query current controllers.

ControllerScan is commonly used in game engines to populate controller mappings, in accessibility tools to adapt control schemes, and in robotics or industrial interfaces to validate sensor and controller connections. Variants exist across platforms; some ecosystems embed the functionality as part of a broader input system, while others offer standalone utilities. Limitations include platform-specific APIs, varying driver support, and the potential for misidentification with nonstandard devices. See also HID, game controller, and input device management.