black box vs gadget

black box

noun
  • A theoretical construct or device with known input and output characteristics but unknown method of operation. 

  • A flight recorder; the brightly colored cockpit voice recorders and flight data recorders in an aircraft designed to aid in determining the cause of an accident. 

  • A device used in phreaking that prevents the calling party from being billed for the call placed. 

  • A type of theater characterized by a lack of decoration or complex mechanisms. 

  • Any similar device on motor vehicles, such as rail event recorders and ship trip recorders. 

verb
  • To focus on the inputs and outputs without worrying about the internal complexity. 

gadget

noun
  • Any device or machine, especially one whose name cannot be recalled. Often either clever or complicated. 

  • Any consumer electronics product. 

  • A sequence of machine code instructions crafted as part of an exploit that attempts to divert execution to a memory location chosen by the attacker. 

  • A technique for converting a part of one problem to an equivalent part of another problem. Used in constructing reductions. 

How often have the words black box and gadget occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )