Thread: How to capture an input device and prevent it's default behavior

I have an RFID tag reader. But it works like a HID device (like a keyboard). It sends keystrokes to the computer when a tag is scanned. When I open notepad and scan a tag - it types the ID one digit at a time.
Is there a way to create a program to listen to this device (or this port) and capture (intercept) all input. So that the keystrokes wouldn't appear on my system but I could assign my own events when the device sends and input. I don't want it to show up on Notepad.
I realize that the implementation can differ depending on the OS and programming language used. Ideally, I would like to make this work on both Windows and Linux.

I would appreciate any hints or pointing me in the right direction.