Just as I mentioned in my previous email to this list, I recently was asked to review the Gamepad API draft specification. My background is games though I've done some scientific computing with alternate input devices too.
http://chadaustin.me/2014/10/the-gamepad-api/ I'd like to make a second proposed change to the gamepad API, an event-based mechanism for receiving button and axis changes. The full rationale is explained in the linked article, but the summary is: 1) an event-based API entirely avoids the issue of missed button presses 2) event-based APIs don't require non-animating web pages to use requestAnimationFrame just to poll gamepad state 3) an event-based API could (and should!) give access to high-precision event timing information for use in gesture recognition and scientific computing 4) event-based APIs can reduce processing latency when a button changes state rapidly in low-frame-rate situations -- Chad Austin http://chadaustin.me